Goodbye from me and hello to Joe

Kantara Atlantic Odyssey
Andy Hemens
Thu 7 Jun 2012 10:00
I stepped off Kantara yesterday and started my journey home, via Lisbon and London. Joe will be flying out from London on 7th June to replace me for the final leg to Soto Grande. 

The voyage of nearly 2800 miles was a lot harder than the ARC last year. For the first few days we beat into a fresh easterly, then had some good sailing followed by dodging between two highs and finally, two days out from the Azores, ran into the storm mentioned earlier in the blog. Would I do it again? Yes, but not this year as I have run out of leave! The yacht Kantara, a Dufour 40, behaved impeccably throughout the voyage. She took plenty of punishment in the first few days as we bashed to windward, then was superb in the lighter airs and behaved very well in the F10/11 wind and gusts towards the end of the trip. As ever it is always sad when these type of adventures come to an end so thanks to my crew members Malcolm and Claire. Thanks to Andy, who should really go into organising adventures full-time, and of course his family for making all this possible. Thanks to my family and Don, my business partner, who both wonder why anyone would want to spend 3 weeks on a yacht, thanks to Kantara and thanks to all our readers and the emails people sent in.

Highlights of the trip? My two are; listening to a Mexican commentary on short wave radio of Chelsea's win in the Champions League whilst sipping on a glass of red mid-Atlantic; and when the wind dropped below 35 knots in the storm. 

What next for me? Sleep in a normal bed, cook in a flat kitchen and a hot shower. 

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Ian