I bought my brand-new Hanse 341 sailboat in 2003, sailing her largely in Italian waters with friends and family on weekends and summer holidays.
This was the boat I owned when Jennifer answered my invitation to crew for me on Find-A-Crew in 2006, when we started to sail more extensively on a regular basis. I enjoyed teaching her the specifics of sailing the Hanse 341 with me, so that I would very quickly come to rely on her as First Mate, and of course, good company.
We have been sailing together for over 17 years. In 2011, we decided to buy a blue water cruiser; a 1996 Oyster 485, designed by Holman & Pye. It was the first time I had to deal with a boat with more complex systems and it was a huge learning curve for me. I was still a full-time Notary – not an engineer as I once considered – and having an understanding of previous boat systems, such as a generator, water maker, deck hardware and rigging with hydraulic or electric controls, proved a useful training ground for learning the maintenance and upgrading of equipment required for this larger boat.
With the 485, we visited many Mediterranean countries (Spain, France, Malta, Greece, Croatia) staying onboard for longer and longer periods, as it grew harder to leave the boat and return to our desk jobs!
In 2016, we decided to buy a bigger, newer boat that would suit our long term plans to sail around the world: the choice fell on another 56-foot Oyster, which we named Sea Pearl of Poole.
Sea Pearl is the model built in the largest numbers (75 hulls were built by the English shipyard). So much so, that wherever we go in the world, we often come across a sister boat. Sea Pearl immediately gave us the impression of guaranteeing very good sailing performance despite the heavy displacement, along with great safety and comfort in all navigation conditions, and that has proven to be the case.
Along with being on a bigger boat, which we now live aboard full-time, came more responsibility, more maintenance, higher running costs and more fun and adventures! Now too, that we have left the easily accessible supplies and technicians available all over the Mediterranean, and as we sail to more remote, less accessible shores, we have both had to learn how to be more self-reliant on a boat that we’ve now made very self-sufficient.
Before our first big adventure as a married couple in 2019 (and the start of our honeymoon that hasn’t stopped to this day) we took on the mammoth task of removing Sea Pearl’s mast for repainting and renewing all of the standing rigging. Even though this job over-shadowed our wedding planning, it made us both laser-focused to complete this task and get Sea Pearl back into the water, so that we could start our Honeymoon/ Circumnavigation the following day.
We invite you to join us. You won’t believe how much fun it is!
“Living aboard Sea Pearl is a never-ending
journey of discovery that never grows old. We love it!
And we would like to share some of our discoveries with you.”
Jenny & Paolo