A GENTLE INTRODUCTION TO THE CRUISING LIFE SET KATE ASHE-LEONARD ON COURSE FOR A FULL TRANSOCEAN LIVEABOARD ADVENTURE
We’re sailing by the Gulf of Venezuela as we approach the Colombian coastline, a notoriously difficult stretch of water with frequent high winds, big swell and current. This night is no exception. It’s 0100 and Jim and I are both in the cockpit under a ceiling of stars. It’s Jim’s watch, but tonight is all-hands on deck.
Polaris is surfing fast down waves which have now built to over 4m. The wind has just reached 40 knots but, mercifully, is coming from behind. Swell breaks into the cockpit once again, soaking us both. We decide to put the tiny sliver of genoa away, and begin sailing under bare poles. Our speed drops from 16 to 7 knots, but it’s still too fast, we don’t want a night-time arrival.
Under the full moon that lights our way, I can see crests of white water battering the Colombian coast in the distance. Outwardly we’re both calm, although adrenalin is running high.
The speed is thrilling but we feel secure, Polaris is handling it just fine. So are we; we have done so many miles together on this boat that has kept us safe. I catch my breath to realise that it was just three years earlier that I set foot on Polaris for the first time, having never sailed before in my life.
INTO THE UNKNOWN
My partner Jim has sailed his whole life, I had zero experience. Together we made a decision to sell almost everything, rent out our flat in London, buy a boat, move on board full-time and complete a global circumnavigation. It was an ambitious plan. But Jim was adamant that my introduction to cruising should be as gradual as possible. The last thing he wanted was for me to do too much too soon and be scared off sailing for life. If we both still liked it after all that, then maybe we’d keep on going, becoming long-term liveaboards.
It took us 12 months to find, buy and move onto our Catana 47 catamaran. Those months were a chaotic haze of activity; we moved house twice and totally immersed ourselves in the pursuit of the boat and obtaining everything needed for it. We did training courses at weekends, attended boat shows and test sails. In fact, we did a lot of things related to becoming sailors, but hardly any actual sailing, so I was relatively unprepared by the time we moved on board. We’d at least experienced a bareboat charter holiday for two weeks: a miniature proof of concept to try and be as certain as we could that I really wanted to do this. And I did.
We delivered our own boat from France to Marina di Ragusa, Sicily, where we would spend the next eight months. We
