A look back at our first year cruising South America
365 days, 7000nm, 3 continents, 5 countries, 3 gales. We are Lin and Richard sailing on our 1986 Oyster 55 Velvet Lady. For those of you who don’t know us, this is not our first long trip, or even our longest trip. We’ve been making long trips in the northern hemisphere for the last 20 years. It is however our longest trip, just us, no charter guests and for Richard his first time across the equator. We left Mayflower Marina, Plymouth on 20 th September 2022, the day after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was somehow disrespectful to set off on our dream trip the same day that Her Majesty was buried. We had been in the UK 3 months. Closing our Adventure Sailing business, emptying our lock up, working on getting the boat ready with the new equipment for South America and visiting family to tell them of our plans. Like many sailing trips – we were behind the schedule that we set for ourselves. ...