Transatlantic neighbours

Five kids, four adults and one boat – Ali Wood talks to the families who crossed an ocean together

- Ali Wood

When Hanna and Nicholas Tengelin decided to take a sabbatical they messaged their friends. “Who’d like to sail around the Caribbean with us?” they asked, adding, “Anyone crazy enough to cross the Atlantic?”

Five seconds later they got a reply from their neighbours Kajsa and Erik HumlénKirbe. “We’ll come,” they said, and the two families started planning their adventure together on a Lagoon 42 catamaran, Tortuga. They’d collect the boat in France, sail it to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, then take part in the ARC+ rally to Grenada, with a stopover in the Cape Verde islands.

Both families were experienced sailors. Nicholas Tengelin spent his early summers sailing from Bembridge in the Isle of Wight, and the Tengelin family have spent time sailing the Adriatic from Milna on the Croatian island of Brac. The Humlén-Kirbes, meanwhile, had sailed a lot around the archipelagos of Sweden in a 33ft Albin Nova.

“The Swedish west coast is a lovely sailing area,” says Erik. “It’s difficult to navigate because of all the small islands, but it’s nice because in Sweden you’re not allowed to build on the waterfront. It’s there for everyone to enjoy, and you can moor everywhere. You can literally go into any cove, any bay, and it’s well protected.”

“There are fishing villages and inlets carved out by ice and red granite cliffs,” adds Kajsa. “You moor bows-to and knock wedges into the rocks and throw out a stern anchor.”