Travel Diary #1 – The Big Departure

 - 01 February 2019 - Travel Diary

He said “let’s hitchhike to Mongolia !”, I told “what about South America ?”, he replied “ok but we go by boat”… I first thought it was a crazy idea but I quickly changed my mind after few researches. 

We decided to go in June, I was about to finish my studies. Edouard was working but he wanted to travel and the envy of crossing an ocean already popped up in his head long time ago. 

The more I digged into it, the more I was convinced : I wanted to do this transatlantic too. What a great way to start this trip ! It would allow me to discover the sea world, to learn about sailing, to leave a great human experience, to avoid taking a plane and… more than anything, to have some time to think… 

I quickly started to review announcements on several websites in order to find a boat. And a month after, we found it ! 

July 16th 2018, our dear captain, Robert, sent us a confirmation message : we just gained our place on the Cuba Libre. We would leave in November. But before that he wanted to meet us in Porto for a week-end. 

We took advantage of that time to think about the objectives of our trip. We wanted to create a real project around this adventure. We set up a website, read a lot of blog articles, explored different travellers websites,  thought about what we had to put in our backpacks, decided which vaccines we should do, what insurance we should take

We also took some time to enjoy our families and friends. It was a great period for both of us, full of love and positive emotions. It seems people are more willing to share their feelings when your are about to leave for a long time. I loved it !

November 1st 2018,  after 3 months of preparations, it’s finally time to go !!! We take our bags and we put our thumps up towards Porto.

Our adventure without money will only start once we will reach South America. However, we decided to only use hitchhiking as a mean of transport during the all trip.

In less than 12 hours, we reach Guimarães, known as the birthplace of Portugal and the day after we arrive in Matosinhos marina, nearby Porto.

Here is the crew, here is the boat ! The big departure is coming and we are all happy to meet again, empty our bags and settle down in our new home.

The excitment goes away when we realise that we won’t be able to set sail before the 12th. We were all planning to leave around the 5th but the weather is too bad. Here is the first lesson of our trip : when you sail, you strongly depend on the wind, so you better be patient !

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