Why we are crossing this Atlantic this year.

In last week's video, we told you guys how this year, we decided to cross the Atlantic at the end of this year, thus opting out of sailing the Eastern part of the Mediterranean.Since then we have received a lot of comments and emails asking why we made this decision. I was initially going to publish this article in our newsletter (random emails in which you get real-time news!) but it ended up being way too long, so there we go, here is what went on behind the scenes. 

Flashback to Mars 2019, before our sailing season even started

We had known for a long time that if we wanted to cross the Atlantic this year, we should make the decision by mid-July. In case this would be our chosen route, it would allow us time to get back to the doors of the Mediterranean and time to getting ourselves and Polar Seal ready for our longest ocean passage to date.On the other hand, if we wanted to continue in the Med, we could start looking for winter spots in Greece and make plans for where and how we would be spending the winter months.This was our plan at the beginning of the season. Since both alternatives seemed equally appealing, Ryan and I were committed to organizing a formal Patreon following the publication of a video entitled  “Mediterranean sailing VS Caribbean sailing: where should we go next” (sounds familiar? ;))And if you think to yourself that “our voyage, our decision”, know that we absolutely love sharing our journey with the community. We are blessed with the freedom being able to go where the wind takes us, and we enjoy sharing a bit of that freedom with the very special group of people who support us!. We wouldn’t ask anyone to participate in the choice of our destinations it if it didn’t feel right (which ended up happening in this case). 

When we changed our mind...

For the longest time this season and whenever I would put the camera in Ryan’s face, he would end up saying something along the lines of “so what do you guys think?! Should we cross the Atlantic or not?! Vote on Patreon!” And I would systematically cut it.Until a couple of weeks ago where I actually left it in a video, and the community massively answered that they thought we should stay in the Mediterranean. So while I was getting myself ready for another year in the Med and making plans to go sail from Greece up to Turkey, Istanbul and poke our nose in the Black Sea, Ryan was not having it.On the week we had planned to film the “where should we go” video, Ryan finally admitted that he wasn’t ready at all to stay another year in the Mediterranean and that even if he could do it, it would be really hard on him. 

And why did the captain felt so strongly about not staying in the Med?

Something changed between March, when we weren’t clear on our plans and now, that we’ve actually spent some time in the Med.Over the last four months, while we sailed between the South-West coast of Spain and Northern Sicily, it hit us like a frying pan in our faces how difficult sailing the Med is when it is where you spend your life onboard.With winds crazily shifting four times a day, a protected anchorage in the morning can be a very rocky one in the afternoon, and a very windy anchorage disrupts your life.When the wind blows too hard, you are stuck on the boat, on anchor watch, making sure that your anchor doesn’t drag or that another boat’s anchor doesn’t drag onto you. You can't work, you can't go to shore... It is not a fun day, and those days occur often!When it doesn’t blow that hard that you don’t have to be on anchor watch, sometimes getting to shore can still be very difficult because of the waves created by the wind.But the worst part of it is the swell. When the wind dies off or changes direction, the swell lingers, making our boat roll sometimes at a 30 degree every three seconds. Imagine your house rolling 30 degrees from side to side every three seconds. Or trust my word: it is no fun :)So we constantly have to adjust. We move every other day, often adding many engine hours to Polar Seal to reach sheltered anchorages.If any type of sailing puts a boat and its crew at the mercy of Mother Nature, it is even harder in the Mediterranean where the latter changes her mind every four hours.Anchorages protected from all types of winds are very rare, sleep is never a guarantee, and because all boats seek shelter at the same spot at the same time, the Med can be experienced as a little crowded.That is the price to pay to experience the wonders of culture, history and nature that sailing the Mediterranean has to offer. A price that has taken a toll on Ryan’s mental health, as making new decisions twice a day and moving around 4 times a week can get really exhausting, especially when you try to get work done in between, need to maintain the boat and more generally, live a life.Don't get me wrong though. We have NO regrets what so ever coming here and get to live to see the Balearics, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Malta. It was 2000% worth it.Rare footage of Polar Seal's genoa out. The engine was probably still on though.

How we made the call.

So rather than to impose the captain more mental torture in the form of added time thinking about the question, and/or another season of dodging crazy winds, we decided that the best for us was to cross the Atlantic this year and commence the next chapter of our sailing adventure.We called off the Patreon vote, because if one alternative doesn’t feel right then what is the point? Instead, we filmed last week’s video entitled “Mediterranean sailing VS Caribbean Sailing: where we are going next”.The next day, we got flooded by emails (we love your emails!) asking us why we made this decision and received a lot of comments expressing a little disappointment.Even I am a little disappointed that we won’t get to experience Greece and Turkey in this chapter of our adventure, but... I am super excited to cross the Atlantic and get to the Caribbean!!!For us, making the decision to cross this year was the best compromise, one that strengthens us as a team (you know, happy captain happy life?) and makes us both happy.And ultimately, should we ever feel the need to “scratch the Black Sea itch” (as our friend Jules said), we can always come back and do it! 

What happens next:

We are currently in Northern Sicily, and have friends visiting us in the Eolian Islands, in Catania and in Malta. In Malta, we will be turning West, and do a big passage to Almerimar (where we started the season!) where we will prepare Polar Seal for crossing.From there, we haven’t decided. We would love going back to Portugal and Lagos before leaving Europe. We will then either set sail towards Madeira or Morocco (can’t do it all!) before sailing to the Canaries, Cape Verde and then... sail across the Atlantic :) With that said, I would like to address an enormous THANK YOU to our community of Patrons for the support they've shown after we announced our decision. I know that a lot of them had wished for us to stay in the Med another year, and the positivity that came from you was truly heart-warming!