helen hooper

We are William and Helen Hooper, from Caddington in Bedfordshire. We have two children, Paul and Richard. Since both boys are now grown up, We decided to give up work for a few years and do some serious sailing.

We have owned a boat for about eighteen years, initially a 24 foot Snapdraggon which we sailed on the east coast of England and then a Feeling 10-40, which we kept on the river Hamble near Southampton for a few years, finally moving to Gosport six years ago.

After many years of searching for the right boat for our big trip, we found Out on the Blue, an Oyster 485 which we have owned for six years.

We left Gosport in August 2007 and began our adventure hoping to complete a circumnavigation. Our son Paul and his friend Alex accompanied us for the first stage of our voyage, crossing the Atlantic and spending four months in the Caribbean with us.

We were joined by Jim Roberts and Nancy Abbott, who sailed with us on the next leg of our journey from Trinidad, through the Panama canal, across the Pacific Ocean to Australia.

There was just the two of us for the return journey from Australia as far as Oman, via Indonesia, Singapore and Sri-Lanka. We were joined once again by Paul for the trip up the Red Sea from Salalah in Oman through the Suez canal and into the Mediterranean.

Paul flew home from Pafos where we were joined by friends Mary and David for a few weeks in the Greek Islands. Our youngest son Richard and his wife Hanna and Hanna's brother Mohamed joined us for 3 weeks in Italy.

We completed the circumnavigation arriving back in Gibraltar on 26th July 2011. It was hard work at times, very expensive at times, a bit scary at times but great fun.