Cape Town or The Red Sea.

Left or Right.

One of the most challenging oceans in the world, or Pirate Alley and a 1,000 mile slog to windward.

Remote atolls and islands with unique wildlife, or the rich history and culture of the Mediterranean.

London by May 2021, or May 2020.

What should we do?

It’s been a decision that’s been weighing on our minds for some time now, and try as we might, we couldn’t decide. We asked for your input, and that didn’t help at all – turns out you had just as many opinions as we did.

So we resorted to that time-honoured decision-making process, and buried our heads in the sand, for just long enough that time ran out and made up our minds for us.

You see, to make the weather window for the Red Sea necessitates leaving Phuket by the end of December ideally, and certainly no later than 15th January. Whereas the Indian Ocean weather window starts in early February, and extends out for another couple of months.

We also knew that to take the Red Sea route would require a huge amount of urgent knowledge gathering, compared with the Indian Ocean, for which we’ve been preparing for years.

And finally, Dixie’s disappearance meant we wanted to extend our time in Thailand for as long as possible to maximise the chances of finding her.

So, decision made.

We’re heading for Cape Town, via Sri Lanka, India (maybe, still tbc), The Maldives, Chagos, Rodrigues, Mauritius, Reunion, and Madagascar. We leave Phuket on or around 1st February. And we’ll be arriving in South Africa in late October.

We’re too busy getting ready to be excited just yet. And if I’m honest, still more than a little numb about our missing crew member.

But in less than two weeks, we’ll be undertaking the longest passage of our trip so far – 1,000 nautical miles – at the end of which an exciting and challenging new phase of our lives will have begun.

We’ll be in the most exotic location we’ll have yet visited, although it will quite possibly be the least exotic of the many we’ll be seeing over the next 12 months.

So now we’ve made OUR decision, it’s time for YOU to make yours.

Where are you going to meet us?

Spectacular though the 8 or 9 countries we’ll be visiting over the next 10 months all are, and exciting though the sailing between them will undoubtedly be, by far the thing we look forward to the most on this trip is sharing it with friends and family.

We’ve had an amazing run over the last 18 months, with 25 people spending a total of 121 nights with us.

And each and every time, we realise how lucky we are to be able to share this with our nearest and dearest, and to have a boat that can accommodate an extra 2 or 3 people in (relative) comfort.

Without you, it just wouldn’t be the same. We’d probably have gone insane for a start. Spending every waking minute with your partner 24/7/365 is not normal, and although we somehow make it work, you give us someone new to talk to, not to mention someone to talk about once you’ve gone ;-)

So think about this… How many times in your life will you have the opportunity to take part in an Indian Ocean adventure like this?

Maybe you want to do a safari with us in Sri Lanka? Or South Africa? Perhaps you want to see some lemurs in Madagascar? Swim with whale wharks in the Maldives. Visit one of France’s most remote outposts? Or visit an abandoned archipelago a thousand miles from anywhere visited only by sailors, and populated by more fish, birds and coconut crabs than you can shake a stick at?

Maybe you even want to really challenge yourself by sailing one of the legs with us?

If reading this has raised your heartbeat a notch or two, it’s time to swing into action. Download our latest thinking about where we’ll be and when, by clicking here. You’ll see there are three different versions – that’s because we’re still finalising a few details. And as always, even once we have the plan finalised, there will still need to be a little flexibility in there. But we can iron out all those details later.

Because right now, it’s decision time!