CRUISING
From eBay to
Rodney Bay
Pete and Jan Dearden try out
liveaboard life on their journey
from novice boat owners to ARC sailors
Pete Dearden grew up on the country
verges of Birmingham – about as far away
from the sea as you can get. His fi rst
experience with sailing was in a dinghy
singlehanded while on
holiday in the
Dominican Republic,
but it was only while
sailing Hobie Cats In
France many years
later that he realised
he wanted to get a
boat of his own.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PART TWO
all part of the adventure. We were soon
headed around the French coast towards
Brest. The tidal calculations, weather GRIB
fi les and passage planning alone is
enough to put most people off, each step
further south was a challenge for Jan.
We spent hours planning the timings to
go through the Chenal du Four to coincide
with the neap tide. Sailing and exploring of
the Rade de Brest and the L’Aulne river
proved to be just as challenging. We
continued south with wind from the north
assisting progress but also bringing the
cold and often rain. It wasn’t until we
reached Loctudy and then Belle Ile that
we had our fi rst taste of sunshine.
The warm weather was a wake-up call.
First you need shade when sailing in
sunshine. Second, you may only be 4ft
from the water but it may as well be four
miles. With sea temperatures not yet warm
enough to swim, it was virtually impossible
to cool down. You could climb down the
ladder and dip one leg at a time in the
cooling water but that wasn’t very satisfying.
By the time we reached La Rochelle we
knew we needed a bathing platform so we
could sit and enjoy a gin and tonic with
both legs in the water. So we added it to
the must-have list, although it did seem
extravagant. My mind was already
designing a folding platform that would
keep our length overall below 10m –J
ust fi ve years after buying their
Gib’Sea Serena 100 Twenty
Twenty on eBay as complete
sailing novices, Pete and Jan
Dearden took sabbaticals from
work and temporarily let out their house in
the Midlands to try out liveaboard life.
They set sail across the Channel in
Spring 2016 with a plan to return to the UK
by October to complete work on the boat
and decide whether to stay ashore or sail
on. Pete takes up the story...
We took a decision to only visit new
places now that we were liveaboards,
which worked out well. We didn’t want to
be sailing every day, as the exploring was