As well as calculating your budget for upgrading and refitting, you’ll need to consider how much time you will have to plan, oversee and carry out a multitude of tasks. 

Many people planning to sail across the Atlantic plan their adventure three, four or even five years ahead of time

Beginning their search for a suitable boat, the couple decided on aluminum or steel construction. After eight months of searching, they found a Van de Stadt-designed Samoa 47 laid up on the south coast of France, and bought it.

Passage to England

A smaller yacht is fine if you are prepared for longer passage times and less storage and comfort. You might also be ready to go more quickly if you were prepared to accept fewer home comforts, which tend to require multiple complex systems. 

• Newport is as much a tourist town as it is a seafarer city
• The park is on the waterfront, which means boats can anchor out
• The most famous harbor on Narragansett Bay is the one Newport

The ship had a giant Soviet flag with a hammer and sickle waving in the wind. I shouted down to Hauk and Erling that they had to get on deck so that we could tack immediately. It was an intense experience to see a huge ship so close after not seeing anything out there for seven days. This was the last time I fell asleep on my watch.