Who wants to circumnavigate the world

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benlui

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How many people here want to do it? Circumnavigate the world for 2 years or more! So much planning needed, and not even sure where to start. Who here has done it, and what are your thoughts? Was it all worth the hassle and effort? I'm sure the hassle would be far less if we didn't need to sell our homes and belongings to finance it! "with the exception of few! I wonder how many people actually carry out this dream!!! We hope to join the Blue Water Rally in 2012. I'm sure we are not alone in our dreams!!!
 
I have no thoughts of travelling all the way round the world primarily because there are some areas I have little interest in.

However, I do know sailing couples that have done and are still doing the round trip. The interesting thing is that most of them just decided to go cruising, the fact that they ended up going right around was not part of the plan at all, but rather the old "Oh you must go to (So and so) being this close it would be pitty to miss it", and on it goes.

I have also come across couples who have been sailing the east coast for more than 20 years, southern end in summer and north in winter, still finding new places to go and things to see.

The bottom line is, don't make a plan to "round the world" much more fun following the sun and if takes around the globe, fine, if not, so what; it's more important that enjoy the places and people you encounter.

Avagoodweekend......
 
Want to, plan to. Not for a couple of years yet though- I need to have enough experience in my job that I don't have to do a re-training course when I get back, which would frankly be a bit of an anti-climax. Of course, there is always the fact that I probably won't want to go back and do the same thing once I've been away from it, but not to worry. I've still got a while to go before I'm 30 so all being well I have plenty of time to fit everything in.
 
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How many people here want to do it?

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Me!!! Doing it albeit slowly
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Circumnavigate the world for 2 years or more!

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It's a big place, 2 years isn't long.
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So much planning needed, and not even sure where to start.

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Easy, get a decent boat which isn't so complex that it grinds to a halt when one bit breaks, buy a load of teabags and head south /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
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Was it all worth the hassle and effort?

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Only one way to find out! As Mark Twain said
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn`t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour,catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore... Dream.. Discover"
Hardest bit I think is the run up to leaving.. "Do I need this, should I buy that" Leap into the unknown. After that it just gets easier and more fun.
 
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Just give me a quick boat and six months. No need to stop. 3 capes route. I dream about it every day. Single handed.

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I'd want to stop every thirty seconds. I want to talk to people and smell and taste the places they live in. Give me a slow boat and a hundred years. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Yes, I sailed round the world with Blue Water.

The rally is good for
- giving you the confidence to go
- binding you to a group of like-minded yachties. To my mind this is the main thing you get for your money. Ironic, as you haven't paid them anything, but because you have all paid so much to BWR, you tend to stick with it.
- getting parts procured and delivered
- arranging transits of the Panama and Suez canals
- finding crew if you need to
- arranging social events in far flung parts, but some would say that the fee is a lot to pay for a few parties
- organising safety cover in potentially dangerous parts of the world such as the Gulf of Aden
- when disaster strikes. They were excellent when a participant sank (see below), and would I'm sure be just as good if some one were to be dangerously ill, arrested etc.

However. be aware that
- the organisers are master salesmen. The seminars and website gloss over a lot of the discontent of the ralliers. In port, conversation quickly got round to the latest complaint about the rally organisers and as the rally wore on, there were so many complaints it was sometimes hard to find anything else to talk about.
- the numbers taking part have been reducing, from over 40 in 95, to mid thirties in 98 to barely a dozen in 99 and 2001. Numbers have increased in recent years. This has a good side in that some ports can't take the high numbers, but it makes the organiser's margins thin and their support more sparse eg the 99 rally did not get the advertised support in San Blas, Bora Bora, Tonga, Kupang or Bali.
- the small numbers mean that 'esprit de corps' is not as strong. This is accentuated by the huge size range of the fleet, from 70' down to 35' which means that some boats will be leaving port as others are sailing in. BWR reaction to this in 99 was to cancel the scheduled parties due to lack of support!
- the rally tends to attract less well-prepared yachts and crews. The 98 rally had three septuagenarian skippers who sailed sections of the rally single-handed, relying on other rally members for support. One sank more than 100 miles from land in the South Pacific, bought another yacht in NZ and sank that in Fiji while off the rally, then bought a third in Australia one month before being welcomed back into the 99 rally with open arms. She was towed into the first four ports with no engine and finally gave up in Thailand. The rally organisers were quite happy - they had her cheque!
- the need for help with officialdom is overstated. Apart from the Canals (see above) your best source of help and advice is other yachties, who can advise you on 'going with the flow'. Early in their existence, the rally organisers ended up on the wrong end of some litigation (unrelated to sailing) but this has governed their actions ever since, so they have an overdeveloped sense of compliance which is simply misplaced in many parts of the world.

If you are not sure whether the rally is for you, sign up for Rally Antigua, pay 500 pounds only, attend all the seminars, and wait till Antigua to decide if you want to sign up for the rest of the rally, sail on without the rally, stay in the Caribbean or sail home. If you pay the whole fee and drop out you won't get a refund.

Rally Veteran

This topic has been discussed before:
here ,
here ,
here and here
 
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Best boat for the job

[/ QUOTE ] Plenty that I would be happy with .........................but they are all big cruise liners. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I plan to, in sections probably.
I've had two longish trips, one on my own boat.

As conachair said, buy lots of tea bags and go. I sold a house, spent the money and left all within 2 months which included finding a boat and getting her coded in case we needed extra income.

Came back neede money for something else and sold boat in 1 month.

There wasn't that much planning really, th eboat choice is always a bit of a gamble as to what suits you and what she is like to live on.
 
Twice ... No comment

The 2nd time was to prove that the 1st time was a total waste of rations.

My next aim at 67 is Alpa Mayo .... and being 67 is more than really SAD!

Smile Smile Smile .... Even post in the UK at post 65, you don't get your VAT back!!!! .............


Sail away Sail away Sail away Enya
 
We are looking to go in 2012 if all is well. We are presently working towards a bigger/safer/stronger boat. The idea is to start with the ARC and go it alone from then on when the mood takes. We both think that 6/7 years should do it. By that time I will be 60 and wanting to live on one of those little Pacific Islands with a single palm tree on a white sandy beach. Do Tescos do on-line grocery deliveries to Pacific Islands? I hope so, every little helps! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Tescos don't but local fishermen will often offer their days catch of tuna or dorado around the anchorage as they will get higher prices from you than at the market.

This proved easier than catching them and when we got known by some local guys we could put in an order the day before and have 20lb! of fresh tuna for the beach bbq in the evening. Which was often shared around a few other boats.

It's not a bad life.
 
ARC is for .....

When you get to Rodney Bay you will either quit or want to continue.

To sail the world you have to have passion and a real gutsy want before you even start.

Your post, with no respect, is a pussyfoot dip in the water type post. You won't do it - you'll end up still watching Eastenders/Corrie/Emmerdale/etc dreaming of those lovely pacifc islands with coral reefs and nubile .........

Dream on ....

... forever.

M (2 times)
 
Re: ARC is for .....

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Your post, with no respect , is a pussyfoot dip in the water type post. You won't do it - you'll end up still watching Eastenders/Corrie/Emmerdale/etc dreaming of those lovely pacifc islands with coral reefs and nubile .........


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Oh dear, Mr Freud...
 
I would like to circumnavigate, only half way round so far. Get out there and do it ASAP! See our website and the liveaboard link.

Good luck

Angus
 
started off - got as far as Spain - gave up through boredom. There are lots of toys to play with in this world, not just boats. And since I'd done a lot of travelling at work, the travel itself didnt appeal / interest me.

Everyone I've talked to who has done a transatlantic says how boring the long passages are.
 
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