Allures 45.9 what a yacht and what an adventure!

Looking for cruising inspiration, then look no further.

What an amazing 5 year adventure on an Allures 45.9 yacht we supplied new. UK to New Zealand and back! The complete advert as to why any serious blue water cruiser should own an Allures yacht. Welcome home. 2017 – 2021 Round the world(ish) in 5 years.

Click here to go back over the last 5 years of cruising

Below is a snip of the final leg home – on shipping transport due to Covid lock down in Australia and no way through.

While we took the quick way home by air, A Capella has travelled back to Tahiti, through the Panama Canal, a quick stop in Florida, and finally across the Atlantic to Southampton on a cargo ship.

A Capella arrives and lands in Southampton

For us we were leaving Covid free New Zealand and, it felt like we were entering a different world where people had to live with so many restrictions on normal life for such a long time. What would we find?

A Capella’s trip home has taken 7 weeks so we have had plenty of time to see our family, many of our friends, including some long distance cruising friends, and visited a few of our favourite haunts. We have been really well entertained and yes home really is the best place. Herefordshire Cider and English beer have slipped down well, and oh my goodness Waitrose has reached new levels in sophistication (or decadence?).

It would be fair to say Covid control is a fast moving, dynamic affair, where it appears the politicians do their best to appear in control, the scientists are forever pessimistic, and the people and Covid do their own thing. As I write it seems to be broadly working. When we arrived in the UK, the Country was just beginning to open up and it was mask wearing, signing in and other very variable and seemingly inconsistent control methods. Now masks have been abandoned, nightclubs opened up, a pingdemic is threatening food supplies, and thousands are flying abroad on holiday.

We were lucky to be able to fly back via Singapore, so that we remained in “green” countries and did not have to quarantine for 10 days on arrival in the UK. Despite this we still had to do the unpleasant PCR test in New Zealand, and another test on day 2 after our arrival in the UK. Just more cost.

Auckland and Singapore airports were empty, eerily quiet, and both planes were barely half full. The only food available in Auckland airport was McDonalds. This was a pity as we had a long wait and something better would have gone down well, but this is the reality of flying during a Pandemic. In Singapore there were face recognition temperature thermometers throughout the corridors and all the staff were in full PPE. The plus side was we could lie across three seats to sleep – a very rare treat on a long haul flight in the cheap seats. Heathrow really seemed quite busy, and the segregation was minimal. Hey ho, the mystery’s of Covid control.

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