Paul’s 37500 Nm Journey in His Own Words
UK (Ipswich) – Mediterranean (Palma), Antigua –
Antigua (Oyster Word Rally (OWR)) – Bermuda – Azores – Mediterranean (Barcelona) – Montenegro.
“The adventure began after meeting John (the owner of Sydney Rock) and Dave in Australia during an Ocean Passage to Lord Howe on Yacht Arctos in early 2023. Both Katy and I were given the opportunity to volunteer as second skipper/engineer/crew at very short notice to sail and circumnavigate the world cruising the tropics with the Oyster World Rally.
“The project I was working on with NESC had been put on hold, so between letting our house and drawing my Navy pension, the sailing adventure started leaving Ipswich August 2023.
“37,500 Nm later, we found ourselves stuck in Barcelona awaiting parts to complete maintenance before moving onto Montenegro the planned home of Sydney Rock for winter 2025/2026.
“Some highlights of the trip have been the friendly welcoming nature of people throughout the world to the beautiful island life and island scenery we experienced.
“This was complemented by the beautiful diving experiences, diving in pristine ocean environments after qualifying PADI and carrying our own dive equipment. We experienced the diversity of the Galapagos, the Great Barrier Reef, Pacific Atolls, diving with sharks including reef sharks and hammerheads, turtles, manta rays, curious sea lions; reef and pelagic fishes and abundant corals, including snorkelling with whale sharks and majestic giant manta rays. While also viewing many whales and dolphins from Sydney Rock.
“Our favourite places visited have included the islands of Venezuela, the Sand Blast Islands, the remote islands of the Pacific, the Great Barrier Reef, Komodo islands, Christmas Island, St Helena and the Azores.
“Some of the best times have been catching up with friends along the way including the Newton Ferrers sailors in Cape Verde, British Virgin Islands and Malaga, close friends in Africa and Spain, and a quick trip home to catch up with family. We played cards and mah-jong with Johns family, guests, and became temporary auntie and uncle to Johns grandchildren.
“The four permanent crew members are all still talking (surprisingly!) after spending a total of two years in close proximity. From the 22 boats partaking in the OWR, 26 crew accomplished the full circumnavigation. Only having 16 months was too quick as at each destination we were always preparing our next departure.
“During the trip, we only had one week of hand steering due to the auto helm breaking on departing La Reunion in the Indian Ocean. The preventer line gave way once and the only damage with the boom gibing was to the AIS aerial. The Yankee sheets have been replaced due to successive chafing.
“The main cause of cooling problems on the boat has been due to marine growth; mainly with the engine, generator and air conditioning. This is no longer a problem now that we know the problem areas where the shells collect, these being the inlets to the generator cooler, the inlet to the oil cooler on the engine and the air conditioning raw water pump impeller.
“We had to replace the rigging at Cape Town due to wear and tear fortunately lasting the distance, this delayed us a month and prevented a visit to Namibia.
“After leaving the Galapagos, our longest leg of over 3,000Nm, we nearly returned after 2 days due to one of the crew having severe seasickness and the freezer compressor losing cooling. Bypassing the failed raw water pump, and siphoning to bilge, maintained the freezer compressor cooling, keeping the freezer at an acceptable low temperature. A new raw water pump was exchanged on arrival at our first island in French Polynesia. We also had to change the impeller on the overworked bilge pump. The sea sickness abated with improving weather conditions.
“We have been mostly trade wind sailing in the tropics, and the sailing has been fairly comfortable and warm with little use of jumpers and waterproofs, with the exception of the North Atlantic.
“The sailing itinerary has meant that the boat has been constantly pushed to it’s limits. We had to circumnavigate Antigua to Antigua in 16 months. This resulted when to windward we would use the engine to drive the boat through the sea rather than tacking to the boats detriment. This resulted in some of the internal fixtures and fittings failing including the microwave exiting its fixings at the same time as the condiments cupboard emptying resulting in a jammy glassy mess to clean. It also kept us busy locating the small sea water leaks/ingress into the boat.
“Noting that some OWR boats did suffer from fuel problems, our fuel never let us down. We did change the fuel filters every two months as we didn’t have a fuel polisher, and once had to suck out a small amount of water from the bottom of the fuel tank, checking the fuel cap o seal after each fuel top up.
“Our water maker was excellent and only had one failure of the AC motor, this was replaced in Australia. As we also had a water maker DC motor this meant we never lost water making capability the whole circumnavigation.
“Communications throughout the world was superb with the use of StarLink with satellite phone and SSB radio now only used as standby communications.
“With the ever changing world during our travels, it was interesting to observe submarine activity in Columbia and Australia, Chinese vessels in the Pacific, American investment into Australian Indian Ocean territories, and while in Mauritius elections and the handing over of Diago Garcia Chagos Island.
“On return to the UK we are looking forward so much to catching up with family and friends and looking forward to our next life adventure wherever it takes us in this short life we live.”
