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Leaving Tenerife on 9 January 2016, my husband Michael and myself, together with our two sons and Michael's cousin, sailed our 38 ft yacht Follyfin 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to Martinique in the Caribbean. The voyage took 23 days but the lead up to it was much longer. Preparing and equipping the boat for an Atlantic crossing was an all-absorbing preoccupation for over a year. We then had to get the boat to the start line ... it involved first sailing from Brittany, where it over-wintered in 2014/15, to the Canary Islands via Guernsey, Cherbourg, Poole, Falmouth, Plymouth then across the Bay of Biscay, down the coasts of Spain and Portugal, across to Madeira, then to the Canaries.

Of course, the RNLI provides its service only in UK waters but we both learned how to sail in UK waters. We sailed round the UK in 2012 in our own boat, which allowed us to gain confidence in the boat and our own capabilities. Without the comfort of knowing the RNLI was there during our 'training', we may never have had the confidence to make this epic voyage.

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