Preparing for the Journey

The Boat:

We'll be sailing a Vaan R4, a brand new boat built in Holland earlier this year.

The Crew:

The boat owner and skipper, a California resident but a world traveler: born in Vietnam and lived for 15 years in Germany. An engineer, a paraglider, and a pilot, He enjoys the outdoors and being at one with the elements. Sailing, however, is a fairly new skill for him. After picking up the boat in Denmark with our other crew member Jan, he has been building his familiarity with the sport while sailing down the coast of Europe and around the Caribbean for most of the summer and fall.

Jan Passion is a dear friend and our eldest salt on the boat. He's participated in many a blue water crossing, including a trip earlier this year with Connor from Santa Barbara to French Polynesia. Connor and I met Jan through his chartering business in the Bay Area, where he gives North Bay tours of the area from the unique perspective of a sail boat. He's been our teacher and our friend and the reason I'm able to go on this trip at all. After meeting the skipper through their joint interest in paragliding, and knowing Connor and I were both itching for some blue water experience, Jan recommended me for the journey.

The Route:

You can follow our location through Jan's Garmin InReach here. It will only start working when we have it set up and turned on for that purpose, but if it's not working when it seems it should be, please let me know.

Jan and I will be landing in Tenerife on Nov 11th and after using the day for provisioning and getting our feet under us, we'll set off on Tuesday, Nov 12th. Inshallah!

From Tenerife we will head south to about 16° latitude where we will either choose to turn left and port in (likely) Mindelo, Cabo Verde for a couple days. Or, if the weather is particularly good, we may turn right and continue on into the big open blue towards the Caribbean. The current plan is to dock in St Maarten, just North of Antigua and Barbados and fly home from there, leaving the skipper with the boat and a new crew; probably around mid-December.

Both Mindelo and Tenerife have become more and more popular jumping off points as cruising culture has become more popular and more sailors are making this trip every year. Fun fact: this route is the same route that Christopher Columbus took in 1492.

How do you plan for something like this?

Right now, it involves doing things like this to check the waterproofness of your gear:

Glad I did it, too. This one was not waterproof, my neck and back were soaked. Should have made the water warm....

ANYWAYS: We will have Starlink on the boat so I will be attempting to post a daily update, if even just a small one and a photo.

Feeling excited and a little nervous!

-E