SAILING AROUND THE WORLD DOCUMENTARY - 6 Years At Sea | SY Florence - Ep.148

this is the story of a dream that made real a modern day adventure you're stepping outside the box exploring the unknown and stretch Comfort zones this is the story of determination to succeed to overcome adversity of two people United with common purpose this is the culmination of our six-year Voyage full circle around the world [Music] foreign we're approaching the coast of Grenada having sailed overnight from Tobago although it's only a short overnight sale it's probably the most significant passage of our entire circumnavigation so far as we approach the coast here we're going to cross our outbound track from England which means we will complete our loop around the world completing our circuit navigation [Music] foreign [Music] sailboat Florence we had never lived on a boat we had never crossed an ocean we had never sailed overnight alone we had a lot to learn but we had a dream and a determination to succeed so we're nearly the hair we nearly reached the point where we're gonna actually cross over our track it's just eight miles in front of us now and I don't know how are you feeling it's it's taken a while for it to kind of sink into me I don't really yeah same for me to be honest I think I guess it's just felt normal we've been approaching this milestone for a long time and be really close for a long time and it wasn't until I started thinking back to what a big deal it was when we set first set off and that it really hit home about what we're doing it wasn't until this morning just after doing I was Sat On Deck just thinking about this achievement in the context of actually sailing around the world and remembering back how we felt when we were passing down this coast of Grenada six years ago when actually we could really comprehend sailing around the whole world at that point in time we were we were splitting into chunks it was sail from England to Panama and then work out how to sell from Panama to New Zealand and at this point we were like well we'll work out the restaurants and get to New Zealand it takes a bit of mental adjustment to think back to how we used to feel about it after now we sailed you know over 40 000 miles at Sea and just taking the boat across an ocean feels almost normal yeah and then you have to back away from that you go that that's not normal most people don't do that back seven years ago we did have normal lives we woke up to an alarm in the morning setting traffic whilst commuting to full-time office jobs ate our lunch at our desk and then returned home to mow the lawn eat dinner and prepare for the next day at work exploring the world outside of work was limited to a couple of weeks holiday a year traveling in Europe our passion was sailing but this was limited to dinghy racing in evenings and at weekends a life was on track our aim was to work hard save hard and then retire early we had a distant dream of sailing around the world in retirement but no set plan then our normality was shattered 14 years working for the same company in the same building the business that Matt worked for shut their UK office and his job no longer existed our life track was fractured we suddenly needed to make big decisions did we try to return to our original track with a similar normality or was this our opportunity to go off-piste what about that dream the one where we sail around the world in our retirement on a 45-foot catamaran could we do it now on a smaller boat with a limited budget maybe we would risk losing everything we had built say goodbye to careers to Financial Security to the normality we knew but then we thought about everything we had to gain and the decision was made today we live in Florence supporter takes Lane when we left the shores of England behind the 380 mile Crossing of Biscay was a hugely daunting Prospect neither of us had sailed that far offshore before it turned out to be a baptism of fire with 35 knots of wind as we approached the Spanish Coast arriving in Spain was a relief in so many ways not only had we survived our first offshore passage but we now realized that the dream was really possible we had crossed the first hurdle we had set off and we had the world ahead of us [Music] seeing an island appear on the horizon from a small boat in the middle of the ocean is incredibly exciting portasanta and Madeira were the first of many and our excitement on board Florence as we made our first island landfall after four days of sea was indescribable from there the passage is built as we Island hopped our way South down the Atlantic to the Cape Verde Islands the jumping off point for our first ocean Crossing foreign [Music] Day 2000 mile Atlantic Crossing was a mix of highs and lows the Euphoria of loving life at Sea and catching a massive fish it was balanced by this serious business of schools a broken Spinnaker Pole to fix and the most serious breakage of our entire certain navigation so far last night we broke the boom which is pretty major after the scores and damage at the end of the passage it was a relief to arrive in the Caribbean the Delights of the balmy Caribbean were many to a pair of cold water Sailors from England this was our first winter summer cheers our first Christmas Merry Christmas the Caribbean is the most famous cruising ground in the world for a reason and we could have spent years there but the Clock Was ticking when we set off from England this trip was planned for three years to keep to that schedule we needed to sail Halfway Around the World to New Zealand in 18 months so we left the carnivals behind and sailed West towards Panama where we found our first taste of Paradise Islands [Music] thank you the idyllic palm tree stood at Islands of sandblast were just a taste of what was to come in the South Pacific but first we had to negotiate one of the seven wonders of the modern world the Panama Canal we gazed up in Wonder at the gargantuan lock walls from the deck of Florence and felt very small as we transited through from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean [Music] that's it right in the Pacific [Music] Pacific Ocean is huge our first passage was 4 200 miles non-stop to the Marquesas in French Polynesia that took us 33 days without sight of land [Music] [Music] [Applause] after all that time at Sea we were greeted by our first Pacific island and one of the most spectacular anchorages in the world Fatu heaver [Music] [Applause] [Music] the culture the people and the natural environment of the remote Pacific Islands and atolls were exactly what our dreams were made of our senses were overwhelmed our minds blown we found it difficult to comprehend that we had actually sailed here and it was all really happening if you'd asked us before we set off where in the world we were most excited to explore our answer would have been the Pacific Islands if you ask us again now where we'd most like to return to the answer is still the same [Music] we have promised ourselves that one day we will return to this remote Paradise but island hopping across 8 000 miles of the Pacific Ocean was not without its challenges [Music] we had to learn to navigate by eye through narrow Reef passages with strong currents and wildly inaccurate charts we were very aware that should anything break or go wrong there was no hope of rescue or spare parts in this incredibly remote part of the world arriving in New Zealand having sailed halfway around the world was exciting but also a relief here we could get spare parts and fix all of the things that are broken when crossing the remote Pacific Islands we had a lot of work to do and we're exhausted from having spent the last 18 months constantly on the move yet here was also where our careful plan fell apart we were simply having too much fun we didn't want to skip through the rest of the world so quickly we decided we could stretch our budget and threw away our three-year plan so we could see more places as we voyaged on around the world that was a very good decision as the amazing experience is kept on coming foreign [Applause] [Music] we find ourselves standing on the rim of an active volcano [Applause] before continuing on to Australia where we sailed for thousands of miles and many months cruising the East Coast [Music] thank you [Music] sailing under the Sydney Harbor Bridge was one of the key top items that we want to do when we set up on this round the world trip and we just done it they're awesome [Music] leaving the Pacific behind we were sad as we thought the best part of our Voyage was over it's still an exciting life to go maybe we'll come back one day maybe you'll grab the wheel and we turn left through the Panama Canal and we get to the Caribbean then we sailed into another world as we dropped anchor in Indonesia the sights sounds and smells overwhelmed our senses we sat in the cockpit of Florence struggling to take it all in bats flitted through the rigging as the call to prayer reverberated around the Anchorage and the smell of spicy cooking wafted along the gentle breeze we had joined an organized rally of Yachts to sail through Indonesia and that turned out to be one of our best decisions it led to some of the most memorable experiences of the trip from racing walk news in bandanera to racing water buffalo in samboa [Applause] it wasn't just the culture in Indonesia that blew our minds the nature was equally stunning we hung out with orangutans in Borneo stalked prehistoric dragons in Komodo so I'm with gigantic whale sharks and manta rays and he explored some of the world's most spectacular coral reefs the people of Indonesia were amazing one of the best things about traveling by boat is that when somebody shares their home with us we can return the favor good morning hello I'm a little scary but it's okay you know I'm so excited so now you see the sale is just starting to fly [Music] captain [Music] [Applause] [Music] but now we were faced with the busiest shipping Lane in the world the Malacca Strait not just full of huge ships to dodge but also unlit fishing boats and a never-ending procession for schools and lightning storms sailing through the Straits varied from scary to terrified and this is one of the few places in the world that we have no desire to return to so this is the fun and games of sailing up the Malacca Straits at night we've got a massive thunder and lightning storm just like burst right over us wins switched through 183s we've got fishing coats going 183 turns around us and you convenience and then you see through the rain it's just hammering down the wind's really picked up really quickly it really doesn't help that our wind instruments are packed up as well so we've got no wind direction other than looking up at the master if you can't do that then your eyes get stuck by the race [Music] foreign [Music] thankfully at the end of The Straits by the beautiful Thai islands where we could relax and restock Florence ready to cross the Indian Ocean [Music] but then came covered well that's a first for us we've just been kicked out of the port of bang in banderasia Indonesia we got passed by quarantine and we were allowed to spend almost a week enjoying ourselves there and then suddenly everything changed with the global situation on the coronavirus and we were asked to leave in fact we're banned from the whole of panda ashay we're kind of stuck we kind of stateless where we go from here we don't know so yeah it's a bit of a strange feeling really we the world's borders closed we found ourselves stuck on the edge of the Indian Ocean unable to get home and with nowhere else to go for a month we were not allowed to stop in any port we could not buy food fuel or water and anywhere we stopped we were told to leave immediately it was a very scary time but when looking for an uninhabited location to wait things out we came across the most beautiful deserted island we have ever seen we ended up staying in Indonesia for 14 months throughout the pandemic and it was a time of polarized feelings for us the stress of not knowing each month it would be kicked out with nowhere to go and of trying to negotiate permission to stay I've been told to diametrically oppose things we're very very stressed and we had no idea what how we even resolve this situation what a mess that was balanced with the highs of finding unsailed cruising grounds making new friends and learning to scuba dive and surf in one of the best places in the world to do both of those things [Music] foreign [Music] a year and we were released into the Indian Ocean for our most challenging ocean Crossing so far we turned back once and faced schools no wind and lightning storms on our 3044 mile 23-day passage to Seychelles The Voyage was back on that was the closest lightning strike I think we've ever had have we still got instruments [Music] Seychelles was not all holiday though after so long unable to perform maintenance in remote Indonesia we had a stack of work to do with osmosis on the rudder a broken engine mount to fix and a battery back to replace we had a busy time in the yard [Music] [Music] thank you leaving Seychelles behind we had to negotiate the notoriously difficult Mozambique Channel we have been worried about sailing this passage ever since we started planning even before we left England powerful ocean currents combined with changeable winds meant we're on the edge of our seats as each new weather forecast downloaded but if we could plot our way through the hazards of this channel a reward would be setting foot on yet another new continent for us [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] arriving in Richards Bay South Africa we felt a heady mix of emotions the relief of safe arrival after a hazardous passage combined with our excitement to explore this new continent we exchanged wide open seascapes for wide open landscapes [Music] and wild weather for wild animals South Africa did not disappoint I hoped we'd get this close to elephants but I didn't really think that we would foreign just a pause as we waited a month for a weather window to sail around the most treacherous point on South Africa's Coastline the Cape of storms propelled by the agulus current we smashed Florence's 24-hour speed record as we sped down the wild Coast towards the southernmost point of the African continent s and now we've got the Cape of Good Hope which is also known as the cave of sorts it looks like we're gonna get a bit of a sting in the tail we've got the windy blank straight up from the south the southeast of the Antarctic it's cracking freezing we are wearing all the clothes we have and it looks like we're gonna get blown past this cape pretty quickly the coastline of South Africa has a fearsome reputation sailing around the notoriously stormy Cape of Good Hope is a serious undertale [Music] as we approach this famous Cape the winds built we passed in gale force winds under storm jib alone [Music] this cape is the one that we fear the most out of the passage and given its reputation and what we've heard about it we thought this was going to be an awful part of the trip but it's actually the best fit it's the most but [Music] arriving in the beautiful out Bay we paused for three months to reflect explore and perform a long list of Maintenance repairs and improvements to Florence [Music] we still had two ocean Crossings left between us and our home Port not for us the shorter route directly up the Atlantic we would cross the South Atlantic to the Caribbean before returning across the North Atlantic to our starting point in England [Music] as the weather became colder we pointed our bowel back towards the equator setting out from Cape Town with Florence in great condition we sailed North up the cold and foggy benguela current to Namibia [Music] Namibia was our last stop on the African continent before we kicked off for 4 400 miles of open ocean sailing from Africa to South America [Music] in the midst of the vast South Atlantic Ocean we found the first of two tiny isolated Islands on our route after 10 days at Sea we shook some life back into our land legs as we explored the dramatic rugged landscape of Saint Helena a remote British territory hundreds of miles from anywhere but all too soon it was time to sail on we headed back out to the empty Horizons of the South Atlantic imperfect trade wind conditions and Florence made rapid progress surfing the open ocean waves 12 days and 1700 miles after we left Saint Helena we spotted the tiny island of Fernando de nironha a Brazilian Holiday Island and a welcome pit stop for Florence [Music] yeah we still had 1300 miles left to sail to reach our destination on Mainland South America so after just four days exploring we set sail again [Music] from Fernando he had a fast ride on the Guyana current up and across the equator for the fourth time cheers welcome to the Northern Hemisphere again cheers [Music] potato [Music] [Music] [Music] ES the South Atlantic has a reputation for being just calm relatively easy sailing and it's definitely been our easiest Crossing ever it may have been easier than our previous Crossings but we still had work to do to repair Florence before we could explore this slice of South America sailing around the world is a real lesson in being self-sufficient and self-reliant exchanging salt water for fresh and a Blue Horizon for green and brown we took Florence Inland up a river and into the jungle and witnessed the spectacular sight of a rocket being launched into space I think that's a once in a lifetime opportunity and if you ever get the chance to be near a Space Center you should definitely see a launch that just left the small matter of a 600 mile passage to get to the Caribbean where we could cross our outbound trap from England and complete our loop around the world however that would not be easy [Music] we've been doing so much sailing recently that we kind of saw 600 miles as being this little tiny hop at the end of our Atlantic Crossing to get to the Caribbean turns out 600 miles is actually quite a long way between French Guiana and the Caribbean we hit the doldrums which plagued us with light winds and squalls the weather was not going to make it easy for us to become true sailing Circa Navigators but after spending six and a half years sailing Florence around the world Neptune should have known that we are stubborn and will never give up foreign 46 000 miles of sailing around the world the Caribbean welcomed us with Carnival in Tobago now just 75 miles later we are approaching Grenada and we have done it and for champagne breakfast you Florence style even though we sell the entire way around the world for this uh we couldn't bring ourselves to pay for proper paid so we've got Carver yeah I'm not quite sure how far we have to sell to justify for breakfast so Shake It Up So sadly around the world [Music] [Music] foreign I was feeling like what we're doing is just very normal we live in this bubble where everyone almost the people that we meet are are sailing offshore and long distances and it just becomes the norm and it's just when you sit and process process it like we have done this morning um but it it's a reminder of how big how big this is and it's something that we've been working towards for seven years seven years since since you were made redundant and and we started thinking about what what on Earth we were going to do next yeah seven years ago somebody said you don't have a job anymore 10 months later we had bought a boat sold everything and left England it's amazing that you still can have adventures in this modern world I mean you read all the adventure books as you're a kid and you're like oh yeah those big kind of Adventures and then kind of get adult life and those Adventures don't really seem possible but they are they're out there man this last six years has been an adventure massive Adventure to me the thing that really gives me tingles is when I think back over the journey and just how many amazing experiences we've had the number of amazing people that we've met and countries that I didn't even know existed I'm also really proud that it's been just the two of us sailing on Florence the entire way around we've both done every leg together we've done pretty much all of the maintenance on Florence to get us around together all of the planning all of the dealing with Customs immigration and all the paperwork [Music] yeah which takes up quite a lot of time but it also just shows that it is possible if there is something you really want to do sometimes it's a big thing leaving the UK this was a massive thing to say around the world and and stepping outside of what we're doing it is still a massive thing however once you actually start doing it you realize how much is actually possible if you're prepared to throw everything at it and yeah work hard at it it's amazing what you can do foreign now that we've closed our Loop you might be wondering what's next for us are we going to return to our old normality or are we forever changed we'll share all of our future plans with you in the next episode in the meantime if you enjoyed this video then please share it with all of your friends because that will help us to grow our audience enable us to keep on making these videos we found this video a really difficult task to pack six and a half years of sailing around the world down into one short YouTube video so if you'd like to see some more of the adventures behind the clips that we've shared here then there's a playlist of over 140 videos that we shared from our Voyage around the world and there's a link to that playlist in the screen now but although it's just been the two of us both filming and failing throughout this Voyage we have definitely not been alone our supporters and our patrons have been right there with us along the way and if it wasn't for them we would be returning back to the normality of the daily commute and our office jobs and this video would not even exist so thank you very much to everybody that supported us all right

Channel: Sailing Yacht Florence

Views: 199,144

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Id: PKDagUd6eoI

Length: 34min 47sec (2087 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 10 2023