Id we were mad
kayaks and small dinghies just to get them familiar with the water.”
Given that Caspar had been a consultant with blue-chip City firm KPMG for more than five years, you might have thought their plans would have been laid with military efficiency. But there was a reality check early on as he was struggling to make his consultancy company Trovus work. “At the time we had the idea I would have earned more stacking shelves in Tesco and the idea of having the money to do this – we put on our vision statement we wanted £5million – was ridiculous.”
In the end Caspar succeeded in turning round his business and income from that – plus a property business and a network of online marketing sites – enabled them to raise the £550,000 to buy a boat, an Oyster 53 called Aretha. They also now had enough to cover the courses they had to take to get their seamanship up to scratch as well as the running costs of their venture. So what was the reaction of family and friends to the idea of them taking their three children on such a potentially perilous venture?
“It was mixed,” says Nichola. “Caspar’s family, who sail, were very encouraging because I think they understood what was involved. I think my parents, who don’t sail, were more nervous – not about us but about the children. Even when we left, Willow was only two.”
BUT in his book about their adventure Caspar writes: “One friend confided, ‘I don’t agree with what the other people are saying, that you are mad’.” And he adds: “My mum would tell us stories about people who had drowned while sailing.”
Things weren’t helped when, four months before they were due to leave, a sailing boat called Cheeki Rafiki lost her keel in mid-Atlantic and sank with her four crew. The tragedy hit the front pages. But by then the die was cast. Their route took them first to the Canary Islands where they joined the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), a muster of yachts that sails the ocean in convoy. They then crossed the Atlantic, passing through the Panama Canal to the Pacific in February 2015, before heading on to Australia.
From there it was a 6,000-mile voyage to South Africa, where they rounded the Cape of Good Hope to traverse the southern Atlantic to Salvador in Brazil. They then crossed their outbound track in Grenada to complete their circumnavigation in April 2016.
En route of course they faced a number of crises – not least that engine failure in the Pacific, when their GPS was also knocked out, forcing them to rely solely on their sails and old-style navigation with compass and sextant.
Medical emergencies were another issue. Caspar says: “We both trained to become ship’s doctors, the most extensive medical training you can do outside of becoming a family doctor or a nurse.” Just as well. Bluebell caught – but recovered from – dengue fever, fortunately during a Polynesian landfall. And their medical skills were particularly useful when twoyear-old Willow cut her head badly mid-ocean.
However it wasn’t all high drama. “I think one of my favourite things was the night sailing,” says Nichola. “You’re in the middle of the ocean, under the stars, with nothing else around – just us together.”
Yet amid all the romance of the voyage it was also important to keep the children abreast of their schooling. And that could mean resorting to unorthodox methods.
“One specific memory I have was sitting with Columbus at the saloon table when we got these books about kings and queens of England,” says Caspar. “He wasn’t even remotely interested. After about Daily Express Saturday May 12 2018 two hours trying to get him to concentrate, the blank sheet was still there.
“So I said, ‘Columbus what are you interested in?’ ‘Fishing,’ he said. So we got all the fishing books and over the next couple of days he devoured them and he was talking to us about all the different fish in the sea, where you catch them, how fast they swim, how big they get.”
THEN they started catching fish. “Suddenly he was weighing them, measuring them, dissecting them. He set up a business making lures and advice sheets and selling them.
“So we just took one subject and went really really deep into it so that covered literacy, it covered numeracy, it covered science, it covered business, it covered communications and, because he was engaged in it, it sent his learning rates through the ceiling.”
With their children happily settled into new schools back in England it’s clear that he and Nichola have no regrets about their daring adventure. As Caspar says: “The reason we did all this was to create magical life-changing experiences for us and the children and that’s exactly what we did.”
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