Greetings from the very place where we sat on Spirit of Penmar 14 months ago, waiting for decent weather to escape the UK and sail for foreign waters; yes, we’re back up the river in Falmouth. Our journey home from the Virgin Islands, undertaken in three separate ‘legs’, has been most interesting, for many reasons.

When we planned our route from Virgin Gorda, in the British Virgin Islands, we anticipated making a direct course for the Azores, but the direction of the winds instead steered us almost due north to Bermuda. This wasn’t such a big surprise and had always been Plan B, since a route via Bermuda was the traditional route of the sailing ships of long ago, who had difficulty sailing to windward ... and had no engines, of course. Luckily we did, as a mid-ocean calm would have had us motionless for three days or so. We’ve never seen the ocean so still, like a dark mirror reflecting the soul of the universe.

To our delight, Bermuda turned out to be one of the most wonderful places we have ever visited in our travels and the 8 days we rested there didn’t seem nearly enough to savour its many attractions. We toured the island by ferry and bus from the harbour and one-time capital of St George, visiting the old Royal Dockyard and the modern capital of Hamilton. The Royal Dockyard was the largest and, strategically, the most important British naval base in the Caribbean in the 19th Century, making Antigua’s English Harbour (one of our favourite haunts) seem like a miniature version by comparison. In Hamilton, we saw businessmen walking around in proper Bermuda shorts (incredibly smart, but still take some getting used to) and came across groups of teenagers ‘hanging out’ in the parks, who stopped their antics to smile and say “Good Afternoon” to us as we passed; indeed, Bermuda is possibly the friendliest place of our experience.

The next leg of our homeward journey took us on to the Azores, an archipelago of 9 main islands, but not without drama en route. On our 9th day at sea and almost exactly half way between Bermuda and the Azores, pretty much 1,000 miles from any land, we came across a dismasted and disabled yacht. The singlehanded skipper was having a hard time of things and doubted the yacht’s ability to safely sail the remaining distance under a small jury rig alone. He made the incredibly difficult decision to abandon and scuttle his yacht, his home for the last 10 years or so and to join us aboard Spirit and so it was that we signed on our third crew member, Richard. Taking equal share of night watches and assisting greatly during a rather revolting day of 30 knot winds and vicious cross seas, when two large waves swamped the cockpit and found their way below to turn our cabin into a paddling pool, Richard certainly earned his keep! We were only too glad to have come across Richard when we did and to be able to safely deliver him to Horta, on the island of Faial, in the Azores, from where he made his way back to the UK. We’re pleased to report that he is doing fine and is now the proud owner of a new boat.

Horta is a famous ocean crossroads and it was great to be in an atmosphere full of cruisers from many far flung places, on their way to other far flung places. We also enjoyed some great walking around the caldera, where snowdrops and strawberries were out together. We had to drag ourselves away in order to continue on our eastward journey, but leaving the island of Terceira, the most north easterly of the Azores, we had no definite destination in mind, other than that it would be somewhere between southern Ireland and north west Spain, depending how the weather patterns shaped up once out there! In the end, we were able to shape a course directly for the UK and were pleased to arrive back in Falmouth, from where we had set out last May, despite getting a typical Cornish welcome of drizzle, rain, mist and fog as we approached!

Our encounters with wildlife have been just as magnificent as ever and, between Bermuda and the Azores and on to the UK, we‘ve seen more large whales than we could ever have dreamed of. Fin whales (at 18-22m and 30-80 tonnes, the second largest animal on earth, after the blue whale) ‘blowing’ nearby (as in “there she blows!”); humpback whales (11-15m and 25-30 tonnes), breeching sideways and on their backs; one kept breeching repeatedly, almost bouncing, right down our side and we could hear their haunting, moaning calls to each other; for the first week of the trip back to the UK, from the Azores, we saw whales almost every day, not to mention all the dolphins and birdlife.

During the last 14 months, we have sailed 8,965 nautical miles (the equivalent of over 10,000 land miles); we’ve spent 67 nights at sea, 35 of which have been in the last two months; and visited 11 countries. We‘ve had the most fantastic time, but feel quite tired and are pretty happy to be back in home waters again. So, next task … find jobs for the coming winter.

Geoff & Nikki Spirit of Penmar & friend of Boatshed