Heading West

Actually, ‘Heading West’ isn’t totally true; we’ll be heading East first of all, to pick up some Dutch passengers in Amsterdam. After that, we’ll only be heading West for a short time, back down the English Channel, before turning South towards Lisbon and Madeira. That’ll be followed by a shift into a South-Westerly direction, towards a final hopping point, Cape Verde Islands, before ploughing on – in a distinctly Westerly direction – towards Brazil…

That’s the plan, anyway, and ‘Heading West’ just seemed like an appropriate title to announce a fresh adventure for the New Year (even if it is mildly inaccurate).

I’ll be joining CMV’s Magellan on Sunday, running watercolour workshops on board, and painting along the way, as we sail towards The Amazon and West Indies. It’s a long trip, but having done it six times before, I know more or less what to expect… it’s the unexpected that you have to keep an eye open for.

I’m taking enough art materials to cater for roughly two classes of 26 people per class, per day, every sea-day (of which there are approximately 20); that’s a lot of paint and paper, brushes, printed notes and other associated paraphernalia, most of which is stuffed into a wheel-on heavy-duty plastic chest of drawers, but much of which is also filling out two large suitcases. Add to that several further suitcases of clothes and stuff we need to see us through the next six weeks, and it adds up to a load that’ll barely fit in the van, let alone a cabin on the Magellan. We’ve left the kitchen sink behind for our resident housesitters, but it feels like everything else we own is travelling with us; I’m thinking of hiring Eddie Stobart.

The adventure begins on Sunday, and I hope to be keeping a record of the trip along the way, wi-fi willing…