Liveaboards Pete and Jan Dearden
face high seas and a broken autopilot on a
dramatic but thrilling Atlantic crossing
S
ix years ago, Pete and Jan
Dearden bought Twenty
Twenty, a Gib’Sea 100 Serena,
on ebay without a survey or
any knowledge of how to sail.
After a six-month spell cruising in France,
they hatched a plan to cross the Atlantic
as part of the ARC+. They let out their
house and moved aboard in Portland
Harbour to make fi nal preparations before
heading south, across Biscay, around
Finisterre and then on to Portugal. The
couple learned lessons along the way but
crucially gained the confi dence to handle
whatever the sea could throw at them.
Here, Pete takes up the story...CRUISING
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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
single-handed 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.PART 3 To Porto Santo
After 16 days’ enjoying the Algarve’s
Mediterranean climate, and a visit from
our son James, it was time to set sail once
more – this time, to Porto Santo, part of
the Madeira archipelago. The GRIB
weather fi les looked fi ne so we left
Portimão and headed towards Cabo De
São Vicente.
Just off the headland the wind increased
as expected but with our sails reefed we
felt in control as we passed what should
be the worst. But wind and waves
continued to build as we left the Cabo
behind and by midnight the wind was
gusting over 30 knots. It was fortunate we
weren‘t heading into the waves but the
occasional crest would hit us side-on,
fl ooding the cockpit. I prayed that the next
would wait so we didn’t get swamped.
I sailed through the night, keeping Jan
below out of harm’s way until sunrise. As
the day progressed the wind eased and