Christening of the “Capall Mara” in Spain

After commissioning their current boat in Spain, they enjoyed a few seasons in Turkey, Greece and Croatia to get to know their new home prior to the inevitable Atlantic Crossing with the Arc Plus Rally which took them to the Canary Islands to Cape Verde and then the Caribbean. Joining the rally was an ideal way to refresh their knowledge on safety and ensure the boat was kitted up correctly, while the trip itself meant they were backed by a group of likeminded sailors during the crossing.

With only one event memorable, for the wrong reasons, over the course of their travels SallyAnne feels their risk-avoidant nature has served them well. It occurred during a trip from Terengganu in Malaysia to Miri in Borneo with John gravely weak from a bout of Chikungunya virus, similar to Dengi Fever, after a ten day stay in hospital. SallyAnne was keen to push on with the 723nm journey so long as John could stay on his watch during the night. Famous last words!

Unfortunately, while passing though the South China Sea they had a close encounter in an oil field. Although these fields are well lit and appear on RADAR, a gas-loading terminal was hidden on the display by a bad squall in the night. SallyAnne had to get them through the toughest hours of her sailing career alone, while John was ill on the floor of the cockpit doing his best to encourage SallyAnn through the worst of it and through repairing of damage to the boat.

Nowadays, the Potters take their time to ensure they only travel in good conditions and have taken to politely refusing taking friends aboard, to remove the stress of travelling under duress. Weather routers have also become an invaluable tool for big passages to perfect their routes.

Bruce Buckley is one such person. Based in WA, he is a sailor with a PHD in Meteorology who guides route to avoid the worst and to let them know what to expect ahead. On one trip to NZ, he charted a course through five thunder storms. On another from NZ, he was quick to correct their course when they thought they knew better and tried to cut a corner, only narrowly missing a nasty squall. The Potters have seen the impacts of global warming in action and wouldn’t consider a long passage without the support of a weather router for such uncertainty.

The impact of climate change has been most visible to them in Micronesia where they have witnessed firsthand houses which now sit in the ocean below the water level. The matriarch of one village, Mary, noted to SallyAnne that she can no longer grow underground vegetables such as cassava on her land due to the rising water table bringing brackish water to her garden. That was over ten years ago, so SallyAnne wonders how they are coping now.

Also noticeably changed, the Potters have observed the younger sailing community and their impatience to learn from others rather than from experience. With the myriad of YouTube-ers taking up sailing and relying on older sailors for quick solutions, they worry about the safety of the younger set. That said, they are more than happy to pay forward the support that was once shown to them in the same position.

Covid has also impacted the way sailors interact at port, which means some folk are perhaps not quite as friendly as they once might have been. “Evening Sundowners” died away during this time and were replaced with three days of isolation for new arrivals to an anchorage, bleaching of everything that came aboard after going ashore for shopping and a “dry” environment in Tahiti meant they were down to their last beer after being forced to stay put for 13 weeks with only one other boat in sight.