Beyond thankful
With Thanksgiving approaching, I’m feeling all the feels. I know, what else is new?! But this holiday gets me all ramped up on the emosh scale. And that’s in a ‘normal’ year.
Like years before, the sheer volume of blessings we have to be grateful for on the health, family and friends fronts is eye-wateringly overwhelming. On top of those incredible gifts though, in 2025 we’re giving thanks for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, complete with all the ups and downs. Our hearts bursting with appreciation for our sturdy floating home that’s faithfully carrying us around the world. And we’re speechless with love for all the people we’ve been lucky enough to share this experience with - both new friends we’ve made while on this journey as well as the family and friends-that-have-become-family who have been cheering us along from afar or joined us on various legs.
I’ll catch you up on our plans to celebrate all of this good fortune at Thanksgiving in a bit, but first back to where we left off last time - crossing of the Bucking Indian Ocean.
All in all, the passage from Cocos Keeling to Mauritius took 13 days and I think we would all agree it was our toughest. As always though, the World ARC Yellow Shirts were there to greet us with smiles, help in tying off and a gift of local rum. The big waves and winds were soon a (more) distant memory.
The entire WARC fleet was tied up in a VERY cozy basin within the Port Louis Marina. We were rafted together, 3-deep. Pure Joy came in early enough in the fleet to snag a spot along the wall, directly in front of our friends on Alegria. Nautigirl and Salinity joined us on our port side and Wonder on our bow. Crews across all the boats have become quite close during this expedition, but somehow, being tucked into this small space made for an even more familial experience. At times it felt like we were in one big slumber party.
As soon as we cleared customs and immigration, we were off the boat, exploring the local surroundings. The waterfront area we were in was really welcoming - street art, restaurants, ice cream and stalls of local handicrafts everywhere.
We had rented a car so we were able to explore the island freely during our 1 week stay. We took a mini-road trip to find lunch at the beach, visit a waterfall, the 7 Coloured Earth Geopark and some very pretty views, complete with rainbow.
David and I snuck off to a resort for a couple of days, while Francesca graciously looked after Elliot. While we relaxed and enjoyed some rare time alone together, Elliot spent his time ziplining, visiting the aquarium and generally just having a ball with the other kids of the WARC in the marina.
Upon our return, I organised a ‘Ladies Lunch’ with so many of my new female friends from other boats. A few bottles of rosé were consumed. 😜
The tour organised by the World ARC took us to the botanical gardens, where we learned that the lily pads in fact cannot hold the weight of a small child, despite what the informational kiosk says. We explored a Chateau Labourdonnais, a restored colonial mansion and sugarcane factory, and we provisioned at the best fresh market we’ve come across on the whole trip so far.
The rest of our stay in Mauritius saw boat jobs, a bit of beach hang time and then the Prize Giving for the last leg. Pure Joy came in 3rd in her category, but we were most proud of Elliot and some of his World ARC friends, who made up a song and performed it for the whole fleet. 💜
As we wrapped up this leg, I couldn’t help but notice the special bonds that have formed amongst the fleet. Maybe it was the ‘coziness’ of our docking, where you said good morning and goodnight to your neighbours every day. Or maybe it was the fact that a few boats struggled through minor and major crises on this leg, and the whole fleet rallied to help however they could. Or the routine kindnesses such as our friend Jan, on Mulan who went out first thing each and every morning to buy 30 fresh baguettes and dropped them off to any boats who wanted one. Whatever the case, the camaraderie that we’ve slowly been building over the last 11 months was especially palpable for me in Mauritius, and I’ve had my first pangs of sadness that this experience will be over before we know it.
And still…the adventure continues…
New Crew!
Freddy from Finland 🇫🇮
In Mauritius we bid a sad farewell to Angela and happily welcomed Freddy aboard Pure Joy for the legs between Mauritius and Cape Town. I’ll let Freddy introduce himself…
What’s your sailing story? Salty sea dog, deckhand debut or somewhere in between?
I started as a tiny deckhand on family cruising trips, leveled up into dinghy and match racing, took a detour through keelboats, and now I’m battling the Finn dinghy—basically CrossFit with waves.
What inspired you to join this adventure?
Blame the Finnish weather. And my love of sailing. And wanting to learn how to actually sail blue water instead of just dreaming about it. And I am very happy with my choises so far 😀
What’s your go-to talent for entertaining the crew on those longer, less-eventful stretches?
I don’t really have an ”entertainer” talent, but I am great at lowering everyone’s standards until whatever I do counts.
If you were stranded on an island, what’s the one (non-life sustaining) item from the boat that you’d want to have with you?
My scuba mask. I enjoy diving—and it doubles as a handy tool for solving the ‘what’s-for-dinner-on-this-island’ situation.
From Mauritius, it was onto Reunion Island, and that journey was refreshingly short - just a 1-day hop. I’ll admit that I’d never heard of Reunion Island before this trip. But as we got closer and started to discuss it amongst the fleet, I was told, ‘It’s basically France, in the middle of the Indian Ocean.’ And they weren’t lying!
Reunion is a department of France. There are daily direct flights from Paris to Reunion and it is the longest internal flight in the world. Rest assured, we did our best to celebrate France with daily trips to the patisserie for baguettes, croissants and pain au chocolates and long lunches with rosé. Elliot even went to a proper French salon to get his hair cut (as did I!) Just a trim for Elliot, though! (He’s still loving his ‘sailing kid’ long locks.)
We hiked a volcano and visited a farm that had everything from parrots to piglets to ostriches. David and I mountain-biked down the mountain - the terrain was very much out of my comfort zone, but I did it! We visited and swam in an incredible waterfall, closed due to safety risks but you know - we’re rebels. 😜 (There were at least 50 other local ‘rebels’ doing the same.)
We had 🎃HALLOWEEN AFLOAT👻 with all of the WARC boats in the marina. The kids went boat-to-boat to do their trick-or-treating. The adults sampled Halloween-themed cocktails. Nearly every boat went out of their way with decor, costumes and candy to make sure the kids celebrated in style. I’m betting that this is a Halloween that Elliot will never forget.
After Reunion, it was time to brave the remainder of the Indian Ocean. The passage to Richards Bay, South Africa would be about 1300 nautical miles, but considering some of the distances we’ve already traveled on Pure Joy, that was the least of our concerns. More on our minds this time would be the complex currents, tall waves, confused seas and a treacherous final approach to land that this stretch of ocean is known for.
As it turned out, we only experienced a day or so of bumpiness of the the 7 days we were at sea. We had several days of what we’d classify as ‘champagne sailing’ - ideal winds, pushing us in the right direction and relatively smooth seas. We did have a few windless days as well. On those days we stepped on the gas to make sure we made it to Richard’s Bay ahead of an incoming weather front. All in all, while we were prepped and braced for the worst, this nortoriously challenging trip turned out to be one of our favourite passages.
As we arrived, I zoomed out on Google Maps - I wanted to see the little blue dot approaching the continent of Africa. It was then that I realised: we have very nearly circumnavigated the entire globe aboard Pure Joy. Goosebumps and a tear pricked my eyes. But as always on this expedition - no time to process! It was time to get the fenders and lines prepped as we approached the marina.
Mind.
Completely.
Blown.
Most of the boats in the fleet did not manage to stay ahead of the weather front that caused some pretty intense conditions. Many of our friends were days behind us and saw the biggest and most challenging seas of the circumnavigation so far. There were multiple sails lost, engine failures, a rudder lost and one National Sea Rescue escort into the marina after a harrowing last few days at sea.
We welcomed the smallest boat in the fleet - Walrus - a couple of days ago with huge relief. Almost the entire fleet is here now - just one boat left that diverted to Madagascar to avoid a storm on the way. The hugs here at the Zululand Yacht Club have been just a bit bigger and squeals of delightful reunion just a bit louder than all those that have come before.
Highlights here at the Zululand Yacht Club in Richards Bay so far include:
🐒 Monkeys in the Marina - the boat next to us left some vegetables outside and the monkeys came to clean up!
⛵️Dingy Sailing Relay Race - The Pure Joy team did not win. But we had fun! 🤣
🏆 World ARC Prizegiving where it was decided - given how grateful we are to just have everyone safe - not to give awards for places, and instead for high spirits and recent silly behaviours. It was at these festivities where we also saw David dancing with the visiting Zulu tribe and participating in Bok Drol Spoeg - a competition to see who can spit giraffe poo the furthest. I sh!t you not. 🕺🦒💩
The next leg will bring us from Richards Bay to Cape Town. For this one, it’s again extremely important that we time our departure well and pick the right weather window. We won’t get a window long enough to get all the way to Cape Town, so we’ll make stops along the way to get out of the way of dangerous weather fronts.
And just to add to the moving parts of prepping for our next departure, it will be Thanksgiving week! I’m partnering with a fellow American on the rally to plan a fleet-wide Thanksgiving a few days before the official day, to hopefully accommodate weather windows and resulting sailing plans. The fact that we’ll organise the largest Thanksgiving we’ve ever attempted (by a long shot) and it may or may not actually happen, is something that a previous version of me would not have been keen to take on. The ‘90%-circumnavigated’ Joy laughs at the silliness of it all and carries on planning for fun and memory-making. All the while, feeling intensely, deeply and overwhelmingly thankful for the opportunity to do so.
Coming up: Safari!