In 2013, it seemed like a good idea to start planning a sailing voyage with my then-partner, Alex. For a little background, I had never sailed before. Well, I'd been on a cross-channel ferry.
It wasn't that I wanted to start sailing, after all, the idea of getting cold and wet day in, day out in potentially dangerous weather with little sleep wasn't exactly high on my to-do list. But I'm generally a fairly agreeable person and I did want to see Atlantic islands.
Alex bought an old boat, a 1974 Nicholson Mk X, from a retired family friend and suddenly the plan began taking shape. After mucking about in the Solent a bit and sailing to the Channel Islands and back, we set off in June 2014 for Falmouth before crossing the Bay of Biscay to Spain. We'd decided to sail until we ran out of patience, or money, or humour, or something.
I spent that first ocean crossing to Spain absolutely terrified, sick to my stomach and hoping it would end before things got any worse. Miraculously, we sailed into La Coruna on Spain's Galician coastline in one piece and, somehow, I was hooked.
We sailed through 2014, 2015, 2016 and arrived back in the UK in summer 2017 having completed around 20,000 miles sailing to Panama and back via many incredible Caribbean islands. It was phenomenal, horrifying, anxiety-inducing, anxiety-defeating, life-affirming, death-defying and utterly changed the way I look at the world.
From learning to sail and sweating over boat maintenance to meeting endless friendly faces in the cruising community and exploring new countries, cultures and cuisines, every day brought something new. But the overriding lesson from all of those years and all over those miles was this: I am stronger than I ever imagined I could be.
In Bed with the Atlantic
I started writing a book about the voyage when I was in the Bahamas on the homeward journey. I was extremely nervous about the return Atlantic crossing: the North Atlantic is much less organised and sailor-friendly than the tradewinds further south. Although I was already writing as a job, writing about the voyage itself help give me the drive and calm to undertake that next stage.
In Bed with the Atlantic was published in September 2018 and launched at the Southampton Boat Show. I met Robin Knox Johnston who was rather amazed we'd survived the voyage — not from a sailing point of view, he just couldn't imagine two people could stand the sight of each other 24 hours a day for so long! Admittedly, sometimes it was a miracle we didn't push each other overboard.
The book was an absolute joy to write and I've met even more fantastic people through it. Want to find out more? Head here!