Change in our long term plans

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Wed 11 Sep 2013 17:17

We have had a radical rethink about our longer term plans and the incident the other night in Maple Juice Cove along with a number of other important issues have persuaded us that we no longer wish to continue this gypsy sea life for very much longer. One of the main things that made Sarah begin to wonder about this were a few bouts of seasickness.  In the Pacific there are bigger distances to be crossed and typically this involves 2-4 day passages which are her absolutely worst times at sea – she is just getting over the nausea by the time we are arriving  (that would be about 4000 miles feeling sick!).   So finally we began to think that possibly the attractions were not outweighing the downsides. Certainly we no longer feel in the right frame of minds to take on the Pacific Ocean and as a result we have been looking at our alternative options which are rather fewer than you might think

 

We now intend to spend the winter cruising in the eastern Caribbean and then return with Serafina to the UK in May. At this point our current thinking is to place her on the market and move on to something different in our lives – so if anyone out there is looking to buy an outstanding blue water cruising yacht….. you know where we are.

 

The plan also had us heading down to Florida to spend Christmas there with our sons and then head south to Cuba, but we are now faced with the further quandary of how to get from Florida to the BVI in Jan. This would be a horrendously long up wind slog which does not appeal at all! So this aspect of the plan is also under review and we will update you all once this has been sorted. When you then factor in the difficulties with our US visa expiring in early Nov, the options are getting shorter and shorter.

 

So one way or another we will not be crossing the Pacific in Serafina and our plans to visit all our friends and family in NZ and Australia will require the services of a reputable airline.

 

This has not been an easy decision as we are sure you will all understand and it has taken a lot of soul searching and discussion, not to mention a lot of disappointment for us both, but it does seem to be the right move for us both now.