26. Sailing Around the World: 47,000 Miles of Oceans, Islands and Adventure Aboard a Discovery 67

0:33 Good afternoon and welcome to our latest Bertham podcast. I'm very happy to say that I'm joined by Mr. Simon Phillips who is the owner of the beautiful Discovery67, Sapphire 2 of London, and he's very kindly joined us here today to discuss essentially his adventures on board Sapphire and the round world trip.

0:56 So welcome Simon and thank you for being here.

0:58 It's an absolute pleasure.

1:00 So I'm writing thinking that you bought Sapphire around 10 years ago.

1:05 Yes, um Sapphire was um built in 2011 for her first owner. She was the most highly spec'd Discovery 67 and the last 67 built by Discovery, unfortunately. And um he literally put on every conceivable extra that you could imagine. A V upgraded specification of the rigging, um Luma, everything to do with saving the boat, he upgraded and went for the best option.

1:40 Yeah, I saw that the right, yeah. The Lumar winch pack was upgraded, wasn't it? Pretty much like everything you can upgrade, he did upgrade. Yep. And then you guys benefited from that, and you did what you should do on a Discovery 67 and take it around the world.

1:54 Yeah. So I had a uh a Discovery 55 before, which was Casmara, um, number 28 built, and that was my first discovery, having sort of built up my experience over a number of years.

2:07 Yeah.

2:08 Started with a Saddler 29. Well, um was that the unsinkable saddler? The unsinkable saddler of the program, and then we went for a Hansa 47E, um, which I skippered around the fast net and did all the qualifying races, which was quite experienced. Um, but that made it clear to me that the sailing that I wanted to do, which was big oceans and sailing around the world, the Hansa was not the right boat.

2:36 Right. So I started looking at the market, looked across the market, both oysters and discoveries, and very quickly came to the decision that I wanted a discovery. Primarily because they're built by Discovery, designed by Discovery. At the time they just had one version, which was the 55, which I think was enormously successful.

3:03 Um, and one of the big sellers for me, apart from the quality of the build, was the fact that she sailed so well, but also the nav station, the ability to be downstairs and having a sort of you know 240 view was a real boom for me, and I just loved the layout, you know, the aft cabin was really good, the galley was amazingly well designed, and I had Casemara from about 2012 until about 20 2016.

3:37 Okay, and we I did the I did the ARC rally where we sailed across the Atlantic, um, came third in class, which was quite um was quite an achievement. Yeah, absolutely. And um did numerous biscay trips, did a bit of med sailing, uh, went up to Norway, were involved in a rescue of a trawler, um, which had gone down in a storm.

4:02 Wow and we passed them coming out of uh can't remember the name of it now, but um Stavanger. So we came out of Stavanger, one of the crews said, uh, I'm sure I've seen a flare. I said, Are you sure? Because we had quite a lot to drink last night. But actually, he said no, so we radioed in and um yeah, a trawler had gone down in the storm the night before, and they're in a life raft that was actually in no good repair.

4:26 Well, so we radio into the Coast Guard with a standby vessel, and three people got helicoptered out, and we got a very nice letter saying thank you very much and congratulating us on our seamanship. Did you weather the same storm? No, we were in a bar.

4:41 Right, very sensible.

4:42 Yep. First place to be in a storm. Absolutely. So we did uh a lot of miles in in Kasmara and um we then Sapphire came up, and uh it was my ambition to sail around the world, and my wife and I thought very, very carefully about it, but we decided the benefits of Sapphire being 67, 40% bigger inside, um, updated design and and version with a lot of extra let extras was the reason why we wanted Sapphire to sail around the world.

5:18 Yeah.

5:19 And uh we purchased her in 2016 from Berthon. Uh, they arranged the sale of Casemara, who has just completed the world arc actually, as it happens. And for the first three to four years, we basically undertook a period whereby we really got to know the boat inside out, every single system. Yeah, we replaced a lot of stuff ourselves.

5:43 We did the uh electric furlers, they were Beimar, and we upgraded those. We uh we replaced the batteries, which at the time were AGM, and we did a lot of things to make sure that she was actually fit for purpose and we really understood and knew the boat for the World Arc, which we started in uh 2019.

6:05 Right, okay. So you had a few years with her to really get to know nuts and bolts and feel super comfortable about being properly offshore.

6:14 Absolutely. Yeah, and one of the summers we actually took Sapphire all the way up to the Arctic Circle and the Lafoten Islands, which was an amazing experience. Yeah, very difficult, difficult nav and and and difficult sailing conditions. You know, one day beautiful blue skies, next day blowing a hoole.

6:32 Um, but uh it was a really, really good experience.

6:36 Yeah, well you're very fortunate. I mean, I've I've sailed a lot, I've sailed all my life, but I've never been to the Northern Asia.

6:43 Yeah, I I really like um high-latitude sailing and uh want to do more of it um in the future.

6:50 Well, it's it's becoming more and more popular, but it is a certain type of character, I think, that wants to go up there because, like you say, it's it's different to anywhere. Yeah. Um for a start it's bloody cold, which is a shame.

7:04 It is cold, but it sort of encapsulates the sort of sailing I like doing. I like challenging sailing. I'm not very good at s sitting in marinas drinking gene teas, and you know, that again is one of the reasons why we wanted to go for Sapphire because she's a very safe boat and a very fast boat, and um, you know, I've never had anybody remotely even close to falling overboard.

7:32 No, um, you know, she's really well designed, that cockpit is excellent both for sailing and for entertaining.

7:39 Yeah, I mean, yeah, the the 55 you mentioned is a is a great boat, but the 67 is a different animal, and like I say, sapphire is the best of them. So I think it was the perfect choice to go around the world. So that was what you did. You went up north, and then where did you head from there?

7:57 So um then we went back down to Chatham where she where we moored her, um, did a few more improvements and made sure that the inventory and the spares list were uh appropriate for going around the world because you go some places where it's very difficult to get kit.

8:16 Yeah.

8:17 So Sapphire comes with a really, really good inventory, uh, of which Berthon have a very up-to-date spreadsheet of. We just basically prepped her inside and out to make sure that she was ready. And um in June 2019 we set off.

8:34 Yeah, and it's a huge project, isn't it? I mean, I speak to people that are doing the Atlantic and they spend months preparing for the Atlantic, which is completely understandable. But like you say, you're in the canaries at the start, which okay isn't that great for getting parts and spares, but in terms of where you went, it's very much first world.

8:55 Absolutely. I mean, you one of the good things about Sapphire is that you know she's got a lot of systems on her, but we understood them really, really well. So we understood the electrics, the engine, the genset, the rig, um, you know, even things down to the beer-only fridge and the ice maker and the washing machine.

9:17 We just made sure that they were absolutely ready and uh you know things like that make a big difference when you're in the tropics. Having an ice machine makes it really, really, really, really comfortable.

9:29 Yeah, I mean you you wouldn't want to lose the beer-only fridge.

9:32 Absolutely not.

9:34 Okay, so you you bimbled down Portugal? Spain.

9:39 So do you see much of the the western coast of we set off from Chatham, went down to La Caruna, then spent some time in Vigo and did the islets there, which were absolutely beautiful. Left uh in um northern Spain for a season going back and forwards, just enjoying the sailing around there, which is lovely, yeah.

10:04 Uh, and extremely good food as well. Um, if you like Galian food, which we do. So, you know, family came out and friends came out, and uh we had a great time, and then eventually it was ready to go. So we then went from uh Vigo down to Lisbon where we got some really good friends. Yeah, um, so we stopped off there.

10:54 From there, we went to Madeira and um had a lovely time there, and then we went to the Canaries where we got ready for the world arc.

11:04 Right, fantastic. So you must have had a bit of time there preparing. I know you'd obviously done most of the work in in the UK, but yeah, it was it was literally fine-tuning when we got to the Canaries.

11:15 Um, just making sure the water maker was tip top, you know, making sure the shortband radio worked, making sure the sapphone worked and we were able to download grip files, although we've now done an upgrade to that with with Starlink, which has been again a real eye-opener and uh certainly allowed a lot better communication, very much quicker on WhatsApp and things like that.

11:39 So it was literally just making sure that everything was absolutely you know tip top and ready to go because I just did not want the worry of starting off and having something going wrong.

11:50 No, and I know when I talk to the the guys at World Cruising Club, they always say get 99% of stuff done before you get to Canaries. Yeah, give yourself loads of time to relax, enjoy it, um, so that when you do leave for the transatlantic, you're just excited to go and the stress is all gone, and you're basically itching to get to sea rather than panicking about get to sea.

12:12 Yeah, we were we were itching to get going. So we set off in 2019 and we did the um the stop in Cape Verde.

12:20 Nice.

12:20 Uh which was you know three to four days down to Cape Verde, which was a very nice sale. And then we spent, I don't know, about a week in Cape Verde again, just making sure everything was tipped up, there was nothing really to repair, and doing provisioning because you know, Sapphire is you know, one of the great things about Sapphire is because she's got so much storage, because she's got such a great freezer and such a huge fridge, yeah, you can really eat well.

12:45 And we've had some amazing roast dinners and gales and you know around the world, and uh it it was you know it was well worth doing. So then we went from Cape Verde to St. Vincent, yeah, which was you know, again very pleasurable. Um, from St. Vincent we went up to Antigua uh where we got some friends and we spent Christmas there, which was lovely, and then joined the World Ark in St.

13:13 Lucia for the big off.

13:17 Very nice. And how was that? So I I mean that's obviously head north, Panama Canal.

13:23 Yeah. So from um so the world arc as opposed to the arc really starts in St. Lucia.

13:30 Right, okay.

13:31 So you go from St. Lucia and you go to Colombia, right? Um, which you know is it's probably one of the most challenging sails in the Caribbean because it's called the Cape of the North.

13:44 Okay.

13:44 Um, and you get you know big winds, and certainly when we came into Colombia, we had 38 knot winds, um, and it was extremely windy, and you have to worry about we have to keep a lookout for bits of wood that are spewed out from the rivers. But we made it there, and uh, you know, it was um it was challenging, and um I had my daughter and her now husband on board, and uh they they found it they found it very challenging.

14:15 Um, but it was it was good, and and sapphire is just made for those conditions. I mean she's so stable, and and once you get her in the groove, and once you've got the right sale plan, she almost sells herself, and that's what everybody says. She behaves just like a big dinghy.

14:31 Yeah, and it's it's on those, it's at those moments, isn't it, when it's blowing 40 knots and you think, thank God we bought Discovery 67.

14:38 And you know, time and time again, you know, it's we've had the conversations, you know, I would not want to be doing this in a plastic fantastic. No, and uh, you know, whilst the whilst Casamara, the 55, would have been great, it was just even better to do it in the 67 and sapphire. Yeah, and uh that 40% and that extra weight and that extra sale plan really, really does make for a very, very pleasurable sale, even in some very challenging conditions.

15:05 Yeah, no, I I get it, I think that sort of 65-ish foot is the sweet spot for around the world. And obviously, people go around the world on 30 footers and people around the world on 180 footers, but I think that 65-ish foot is a really nice sweet spot for family sailing.

15:22 Yeah, and you know, I've done all of the sailing, you know. I'm not boasting, but I've I've done it as the skipper owner with with friends. I've never all the way, never had to have, you know, paid crew. I've had crew who've asked to be paid, but I've never paid them. Um but um you know it it it it it makes it a bit more challenging for the skipper owner, but I'm I'm really proud of it that I did it in that way, and um I couldn't have thought couldn't think of a better boat to do it in.

15:56 No, no, I I I agree with you, I must admit, if I had a short list, then yeah, a 67 would be at the top of it. Uh okay, so you got to Colombia, you survived Colombia, I'm sure that was a great run ashore.

16:09 Yeah, great run ashore, lovely people, really, really um enjoyed it. Um, going to see the indigenous tribes inland and going to coffee plantations and sampering the local beers, and uh yeah, it was really nice. We've we didn't find it remotely intimidating, it was very safe. Um, you need to be careful, um, but it was it was great, and and you get the camaraderie from the rest of the world arc boats as well.

16:37 And yeah, yeah, I've made some really good friends from the world arc and also from sailing around the world.

16:42 Yeah, I bet. I bet. So, yeah, you're you're at Columbia, and I think you know, I talked to a lot of people that have a dream of sailing around the world, and there's some frighteningly large percentage of people that talk about it, never do it, do it and never finish it. And I think Panama is the sort of the bailout point.

17:00 Yeah. Once you get through there, it's it's pretty real, isn't it?

17:03 So we from from Colombia we went through the San Blas Islands, which are just picture coast card little islands. Really, um, and we anchored off those, and then we made our way to Panama, and um we were originally in the in the north part of the Panama Canal in the marina there, which was which was you know lovely.

17:28 Again, it it allowed us to explore Panama City, which is very underrated, and we really enjoyed it. We did food tours and cycling tours, and you know, the family and the crew really really enjoyed it, and it it was pretty cheap to provision as well. And yeah, the world art kept on saying stock up as much as you can because the other places you're gonna go is gonna be expensive, and and we took again real advantage of that.

17:57 Okay, plus we caught a lot of fish on the way as well, which it really helped.

18:01 I bet you did.

18:02 So, yeah, so going through the the Panama Canal again, you know, my 95-year-old father was watching us on the on the webcam, um, and it's quite an experience. You we went we went with three other yachts and a humongous tanker behind us that powers up with and stops within about three metres of your boat, and you're thinking, Oh my god, is this gonna stop?

18:26 But it's a very slick operation. A lot of people are a bit scared about going through the Panama Canal, but we found it fine. Again, it's all down to prior planning, prevents peace-poor performance and prep. So we had some crew who went and helped other boats through the Panama so they could come back and tell me this is what went well, this is what went badly, this is what we need to think about.

18:47 Simon, so we went through and we didn't bump anything, it was all pretty slick, really. Yeah, and then we popped out the other end into the Pacific, which was a real hurrah moment because up until then I'd just done sort of you know, med and all sorts of stuff you'd done before. Yeah, stuff I'd done before.

19:03 So then we set off from um Panama to Las Perlos, which is you know, again a lovely little island about two or three hundred miles off Panama, and had three or four days there, big party with World Arc. So that was fun. Quite a few dinner parties on board because the cockpit of Sapphire really does lend itself for me more than any other yacht that I've ever been on for entertaining, and you know, we've had some very, very memorable dinner parties and uh sundanners around that table.

19:33 So from Las Perlus, we then set off to go to the Galapagos. Now I'd been to the Galapagos with the family before, but I'd never I always said I wanted to go back and sail there. So we had a really nice sail, really lovely conditions from um Las Perlas to the Galapagos, and when you arrive there, you do time in one of the ports, and then you go to another island and you have time there.

19:58 So we had about two weeks, which was early 2020, and um it was just lovely. We did loads of cycling, loads of tours, lots of snorkeling, snorkelling with you know dolphins and seals. It was just and the natural history of the Galapagos is just so interesting. The volcanoes, the iguanas, the tortoises, it's just fascinating and it's well worth going.

20:24 And and it made it more special, the fact that we'd sailed there and we were on a boat while we were there.

20:29 Yeah, we you'd uh you'd earned it, and you'd earn that right to that small piece of paradise on the planet.

20:35 Yeah. So um we reprovisioned. Uh unfortunately, my wife, Helen, and my daughter Emily then left the boat um because they didn't want to do the big jaunt across um the Pacific to the Marquises. Is that about three? It's about 3,000 miles, which we did in about 15 days.

20:55 Did you really?

20:56 Um it was parasailer, armchair sailing, I would say 80% of the way. Wow. It was super quick. Um, and I think we were probably the third or fourth boat in. What was interesting about that trip was the fact that I was getting a lot of phone calls from my wife, who's a doctor, saying, Simon, you need to be aware that COVID is really taking off in Europe and the UK and lockdown.

21:23 And um it was a very interesting passage because you know the world arc were very spooked by uh Covid and effectively withdraw their support from the World Ark. And um we renamed it Solus, which is Sailors of the Lost Ark. And um we when we got to the Marquises, there was a French frigate in the bay.

21:50 We were only allowed off the boat once a week. Really? They were enforced, they really enforced it. You were only allowed off once a week to shop and reprovision and get rid of your rubbish. So they really enforced it. They were absolutely, and I could quite understand it, terrified about the local population catching uh yet another European disease.

22:09 Yeah, but uh it was a very, very interesting time and from you know, and you know, I I have to say everybody was were really good in the bay in terms of observing local regulations, apart from the French, who the French on their boats pretty much ignored every single rule and uh were swimming around their boats and swimming to each other's boats, and uh were a rule until uh among themselves, but there you go.

22:37 So from the Marquises uh we went to Tahiti, and once we got to Tahiti, there was really nowhere to go. I mean, New Zealand was closed, Fiji was closed, Australia was closed, and so what I did was I I went home because my wife wanted Me home because I had elderly parents and my children, two of my children out of the three, uh doctors, and they were very involved with ITU and very sick patients.

23:08 And she said, I want you here because they needed a lot of support. They were seeing the coalface. They were absolutely the coalface of um COVID. So I came back, I then went back to Haiti and then did the Society Islands. So I flew back in with friends. Yeah, we then um picked up, as it happens, one of the world yellow shirts, and we did the Society Islands, which were absolutely beautiful.

23:35 And we were out there for about two months. But that was literally all we could go. That was that literally the rest of the world was was closed off to us. So you know, we we sailed around the Sally Islands, Bora Bora, um, which which was very pleasant. What a time to see those places.

23:51 I know you didn't have full freedom, but you had it yourselves.

23:55 We it was very empty, and we were very aware of how lucky we were, and yeah, we had to be very respectful of the local communities because they were they were twitched, but it was great fun, and you know, we had some fantastic anchorages, and you know, it was we were lucky because it was not busy. Nice, so you know it was it was fantastic.

24:15 So put the boat back in Tahiti. I went back for about six-nine months, and then I flew out with um some friends and Helen, and at that stage I gained approval to sail, special permission to sail to New Zealand on the basis that I was going to do a mini refit. And we set off from Tahiti, and literally for another 3,000 miles, we never saw another boat, another tanker, another yacht, another aeroplane, and we were tracked all the way by the New Zealand Coast Guard who escorted us into the Bay of Islands.

24:55 Right.

24:56 Um, and um we went into quarantine, which was ridiculous because we've already been at sea before.

25:02 Yeah, exactly.

25:03 But we again we were very good and observed all the um rules and regulations we had. Very good friends of ours who flew up from um Dunedin, the South Island, and we sailed around you know the Bay of Islands, which was absolutely amazing, and again, it was very unaccustomedly sort of you know low volume of boats sailing around.

25:25 So we would just go into Bay's anchor and be the only boat there, and it was just amazing. Incredible. Saw lots of dolphins, lots of whales, lots of orcas, um, drank lots of New Zealand wine, um, ate a phenomenal amount of oysters because nobody else they couldn't export them and nobody was buying them locally.

25:46 So we literally ate them breakfast, lunch, and tea. Um, and it was great. We had a we had a fantastic time. And then what we did was I'd arranged to do the refit in Fangaray. So we sailed the boat down to Fangaray, and um I left the boat there for about six to nine months to do a refit where we did modifications to the rig um by introducing backstays, running backstays, which really improved the performance of sailing.

26:16 We put lithium and batteries in, we redid the AV, and you know, we serviced the engine and the Gen set and the Watermaker, and it was a proper little refit. Yeah, and um it had its ups and downs. Um, it was a funny time in New Zealand with COVID, getting spares and getting the right people to do the job, but it all got done, and eventually we then set off from we went from Fangaray, did some test sales around Fangare, then up to Bay of Islands, checked out of Bay of Islands, and um went up to Fiji.

26:52 Wow.

26:52 Um via via the Minerva atoll, which was again unbelievable, you know, quite a challenging entrance to the atoll, but again, we were the only boat there, and you know, the waves were crashing on the outside of the atoll, but inside it was absolutely dead flat. And uh we spent two or three days there, and it was just surreal.

27:16 And from there we went from North Minerva, which was not on the direct route, it was slightly off, but we we made a conscious decision to do that, worth the effort, yeah. And then we went to um Fiji and then we spent about a month, six weeks doing Fiji, doing the islands around the north, which again was absolutely beautiful.

27:37 Yeah, inside of it's it's it it's a small, it's like a smaller barrier reef, but you're inside the reef, so you get wind, but you get flat seas, and we were just going in and anchoring some in bays where we met the local at the local tribes, and we had to give them you know um special gifts, sweetness, sweeteners to allow us to do that.

27:58 But sometimes we stopped off in one of the islands or two or three of the islands that had um resorts on board or resorts on the island, yeah. So we were able to anchor up and go and eat there and uh use their swimming pool and stuff like that. So it was it was just magical, and uh thankfully Helen and um Helen came out for some of that and Emily and Shif, so that was really cool, and um yeah, we had a we had a great time, and then um from there we went from uh Fiji to uh Newcal, New Caledonia.

28:36 Okay.

28:37 No, sorry, no correction. We went from there up to the volcano in Cook's Bay, right, which was again magical. Can't remember the name of it now, which is really irritating. Don't ask me if Simon. So we went we went north and uh we visited the volcano that Cook saw from, you know, we stayed in Cooks Bay and we were very much following that.

28:58 Then we went further north to the capital and had two or three weeks there, and then from there we sailed to New Caledonia and then to Brisbane, where again I had to fly back because of grandchildren and elderly parents. So I also had quite a lot of work done on the electrics, putting right everything the New Zealanders had failed to install properly.

29:23 They won't be happy to hear that. And we spent about, I mean, Sapphire was in Australia for about two to three years, um, because I just couldn't find the time to actually um carry on. Uh, but we did go out after the first year and we we sailed up to the Witch Sundays, which again was absolutely magical.

29:44 So I had two months, we spent two weeks getting up there, stopping off in all the little islands on the way, um, going ashore, snorkeling, catching fish, and uh went up to the Witch Sundays and we spent literally about a month sailing around all the Witch Sundays, you know, in and out of Hamilton. It was just beautiful.

30:06 Um my wife really enjoyed it as well, and she had a friend, and uh there was just I mean, at times there were just four of us on board. Um, then my daughter arrived with one of her mid-school friends, which was really cool. And we had again our New Zealand friends come out as well. So it was real party stuff, it was real champagne sailing.

30:27 It's just the way to do it, isn't it? If you are gonna do it, you know, don't miss anything. Yeah, take your time.

30:33 And and what it taught, well, what it sort of showed me was that the world arc is great, but it's a hell of a time scale to keep to. Yeah, and you miss out on a lot of lovely places if you just follow that route. So, whilst you know, sailing around the world took a lot longer than I anticipated, I really enjoyed the fact that we got some extra time to spend in all these places, yeah, because they were just they were just fantastic, and you know, we just had so many great times and met some lovely people, did some great sailing.

31:02 Um, yeah, too many stories, too many beers to talk about. I'm sure.

31:06 But you're you're right, it's it's not a round-the-world delivery. No, you're not rushing, you're not trying to get to A to B as quickly as you can. Yeah, because chances are you're never gonna do it again.

31:16 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that was very I was that was very much on my mind. And also, you know, whilst the World Arca is great and they do all the admin for you, I have to say I got pretty proficient at actually checking in and checking out of these places. Yeah. And it's not that difficult. No. As long as you've got all the documentation, you know, to speak to, you do all the forms in advance, you tell people where you're going and when you expect to be there, it's all very doable for a you know, a Joe public like me.

31:46 It's great to hear because I'm sure you know the things like the ARC and the World Rallies, they're they're wonderful because they are a real sort of comfort safety blanket. But it's great to know that people who don't want to be part of the rally, people who are a bit more sort of adventurous like yourself, it can be done.

32:04 Uh my my advice would be to definitely plan to spend more time in these places than the world arclows. Yeah, because you know, you just miss out on so much, and you know, it's certainly absolutely made the world trip for us being able to explore these in our own times at our own pace, um, our own decisions rather than just following in line.

32:30 Yeah, agreed, just trying to crunch miles. Exactly. So you you did Australia very thoroughly.

32:37 Um, I did that east coast from Brisbane up. So then we took the boat back to Brisbane. I had to again, grandchildren, elderly parents, went back home, and all the time, you know, the there was somebody looking after the boat and making sure all the systems were working. Yeah, boat works is in Brisbane is a is a really good place to get work done.

32:57 Very, very professional, made some very good friends there, and then yeah, in August, sorry, in July 2025, we were ready to carry on. So we took about a month, six weeks to go from Brisbane all the way up through the Great Barrier Reef to Darwin, okay, um, which was again just beautiful, um, across the Bay of Carpentia and into Darwin, and uh I then had to fly home to uh kiss my next my latest grandchild, go to a wedding, and then I returned with Helen.

33:34 Um and then from there, uh which was sort of late August, we then um made our way to uh Indonesia, right, and um again unbelievable sailing and you know beautiful in the Komodo National Park, which we spent about a month, just the most amazing islands where there was just us at anchor. We you know we had Komodos coming down to the beach which were not in parks, real wild um Komodos, which was just so special, and again the Indonesian people were lovely, and we just had a superb time.

34:14 Uh, but it's not the place to not have spares, no, it's not the place to have anything that you can't fix. It's okay to provision, albeit the choice is not that great, but again, we had a we had a marvellous time. Yeah, and then from there uh we various crew left, more friends arrived, and um we sailed from Indonesia, Lombok, to um uh Christmas Island.

34:47 Okay, and there was four of us on board, right? And that was probably one of the best sails off the whole trip. Just absolutely amazing downwind sailing. Sapphire was going like an absolute train. Yeah, um, people were, you know, people had talked about the fact that you know the waves can be very big, it can be very bumpy, it can be very uncomfortable.

35:10 I think it was a combination that we were lucky with with the weather and the sea state and the winds, but also, I mean, Sapphire just munched it up. Yeah, it was it's what she was made for.

35:22 Exactly.

35:22 It was her sweet spot, and we just she was just made for it. So we arrived in Christmas Island. Um, we had about a week there, we hired a car, we went all around the island, ate some good food, duty-free wine and alcohol, so we massively stocked up on that. I'm sure you did. And um from there we went from uh Christmas Island to Cocos Keeling, right?

35:46 Which um again, lovely sale, but you know, actually Kokos Keeling, historically quite interesting, but not a great place. Um not great for provisioning, um, not that much to do. I was quite pleased to leave.

36:03 Right.

36:04 And uh then so we left Kokos Keeling and uh we picked our weather window and then we did again just an amazing sail to Mauritius, absolutely pumping the miles, doing over 200 miles a day. Yeah, um every day caught some fish, tuna, which we ate within the hour. I was very lucky. I had a friend who was very good at gutting fish, um, because not something I like doing, but you have to slow the boat down because the boat was just going too fast, and when you've got a tuner on the other end, you you absolutely have to, because otherwise you're pulling pulling the tuner and sailing at eight, nine knots.

36:45 So that was interesting, but we had so much fresh fish, it was unbelievable. And um we made it into Mauritius, where I have to say we got very drunk. Um I think you probably earned it, and I've got a very good friend in Mauritius, so he's got a villa in the south, so we had some RR down there, and then we did a bit of you know, inevitable bit of tweaking and repairing of the boat, yeah, reprovisioning, and then from there we went from Mauritius to reunion, okay, where we stopped off for two or three nights.

37:20 Great music, great food. Was it? Yeah, it was really good, really good fun. And then from reunion we went to Durban, and that's it, that's probably the most complicated sale that I did of the whole trip. You've got the currents, you've got the wind, yeah. Um, you have to get everything absolutely right, and you know, you get swirls in the currents.

37:42 So that was probably the most complicated leg of the whole trip. You know, sometimes we had lots of wind, sometimes we had too little wind, and you know, from the wrong direction. So it's a very challenging sail. But again, you know, we we ploughed through and uh we made it safely, and we got to Durban, and that was at the end of November, and uh we left the boat there uh again in the in the hands of Fino Concierge Um and some people who looked after her and washed her and made sure the systems were all tickety-boo and the electrics were all working, and flew back for a wedding, another wedding and Christmas, and then uh at the end of January we went back out to Durban and then we sailed all the

38:31 way down to Cape Town and again, yeah, we weren't that far from shore, but again, you have to because of the currents, you have to make sure that you get it absolutely right. Yeah, but I mean at times with very little wind, we were doing 11 knots. Were you really? 11, 12 knots, and um still very, very warm water until you turn that corner, yeah, and then literally within a mile, the temperature goes from I don't know, 28 degrees down to about 10.

39:01 Just flipping a switch. It's just extraordinary. And you know, I'd read about it and people had told me about it, but you know, we do a log every hour on the hour where we do the CTEMP, yeah, and it was just amazing, it was just phenomenal. And then we sailed into Cape Town and uh Table Mountain and Table Mountain and um my brother lives in Cape Town, so again there was quite a party um to welcome me into Cape Town.

39:30 Just unbelievable. I mean, I I spend hours on Navionics on my iPad planning my dream round the world trip, and have to say, everywhere you've mentioned is on my list, but you've mentioned so many more that I wouldn't have thought of.

39:47 Yeah.

39:48 Just because of how much time you spend doing it, and I guess the research and the adventurous spirit, you have to want to deviate to go and see this, deviate to go and see that.

39:57 Yeah, you've you've got to, you know, the modus operandi was, you know, we're not gonna miss somewhere beautiful just because we've got a time and a place to be as dictated by a third party. And my advice to people would be yeah, you're never gonna do this again. I'm I'm not gonna I'm never gonna sail the Indian Ocean again.

40:16 No. Um, so take your time and enjoy it. Don't worry about sort of timetables and you know parties that have been arranged for you. Just enjoy the sailing and you know the fantastic places you can go.

40:32 Yeah, well, you're you're very fortunate. I'm sure you worked extremely hard to get yourself in that position to be able to buy a yacht as stunning as sapphire. I'm pleased to say she's now safely here with us in Lemington. She's on our gantry, she's looking great, and she is now ready for her next very lucky owner, who I really hope will enjoy her at least half as much as you guys did.

40:53 Yeah, well, thank you, Tim. Um yeah, she's still warm from having done that world trip.

40:58 Yeah.

40:59 So not a lot is needed to get her back in the water and get her ready to go.

41:03 No. No, she's only been with us three or four months. Yeah. And that was straight from Cape Town. So thank you very much, Simon.

41:11 Absolute pleasure.

41:12 Could talk to you for hours, and I'm sure I probably will. Um, but thank you for joining us. Uh, I hope everyone has enjoyed listening to your story uh and gets inspiration and wants to do exactly the same as you did. Thank you very much. Pleasure. Thanks, Simon.