{"id":14380,"date":"2026-03-17T10:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/?p=14380"},"modified":"2026-03-18T15:04:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:04:02","slug":"sailing-to-a-new-home-insights-from-our-atlantic-crossing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/sailing-to-a-new-home-insights-from-our-atlantic-crossing\/","title":{"rendered":"Sailing to a New Home: Insights from Our Atlantic Crossing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gottlieb and Jeanie Duwan<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The spirit of adventure, curiosity, and search for human connections we share with our readers led us to careers in foreign affairs two decades ago. Last year, it inspired us to sail across the North Atlantic Ocean aboard our sloop Windrush<\/em> to our new jobs in Rome.<\/p>\n

Along the way, we found our careers had the flexibility to embrace even such a substantial personal endeavor.\u00a0 Our journey in turn enriched our work life with new perspectives on professional challenges we all face, like overcoming setbacks, adapting to change and uncertainty, and forming and leading cohesive teams.<\/p>\n

During two months confined to a 37-foot vessel at sea, we saw firsthand how trust and teamwork, inspired by a shared vision, can overcome daunting challenges.\u00a0 And we gained a raw appreciation for the beauty and fragility of our planet and its scale when traversed at a human pace \u2014 both impossibly vast and surprisingly small.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

May 31.\u00a0 It\u2019s 2 a.m. and I\u2019m on watch in the middle of the North Atlantic.\u00a0 It\u2019s a beautiful, calm night and we are making way at about eight knots in 15-20 knots of breeze from our port quarter.\u00a0 Yesterday we made tacos to celebrate \u201chalf way day\u201d on the 2,000 mile stretch between Bermuda and the Azores \u2014 hard to believe!\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Our team works beautifully together, and I think about how unlikely it is for us all to find ourselves here, setting aside other priorities to realize the dream of crossing an ocean together under sail.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

There is meaning to be found out here:\u00a0 In the beauty of the wind and waves, the sun, moon, and stars.\u00a0 In narrowing our focus on the passage, stripping away all other distractions.\u00a0 In the symphony of effort \u2014 mental and physical \u2014 required to make it happen:\u00a0 passage planning, weather routing, sail<\/em> management, <\/em>watch keeping, the galley, scientific observations.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

The shared experience of facing the elements in a place where we must rely entirely on ourselves, each other, and our small vessel is rare in modern life but makes us feel alive and deeply connected with each other and nature.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

It all started over drinks near our home in Annapolis as we pondered whether we could balance such an audacious adventure with work or should put the dream off.\u00a0 We figured we would sail our own version of the figurative seven seas, from the Chesapeake Bay to the Sargasso Sea across the North Atlantic Ocean and into the Strait of Gibraltar, then through the Alboran, Balearic, and Tyrrhenian seas all the way to Rome.\u00a0 It seemed exciting but more than a little crazy.\u00a0 Could we find the time?\u00a0 Who would want to join to make it happen?\u00a0 If we tried, would we fail?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The answer to the first question came easily.\u00a0 Yes, a fortuitous gap between our work assignments would allow just enough time in the right season, if all went well.\u00a0 We applied to join with 31 other vessels in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers or ARC, also seeking to make the passage from North America or the Caribbean to Europe.\u00a0 Though we had less experience than many, and one of the smallest boats, we were accepted.\u00a0 With that seal of approval, the fire was lit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A small band of friends with brave souls who found time in their busy lives to join in the adventure answered the second question as we embarked on the intensive preparation needed to get the team and boat ready.\u00a0 An aikido instructor.\u00a0 A West Pointer, former paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, and executive coach.\u00a0 A pilot and writer.\u00a0 Our 15 year old daughter Elinor.\u00a0 A librarian of Congress.\u00a0 An accomplished couple of free spirits we met at the bakery in Eastport.\u00a0 These amazing people, as well as their loved ones and friends, became our team \u2014 and over the next year and a half, we worked to get each other and the boat ready for the challenge.\u00a0 We sailed together and held countless planning sessions in the living room of our cozy colonial home, a 1700s \u201ctime ship\u201d that made us feel connected to the sailing history of this special place.\u00a0 We replaced the standing rigging on our 20 year old Swedish boat, repaired the rudder, replaced electronics, added solar charging, and made countless other repairs and safety upgrades.<\/p>\n

We volunteered for several scientific organizations to collect environmental data along the way, a unique educational opportunity for our daughter, who took on many of the measurements and observations.\u00a0 As citizen scientists, we got to contribute to a global bathymetry survey, measure phytoplankton density as a proxy for the ocean\u2019s oxygen production, and sample seawater for properties like PH, specific gravity, salinity, and dissolved solids for scientists seeking data from the remote areas of the ocean we were traversing, as our route would take us far from the shipping lanes.\u00a0 We worked with the SeaLabs Project, SeaKeepers, and the Secchi Disk Foundation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Failure was a possibility, but not a real option.\u00a0 We had a date by which we had to be in place to start our new jobs.\u00a0 We had crewmates who depended on us.\u00a0 To succeed we had to manage, not eschew risk and embrace problem solving and team reliance, often adapting to circumstances over which we had no control \u2014 skills we also depend on at work.<\/p>\n

One such test came after we crossed the infamous Gulf Stream on our way to Bermuda.\u00a0 We still had vivid memories of hand steering through a 50 knot gale with 20 foot breaking waves two years earlier on a race to Bermuda and didn\u2019t want to take any chances.\u00a0 Now our weather router warned that a low pressure system was shifting into our path and would leave the team \u201cbroken\u201d if we pushed on.<\/p>\n

We turned back to wait out the heaviest conditions in Cape Hatteras\u2014of all places\u2014then made the crossing with only one 40 knot gale to test the three-person team on this leg.\u00a0 Trust and teamwork are everything as you alternate watches and keep up with boat work.\u00a0 No matter the conditions, everyone on such a small team is essential to keep watches, cook, and manage sail changes, 24 hours a day.\u00a0 That includes letting go during your off-watch, whether you\u2019re captain or crew, taking rest and trusting your mates to handle the boat, even in a storm \u2014 akin to the essential skill of delegating in an office environment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sleeping is its own challenge when conditions are rough, but sheer exhaustion helps to get shuteye through the sound of waves pounding the hull and the wind screaming through the rigging.\u00a0 Once, while attempting to sleep as the boat heeled dramatically, one crew member invented \u201cstar fishing,\u201d a technique in which the would-be sleeper spreads out all limbs like a starfish to avoid being thrown from the bunk.\u00a0 She nevertheless dreamt of falling off a cliff to wake up being thrown from her bunk as the boat heeled.<\/p>\n

Our brief stop in St. George\u2019s Harbor was wonderful but busy with re-provisioning with food to last at least a month and switching crew.\u00a0 In a normal year, our May-June crossing would have been eased by favorable westerly winds north of the Azores high pressure system, but in 2024, that feature did not fully set in until July, leaving the North Atlantic open to a succession of gales marching from Florida to the Arctic.\u00a0 This meant a squally, mostly upwind passage of 17 days, with difficult tradeoffs between speed under sail or engine while conserving limited fuel and timing landfalls for crew flight schedules.<\/p>\n

After a becalmed start, instead of continuing on a straightforward eastward course on the great circle route, we sailed north to northwest hard on a gathering wind for three days to within a degree of the iceberg limit.\u00a0 There we reached an east-setting current and could work with \u2014 rather than try to prevail against \u2014 the elements.\u00a0 Far from the shipping lanes, we went an entire week without seeing another vessel.\u00a0 All our hard decisions were discussed and made as a team, which meant everyone shared equally in the risks, tradeoffs, and rewards.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Our arrival in the Azores after a final hard day tacking into 30 knot headwinds was a storybook landfall in what felt like paradise, our sensesheightened after the deprivations of a long passage.\u00a0 We and our crew mates will never forget the first smell of land followed by the dramatic sight of our anchorage in Flores, with waterfalls plunging from verdant cliffs to a black sand beach as the sun set over the ocean we had just crossed.<\/p>\n

Our crossing to mainland Portugal brought one more gale as we raced ahead of heavy weather to make the passage in five days.\u00a0 The sun cast a last warm glow on the dramatic cliffs of Cabo de S\u00e3o Vicente, making our arrival unforgettable, as was our time with friends in Lagos after finally putting the Atlantic swell behind us for good.<\/p>\n

Next, we faced the slow and arduous task of navigating in shallow water of 20 meters or less along the entire Iberian coast to Gibraltar, a tactic designed to avoid orcas which have taken up a habit of damaging and sinking sailboats in that region.\u00a0 Our stops in Portugal, Spain, and through the Balearics and Corsica were hurried and complicated by mechanical problems like a broken injector pump and leaking propeller shaft that challenged our ingenuity, patience, and problem solving in unfamiliar ports, but every experience was rich with history and culture.<\/p>\n

We learned about the Phoenician origins of Cadiz, the incredible story and geography of Gibraltar \u2014 even witnessing a live maritime dispute between Spain and the UK on the radio \u2014 took in the underwater archaeology of Cartagena and the incredible fortress harbor and soulful music of Bonifacio.\u00a0 On day sixty of our journey and after more than five thousand nautical miles across the Atlantic and Mediterranean, we completed our quest to sail from Annapolis to Rome.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Whether to head off burnout or simply fulfill a lust for adventure, or to connect more deeply with friends or seek out new ways to experience nature or other cultures, taking time away from work to do something big may seem risky or daunting.\u00a0 Adventure means you cannot be certain how it will turn out, but chances are you will find the experience rewarding far beyond the \u201ctime out\u201d from the office and gain new perspectives to enrich both your personal and work life.<\/p>\n

Our adventure was only possible thanks to the incredible help of friends and family who joined the voyage and supported it from shore, our small but sturdy vessel, and acts of kindness from strangers in harbors along the way.\u00a0 We were also buoyed by the encouragement of those who followed our journey online.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We hope you in turn might find a spark in the experiences of a couple of ordinary office workers, a high school student, and their band of friends who are now mates for life and who together decided to find out more about themselves, each other, and our world at a human pace and scale.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Postscript: you can check in on us at Instagram and Facebook at @windrush_horizons or on YouTube on @WindrushHorizons. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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