2025 – Circumnavigation Begins
With much thought and discussion we decided t o start the circumnavigation in 2025.
Get Experience
Use the Dream Yacht owner sailing time to get in at least 8 weeks of sailing a year in as many different places as possible. We also got the whole family certified as skippers and we take turns leading each outing. We also got as many family friends certified to help us in different sections of the circumnavigation.
Prepare the Stargazer
We have to plan all upgrades and modifications to the Stargazer when she comes out of the Lease in preparation for the long voyage. This includes weather radar, sails, satellite communication, power upgrades…the list is long.
Plan the Logistics of Fulltime Cruising
Being away for what could be 3-4 year voyage, we have to make arrangements for the home back in Utah, find rowing coaches to take our place, and do financial planning.
The Tentative Route
The final itinerary and route will depend on many factors: the political situation in countries we are visiting, weather, currents, visas. We will make those decisions along the way but we at least have a rough outline of where we want to stop and roughly the year we will be there.
2025
We will start the year by picking up our boat in the BVI where we have kept it the last five years and sail it to Florida where we will refit it for our transoceanic trip. We will set off in the Spring for a shakedown cruise to the Bahamas. Before the Hurricane Season starts we want to be down by Central America sailing along Belize, Hondurus and Panama. By the end of December we would like to transit the Panama Canal.
2026
This year will be spent in the Pacific. We hope to pick the best sailing window to sail to the Galapogos. We will then sail southwest to the Easter Islands and then head towards French Polynisia after stopping at Pitcairn Island, which still has descendants from HMS Bounty. We will also see the Gambier Islands and Tuamotos as we approach Tahiti. We have always wanted to explore that area since sailing a week there in 2021. We will gradually make our way westward across the Pacific, past Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, New Caledonia and finally arriving in Sydney.
2027
We will sail North along the Australian Coast and explore the Great Barrier Reef. We will head to Raja Ampat in Indoniesia before meandering through the incredible scenery there. We hope to spend a lot of time in Malaysia and Thailand before we head towards Sri Landa and the Maldives. We hope to arrive in Karachi by the end of 2027 and see our family and friends there.
2028
We will have to make a decision whether to go through the Red Sea or head around Cape of Good Hope and South Africa. If we go through the Red Sea we will stop in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan before going through the Suez and entering the Mediterranean. We will go through Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Italy, France and Spain before we stop in Morocco. We intend to cross the Atlantic in December of 2028.
2029
This is the home stretch where we spend time in the Carribean, one of our favorite sailing grounds. We hope to explore the arc of islands starting with Trinidad and Tobago and along the Leeward Islands to the Virgin Islands and finally returning to mainland USA.