I crossed the Atlantic on a 32ft double ender,first the classic route and then back to Europe over the Azores,followed by a Pacific crossing on our F&C 44 Tarita.On my first crossing the only serious thing that happened was breaking a spare spinacre boom against a side stay when rolling heavily sailing twinsails.Otherwise that whole crossing was uneventful. On our sail back to Europe we had no engine and opted for a route first heading north to reach the westerlies and more wind, before turning to the Azores. That lead us to struggle through a survival storm of force 10 with several serious knock downs.

Crossing the Pacific from Galapagos to the Marquesas we had a serious issue with the steering. The 4 bolts holding the steering quadrant to the rudder axis were all loose and 1 was cracked. We needed to heave to for a day,brake parts of the interior of the aft cabin down,to be able to repair. Moreover we hit something in the water loosing our paddle to the Monitor windvane forcing us to handsteer the last 5 days (autopilot consumed to much power).

This time is the first time for both me and Mercedes to cross an ocean in a motortrawler. We are curious but would prefer to cross in a sailboat. Let´s see what we say after the crossing. Dora Mac is probably a safe boat but with to many complicated systems to rely on.

We think we have prepaired us quite well,but we also both know that what you anticipate to happen rarely does,and what happens you rarely anticipated. Only time can tell and now it´s time to go.

Hasta Luego Africa !