It’s official! We completed our circumnavigation of the globe in Casamara when we sailed back into Grenada on 21 March. It was lovely to be welcomed in by John’s sister, Helen, and brother-in-law, Dusty. Seeing them standing on the dock with their banner was quite an emotional moment.

The passage from Fernando de Noronha along the northern coast of South America into the Caribbean was not without its challenges. Just a few hundred miles into the 2,000 mile journey John spotted some broken strands in one of the wires holding the mast in place. Whilst John and Andrew did a great job putting a supporting splint in place, we had to be careful not to put too much sail up in case the pressure on the rig caused the mast to fail. It was a bit frustrating that we’d travelled across much of the South Atlantic in very little wind, and now we had plenty of wind but couldn’t make best use of it. However, we managed to sail conservatively enough to complete the passage with rig still standing, which was a great relief to us all. 

The World ARC rally fleet is now gathered in Grenada and preparing for the final few weeks of the event, which finishes in April. Some of the boats have sailed around the earth in 15 months whereas others, like us, have taken it at a slower pace. It’s five years, almost to the day, since John and I left work in the UK to begin this journey and we can’t quite believe that it’s coming to an end. When we were last in Grenada, in 2023, we were preparing to sail across the Pacific and it felt as though the island was our last chance for boat maintenance and spares before a long period in the wilderness. Now we’re back it feels a bit like returning to civilisation. There were great marine services in Australia and some in South Africa, but not much in between. 

So once we have finished our boat jobs list we have our children and grandchildren visiting over the next couple of weeks and then we will make our way up the island chain to St Maarten where we’ll join another ARC rally, the ARC Europe. From there we go to Bermuda, the Azores and home to the UK in June.