Pacific next for couple aiming to sail world

JP Baudains, 28, and Charlotte Drummond-Chew, 31, have already covered more than 8,000 nautical miles since they began pursing their dream to sail the world in spring of last year.

They have been documenting their travels on their Instagram page @projectworldsail, which has more than 70,000 followers.

The couple, both keen sailors from a young age, met in Italy at the start of last year while working on board a superyacht.

‘I started down at the Guernsey Sailing Trust, then worked on boats while I was at university,’ said Mr Baudains.

‘Both Charlotte and I had the goal of sailing the world one day, but we never thought we would be doing it this young.’

Having become envious of colleagues heading off on sailing adventures, the couple travelled to buy their own second-hand boat, a German Frers Fast 500, from Somerset, near Newport, Rhode Island, in the United States in May last year.

‘When we first saw her, she was at the back of some dark and dingy shed and clearly hadn’t been used in some time. We were spending 20-hour days doing her up and getting her ready to sail across the Atlantic,’ said Mr Baudains.

Having christened the boat Jacqueau, the couple set sail in August last year, but just a few days into their voyage they ran into problems while navigating the Cape Cod canal.

‘We heard an unusual vibration. There had been a failure in the mechanism that joins the propeller shaft to the engine, which bent the shaft and cracked the shaft log,’ said Miss Drummond-Chew.

‘Water began streaming into the boat and we began drifting sideways down the canal.’

After being hauled out of the water by canal patrol, the couple had to spend another month on dry land while the boat was fixed.

Once back in the water, they headed to the Caribbean, but encountered more problems when they sailed through the infamous Bermuda Triangle.

‘The weather was horrendous – 24 hours of hell. One of our windows smashed and the cockpit filled with water,’ said Mr Baudains.

‘The weather systems around there are so unpredictable, so we just had to sail through it as fast as we could.’

By then running low on money, the couple worked a charter season in the Caribbean, before setting sail across the Atlantic in May this year.

An 18-day voyage saw them reach the Azores Islands in the mid-Atlantic, where they met Mr Baudains’ father, then stayed for a few days before sailing to Guernsey.

‘We arrived in Guernsey on JP’s birthday on 11 June. It was also my first time visiting the island,’ said Miss Drummond-Chew.

The couple are currently sailing the UK’s west coast, having set off at the end of July. They plan to return to Guernsey in mid-September before venturing abroad again.

‘We are going to head back across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and next year we plan on sailing through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific towards the Marquesas Islands,’ said Mr Baudains.

‘We’ve never sailed in the Pacific, but we feel prepared for it. We’ve learnt insane amounts having to deal with all the challenges on our own.’

Miss Drummon-Chew added: ‘We work so well as a team. We are both very experienced sailors, so we are quite calm in emergency situations.

‘We’ve loved it so far and we are both so excited to carry on our journey.’