Dare to dream

The idea of selling up and sailing into the sunset is something most sailors dream of. Jenevora Swann explains how she did it

- Jenevora Swann

It was Valentine’s Day and my husband Fergus and I were spending our first night onboard, Two Drifters, a secondhand Lagoon 440 catamaran we had just purchased in Toulon in France. But it was a far cry from the romantic dream I had envisaged.

We couldn’t get the heating to work, it was pouring with rain and the hatches were leaking, there was no gas to light the stove, the bilge alarm kept going off and we had just one sleeping bag and a pillow between us to keep warm. This was the start of our liveaboard life and I had never felt so disheartened. Our dream of sailing around the world suddenly didn’t seem quite so appealing.

For many years, we discussed selling the business and the house, buying a yacht and sailing off into the sunset. I thought it was a pipe dream, but then one day everything fell into place and it all came together very quickly – although not entirely smoothly!

A troubled start

When planning to leave the UK to start this new life, we had already suffered a set-back as the self-drive van which we had hired one-way to transport our worldly goods to France had fatally broken down just 48 hours before we were due to leave the country.

With no replacement van available, no refund given and new owners moving into our house, we were left to our own devices to resolve the issue. In my former day job as MD of a PR agency, I was well-versed to dealing with crisis management, but when this happened to us, I was so stressed out that I totally lost the plot.

Stepping into action, Fergus arranged for our boxes to be transported to France by courier, but the earliest they could get them to us was the following week. Thankfully, we had left selling our small sports car till last minute. So, we piled the car full to the gunwales and with Molly, our cocker spaniel, on the parcel shelf, we left Hampshire and headed for the Eurotunnel.