What was it like crossing the Atlantic?
No matter how much you prepare for something, I don’t think I could have prepare enough for this. Every passage was different, every day was different. You wake up and wonder what will I see today? Will I catch 
a fish? Will I see sharks, dolphins, or whales? The most important one for us was will we see another boat!? Well as a matter of fact we saw all of the above. The first fish we caught was an 8lb Tuna just an hour after leaving Las Palmas. The second fish we caught was a 7lb Mahi Mahi, and then on the 29th November 2018 at 16:10 came fish number 3, a whopping 22lb Dorado. The Dorado actually won us a prize at the end of the rally!
We saw a shark just gliding along the surface minding its own business, a few pods of dolphins nothing massive though and a whale 6 feet from the boat, which was too close for comfort! And yes we finally did see another boat mid-way through the crossing called 'Mamosa' - we were lucky enough to get some photos of them and they were able to take some back of us!
The challenges
I think the main challenge for me was the isolation. We knew there were boats out there because we get reports everyday, but we didn't actually see many! However there was one particular night where 4 giant squalls with up to 40 knots of wind hit us and the rain was so hard it flattened the sea! It was our last night before arriving in St. Lucia - we think it was the Atlantic Ocean showing us what she really has to offer!
The highlights
Highlights of the trip for me were being able to watch the amazing sunsets in the evening and then watching all the stars. It makes you feel so small looking up at all the stars and shooting stars with no lights around to disturb them. The biggest highlight of all was watching the sunrise over St. Lucia on the final approach of our journey. Knowing that land was in sight and there was rum punch waiting for me when we got there was amazing!
We arrived on the 5th December 2018 and in the coming months we are going to be sailing up towards Antigua. We'll then head slowly down south to Grenada and hopefully be there for June 2019.
Life since leaving Rockley
Life since leaving Rockley has been all about sailing. I spent a short period working for Neilson out in Greece which I unfortunately have to cut short due to my medical condition, epilepsy. I’ve worked on Poole Quay doing rib tours, taken thrill rides along the Jurassic Coastline and I have sailed from England to France around Spain and Portugal and then down to the Canary Islands where we joined the 2018 ARC+. We then sailed 896 miles to the Cape Verde Islands and 2165 miles to Rodney Bay St. Lucia,
So far, it's been amazing but not without its ups and downs. I've come a long way since I graduated from the BTEC course and it's been a rollercoaster ride! I just want to say that no matter what struggles you are going through, whether you have a medical condition or not, you can still do anything if you put your mind to it!