BACK HOME - Portsmouth Harbour
El Vagabond
Vicki & Roger Mortimer
Tue 4 Oct 2016 15:56
El Vagabond has finally returned home after 10 years, 1 month, 1 week and 3 days and 61,088 miles...
We are having a great time catching up with all our old buddies at Hardway Sailing Club although it does seem as if we've not been away !!
It has been an amazing 10 years and we have had some absolutely fantastic times. A few of the more memorable highlights of our adventure include :-
- Crossing the Atlantic for the first time – our first Ocean passage together
- Visiting 27 different Islands in the Eastern Caribbean during our first 3 seasons – our favourite remains Grenada
- Celebrating Vicki's 40th Birthday at the Firefly Hotel in Mustique
- Roger's first time on skis in Colorado, USA
- Seeing the amazing wildlife all around the World (including the Galapagos Islands)
- Cruising Patagonia for 2 years and sailing amid Icebergs and Glaciers
- Rounding three of the Great Southern Capes including Cape Horn (56 degrees South)
- Visiting remote places such as Chile's Easter and Robinson Crusoe Islands, Suwarrow (Cook Islands) and Britain's very own St. Helena Island
- Exploring the Falkland Islands especially the outer Western Isles
- Swimming with Humpback Whales in Tonga, Manta Rays in Suwarrow and Sting Rays in French Polynesia
- Spending 18 months in New Zealand which included 4 months skiing in Queenstown
- Sailing past the Sydney Opera House and under Sydney Harbour Bridge
- Visiting the Anglo-Zulu Battlefields of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift in South Africa (Zulu remains Roger's favourite Film)
- Basil meeting a Giraffe for the first time at a Safari Lodge in Zululand, SA
- Completing our Circumnavigation in 2015
The most memorable of all was, of course, our Mountaintop Wedding in Wanaka, New Zealand which was a truly special day and one we certainly won't forget.
Now we just have to decide what to do next...