The Odyssey · 2003 – 2006
One boat. Forty-three thousand nautical miles.
FIU left Marina Punat in October 2003. Three years later she was home, with most of the world’s great sailing waters in her wake. Seven legs below — each one its own ship’s log entry and gallery.
Down through the Adriatic to Otranto. West to Gibraltar, south to the Canaries, then across the Atlantic on the ARC. A year in the Caribbean. Through the Panama Canal, west across the Pacific to Sydney. The Tasman to New Zealand. Up through Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu. Across the Indian Ocean, up the Red Sea, through Suez, and home through the Mediterranean.
Leg 1Today, and the years before the voyage
Home in the Adriatic
Krk · Kornati · Hvar · Korčula · Mljet · Dubrovnik
Home port for FIU has always been Marina Punat on the island of Krk. From there the boat works her way down the Croatian coast — Kornati islands, Trogir, Hvar, the long passage south through Korčula and Mljet, then Dubrovnik and back the slow way around. These are the waters she crossed an ocean to remember.
18 photos
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Leg 2October — December 2003
Adriatic → Caribbean
Punat · Gibraltar · Canaries · Martinique · St Lucia · BVI
FIU left Marina Punat on 5 October 2003. Down through the Adriatic to Otranto, across the Mediterranean to Gibraltar, then south to the Canaries to wait for the trade winds. The Atlantic crossing went west on the ARC route, finishing in Martinique just before Christmas. The final piece was the long shake-down up the chain of the Lesser Antilles to the British Virgin Islands. The log entries for this leg were never written down — the photographs and the More magazine article below are what survived.
6 photos3 PDFs
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Leg 3January — November 2004
The Caribbean Year
BVI · St Lucia · Martinique · St Vincent · Grenada · Panama
A year that started in the British Virgin Islands and ended on the Panama Canal — twelve months of slow inter-island sailing, beach landings, and a long readiness build-up for the Pacific. Down the eastern chain to Grenada, then west through San Blas and Colón. The More magazine archive covered this leg in real time but no full ship’s log survives; the photographs do.
18 photos
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Leg 4November 2004 — early 2005
Panama → Pacific → Sydney
Panama · Galápagos · Marquesas · French Polynesia · Fiji · Sydney
The classic Pacific milk-run. Through the Canal in November, then west across two thousand miles of open ocean to the Galápagos, on to the Marquesas, the long way through French Polynesia, north to Hawaii, and finally south-west to Australia in time for the Sydney–Hobart. The crew rotated leg by leg. The departure photographs from the Canaries — also covered here — were the only ones written into the log; the Pacific itself stayed undocumented in prose.
18 photos
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Leg 5December 2004 — April 2005
Sydney — New Zealand
Sydney · Tasman · Nelson · South Island · North Island · Auckland · GBR
The Tasman Sea crossing, then two months around New Zealand. South Island first — Nelson, the Marlborough Sounds, Bluff at the end of the world. Then up the North Island via Wellington, Gisborne, Great Barrier Island, Auckland. This is where the written log picks up, in Ivo’s hand — four entries below, in order.
3 log entries18 photos
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Leg 6May — July 2005
Tonga · Fiji · Vanuatu
Auckland · Tongatapu · Fiji · Vanuatu
A working pattern: cross from one island group to the next, anchor for a few weeks, write it down. The 8 May crossing from Auckland to Tongatapu was rough — a low passed close, 45-knot winds for 36 hours, hand-steering after the autopilot failed. Tonga was Captain Bligh country. Fiji was easy. Vanuatu, on the island of Tanna, was the trip’s most lasting impression — a place that still kept its old life intact.
3 log entries18 photos
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Leg 7August — December 2005
Indian Ocean — and home
Darwin · Cocos · Seychelles · Aden · Suez · Mediterranean · Punat
Vanuatu to Australia, then the Great Barrier Reef in a knock-down. North-west to Darwin, and from there 2,000 nautical miles to Cocos Keeling, then on across the Indian Ocean to Seychelles, around the Gulf of Aden under naval escort, up the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal, and home through the Mediterranean. Crew was Susan and Ivo for the ocean crossings. The final More magazine interview, December 2005, ended the public record.
2 log entries6 photos
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After
Three years, forty-three thousand nautical miles, every major trade-wind route a Grand Soleil can sail.
FIU is back in Marina Punat now. The boat goes out. The map is still on the chart table.