Every voyage starts with a dream and for me it goes back a long while to when I was a little boy and wanted to become a sailor when I grew up.
That dream came true a quarter of a century later. At the time I was working in the BBC External Services, our children Doina and Ivan were six and four, and life seemed to be settled and the future promising. The BBC Yacht Club had a 40ft Lion class sloop on which I spent weekends sailing off the south coast and across the Channel. It didn’t take me long to decide that sailing was what I really wanted to do. I felt that there must be more to life than having a successful career, which could wait, whereas a world voyage with the family could not. I knew that it was a crazy idea, but fortunately Gwenda was a passionate traveller and, to my surprise and relief, agreed and gave her full support to the idea.
Our main concern was the children’s education. Gwenda, who had a degree in pharmacy, completed a two-year evening course in education and taught for one year in their school to gain the necessary experience. Meanwhile, I took a course in seamanship and navigation, and started looking for a suitable boat. As we couldn’t afford even a second-hand boat, with a loan secured on our small property, we managed to raise enough funds to order a 36ft fibreglass hull.
Boat preparations
One day in spring 1973 a gleaming white hull was wheeled into a large shed in London’s Royal Albert Docks. As I looked over the side into the void below my feet, I was struck by the magnitude of my undertaking. My feelings were not helped by seeing the many unfinished hulls, mostly ferro-cement, spread about the huge shed. They obviously belonged to other hopeful dreamers just like myself. But it was a friendly atmosphere, and I could always get help or advice from someone who knew more than I did, which was close to nil.
This was by far the greatest challenge I’d ever faced, but its sheer enormity infused me with the determination to take it on. Using every spare hour and weekends, slowly Aventura started taking shape.
Although only partly finished, in July 1974 she was launched and I took her on a test sail in the English Channel. That maiden voyage showed up all
