The trip of a lifetime in a Wauquiez
Chris and Helen Tibbs are currently on a break from their sailing trip of a lifetime onboard their stunning and extremely capable Wauquiez Centurion 40.
Chris Tibbs is a professional meteorologist and has over 18 years and 250,000 miles at sea, this includes 3 around the world races, the last time as Skipper of CONCERT in the BT Global Challenge. He now runs a forecasting and consulting company for racing and cruising yachts whilst also being the ‘go-to’ guy for expert advice from publications like Yachting World magazine.
Below in their own words, Chris and Helen share some of their experiences and offer some well founded advice!
Wauquiez in Paradise
As soon as we stepped aboard the Wauquiez Centurion 40 we had no doubt she was the boat for us, she was easily sailed by two, nothing too big or heavy, well winched and she had a nice solid feel. The accommodation down below suited us perfectly, and a nice spacious cockpit for dining alfresco.
In 2015 we headed south and across the Atlantic Ocean to St Lucia with the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) coming 5th overall which was an amazing achievement. After cruising the Islands with friends and family in early 2017 we headed west transiting The Panama Canal and out into the huge Pacific Ocean.
Once through the canal we stopped for a couple of weeks in The Galapagos Islands and this was the first of our very different stop overs in the Pacific, a cruisers paradise with crystal clear waters teaming with wildlife. We had a permit to visit three of the Islands and to arrive at dawn passing the famous Kicker Rock in our own yacht was very special indeed.
Onwards west to The Marquesas, Tuamotus, Tahiti, Bora Bora, and uninhabited Suwarrow one of the highlights of the trip. Continuing onto Niue, Tonga and Fiji and finally onto Australia. It was like living the David Attenborough’s Blue Planet. We covered 17,000 miles in this adventure and the boat looked after us admirably, she had pace and we were able to keep up easily with much larger yachts in our rally. We took a lot of trouble preparing the yacht for her journey and we had minimal maintenance, our hard work before we set off paid dividends.
If you are considering a trip like this we have only one word of advice DO IT the memories will last a lifetime!
For more pictures and stories please follow Helen and Chris’s adventures via their Facebook page: Yacht Taistealai
Parkstone Bay Yachts are an independent yacht brokerage based in Poole, Dorset, and are the sole UK agents for Contest Yachts, RM Yachts, Nordship Yachts and Wauquiez Yachts.