Chasing the albatross

Seeing the Albatross up close and personal in this most inhospitable part of the world was really moving for me and it is something that has inspired me, so much so that I have now incorporated the term ‘Chasing the Albatross’ into my financial planning business and the reason for this is quite simple…in this life we are all ‘chasing’ something; fulfilment, personal challenges, experiences, a certain lifestyle for ourselves, for our family, for our loved ones. The list can be as long as you and I wish to make it, but most importantly it is a very personal thing.

Telling my story, helping people to ‘Chase their Albatross’ and sharing the story of this amazing yet threatened species of bird is what this site is about. I hope you find something here to interest and inspire you.

On 31st October 2017, at the age of 57, I set off on my first ocean crossing, from Cape Town to Freemantle in Western Australia, aboard a 70-foot Clipper Ventures racing yacht. Along with 16 other crew members and a professional skipper our objective was to race 11 other yachts across the Southern Ocean. The crossing was to take 27 days and we would cover 5,381 nautical miles.

During this ocean crossing we would see fantastic seascapes, wonderful wildlife, fabulous sunrises and sunsets, the night sky in all its beauty and clarity with more shooting stars than I could count, rainbows during the day and moonbows at night, we would spend several days becalmed on the ocean with the ocean surface dead flat and without a ripple and we would face storms and sea states which none of the pre-race training could prepare us for and I would certainly get to learn a lot about myself and also the people around me.

My reasons to partake in this adventure were to challenge myself, to learn how to sail a yacht, to cross my ‘Everest’ of the seas and to see an Albatross. And it was my adventure in search of this particular species of bird that led me to write a blog which you can read this on this site.