Clients of Steve Doyle, a yacht broker of the Northrop and Johnson Office of Massachusetts, decided to purchase a sailboat in the year 2000 as their new home to take them on an adventure of a lifetime. In 2001 the client, a family of five, set sail from Miami and ventured east. The children all had tasks to perform. Julia, then age 11, kept the boat neat. Max, then age seven, bagged the garbage and helped dad chart the course. Stephanie, then age 14, steered the boat each night.
After setting sail along the eastern seaboard of the United States, the family started the cross over the Atlantic Ocean on September 21 from Rhode Island. It took the family a mere 9 days, dodging 3 hurricanes, before reaching the Azores, a group of islands about 800 miles from Europe.
The family stayed in the Azores for three weeks before setting sail again. Five days later they reached Spain. The family spent the winter in Spain. They learn, through home schooling, of the various cultures of the many countries they anticipated to visit in their travels.
Their continued journeys though Europe and Asia lead them to places such as Greece, Italy, through the Black Sea and into Turkey. With conflicts in the Middle East about to break, the family decided to return to the United States to reconsider their circumnavigations from Miami to go westward bound.
Upon their return home, a refit of their sailboat was completed before their journey west. Crossing through the Panama Canal, with ventures to Hawaii, The French Polynesian Islands, Fiji, the family went ashore in Australia for the oldest daughter to complete her final year of schooling to graduate and move on to college.
The family is currently somewhere in the Thailand area. What was originally a five year sailing venture is now approaching the eighth year.
The sailboat is an 80’ Shuttlesworth catamaran, sold to the family back in 2000 by Steve Doyle of the Northrop and Johnson Office of Massachusetts. The vessel, renamed Dulcinea, has tremendous sailing capabilities with exceptional speed.
For more information about this or other sailboats, you may contact Northrop and Johnson Massachusetts office by simply clicking onto info@njyachting.com or call 978.921.6600.