Few people get a chance to take part in real life adventure, @ranbogmord aka John Dm'ed me saying I got a something that might make a good achievement and bearing in mind he has done this in real life in a feckin boat, I read on and all I can say is just wow.

So the back story: In 2020, during the height of pandemic lock downs, the owners sailed the boat from Cape Verde over to St. Lucia. For two and a half years the owners of the boat cruised around the Caribbean. The boat itself is a Moody 42, a 42ft sloop built in Southampton, UK in the early 2000's. These are build for so-called "Blue Water Cruising", ie. doing long offshore sailing passages, sailing around the world, etc.

In 2023 it was time to bring the boat back home to Sweden and I was offered a spot on it for the passage. Naturally, I was on-board (pun definitely intended.) At the end of April I got on a plane to Nassau (BAW A320 ESGG - EGLL, then BAW 777 EGLL - MYNN) without a return ticket with all the equipment needed for a month of sailing. Lots of questions asked without a return ticket, would not recommend! Barely got to spend 48 hours in the Bahamas. Got on the boat and on the 29th of April, we left Nassau for St. George, Bermuda.

Leg 1

First leg of this trip overall went smooth, averaging around 6-7 knots all the way with favourable winds. Although the bolt connecting our autopilot to the rudder broke twice and had to undergo repairs while sailing, which was a bit of a challenge. Every night, we had rotating night shifts. Everyone had to cover 2 hours, either from 23.00 to 01.00, 01.00 - 03.00, 03.00 - 05.00 or 05.00 - 07.00. Each night you'd rotate to the next later one.After 6.5 days of sailing, we arrived in Bermuda after sailing straight through the Bermuda Triangle.

Leg 2

Not even 72 hours later, after doing repairs, laundry and a bit of touristing we were away for the longest leg of the trip, over to Horta, The Azores. This was a 15 day ordeal that really tested our patience with unfavourable winds (either head on or no wind at all), weather (winds reaching more than 48 knots and waves going up to 5 meters in height at one point) and equipment breaking (almost losing our radar, damaging sails.) It was not all bad though, we had multiple pods of dolphins coming up and surfing next to our boat and whales off in the distance. Eventually we reached Horta and grabbed a beer and a steak, which to this day is the best lunch I think I've ever had. We spent 3 days in Horta doing repairs, laundry and touristing (becoming a theme here) and looking at the weather to decide if we'd be able to leave for the final leg or if we'd have to leave the boat in Horta and fly home. Luckily, we got a short window of good winds and immediately restocked the boat and set off for the final leg. Lots of boats that were planning leaving the day after us got stuck for over a week.

Leg 3

The final leg took 7 days to complete and we finished off in Porto, Portugal early in the morning. Landing us at 28.5 total days on the water. Fun fact, as The Azores are a part of Portugal, this was a domestic passage and we did not have to go through customs coming in to Porto! As per usual at this point, we did repairs and some touristing before heading back home to Gothenburg the day after. This time we flew Eurowings A320s LPPR - EDDH - ESGG. While I'm very glad to have gotten the opportunity to do this trip, it's not easy. While not physically taxing as most of the time is spent reading (I read 8 books and listened to 2 audio books during the passage) or sleeping it really takes a toll on your head doing the same thing day in and day out. Doing 3 knots of speed, perpendicular to your destination in the middle of the Atlantic was some of the toughest times I've had keeping the spirits up but it was rewarded with some really nice weather and getting to see wild dolphins and whales just the day after. We also got my dads famous pancakes for dinner which always raised our spirits!

Hopefully, your flights take quite a bit less time than 28 days and beware of Horta; the winds can be unpredictable and the runway is shorter than you think!

// John