I apologise in advance for the amount of tears in this video, it has taken us a while in the hopes that we could make it through it a little bit stronger but it doesn't seem possible. Robin was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2023. Saoirse was a dream and a goal that we set in motion 13 years ago. We decided to sell up everything we owned in South Africa and find a yacht that we could sail the world on. It took us a good few years to get the plan in motion and everything sold up. Eventually in 2019 we found Saoirse, a bare fibreglass hull that needed a lot of work and TLC. We took on the challenge thinking "we could get this done in 6 months? fast forward to 2 and a half years later. After her complete refit we started our journey across the Atlantic from Cape Town to Brazil. When arriving in Brazil Robin started showing some odd signs of what could possibly be a hernia. Later on we started to notice a funny looking mole on his leg that would disappear every now and then and then reappear. Eventually it reappeared and it started growing. We made our way up to French Guiana and then Trinidad where Robin developed a DVT (deep vein thrombosis). The doctors mentioned to us that this could be the sign of cancer, often times a tiny piece of a tumour will break off and make its way into the blood stream. After receiving treatment for the DVT, Robin insisted he didn't want to explore it any further and told us that we had worked so hard to get here, this wasn't going to stop our cruising dream. We set off up the Caribbean island chain and got to see some incredible places, this was not without constant fighting about steps going forward with this cancer diagnosis. Eventually when we turned Saoirse around for hurricane season and we started our journey back down south, Karen and Robin decided to head home to South Africa. Watch the video where we go into much more depth into the situation. Please remember to be kind, everyone has a right to their own choice in medical care , treatment and options.

This video was difficult to make in so many ways. Packing up Saoirse in the hopes of selling her was tough, we wanted to leave her in new owner ready condition which meant clearing her out, deep cleaning, fixing and making sure she was in tip top shape. It is always a difficult task in Trinidads heat. It was an extremely hard goodbye, any boat owner will know that a boat is more than an object. Your boat is your home, your safety in terrible conditions, you have to have incredible faith in an object that can cross oceans and keep your entire family safe through it all. Lets not forget the money pit that all your savings go into too? We miss Robin everyday but are so grateful to be able to relive all these memories through our videos. Even though we were under strict instruction not to film him and he didn't want to talk on camera, we will always have 16 months of incredible memories together that we are able to look back on. Thank you to so many of our viewers that have reached out to us, sent beautiful messages and words of condolences over the past few weeks. We appreciate every single one.

We turned back south from Antigua towards our end destination - Trinidad. We wanted to get south for hurricane season and to try to get Saoirse hauled out and safe as early as possible in the season. We planned for a good enough weather window to allow us to get to Grenada while stopping every evening to anchor for the night. We planned the distances and travel time perfectly, we didn't get to any of our anchorages after dark. Our aim of the game was to enjoy the last few days of sailing on Saoirse together as a family, as stress free as possible, which meant no night passages ? We stopped in Guadeloupe, Les Saints, Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia, Bequia, Carriacou, and Grenada before we set off for our crossing between Grenada and Trinidad. We know that the crossing between the islands is always a stressful one because of the current that pushes you around and towards the territorial waters of Venezuela. Luckily for us, the current didn't seem to push us around, it just seemed to slow us down a little bit. With some pre planning, we planned to go through the "strongest" area of current while it was at its weakest according to forecasts. Our trip south was beautiful and a great way to end our beautiful sailing journey as a family. With very little stress, breakages, and fighting?, we made our way down the islands as a great team. It was an emotional time as our "journey" slowly came to an end the more and more we headed south, we were lucky enough to be able to stop at some of our favourite spots for one last time. It is not the end of our sailing journey, as we all prepare to head in different directions, who knows what will happen and when we will be back on the ocean again. Thank you for watching with us ?

Antigua has had some of the clearest water we've every experienced! We anchored in Falmouth harbour for about 5 weeks so Colben and Teagan could complete their sailing courses they needed for their new job in the BVI's. We enjoyed amazing views off of the back of Saoirse, we had eagle rays, sting rays and turtles come past daily! The best thing was switching the under water lights on at night and having the turtles swim right up to the boat to say hello! Over the 5 weeks of us being anchored there it never grew old when a turtle would pop up next to the boat and take a huge breath before diving back down. We went on beautiful hikes with some amazing views of Falmouth and English harbour. The hikes were not difficult which made it even more pleasant to do more often! Colben completed his Yacht Master course, but of course it couldn't go smoothly. After 3 weeks of high stress, he passed his exams and they were finally ready to start processing their work permits. Antigua was a beautiful final stop in our cruise up the Caribbean islands and we can't stress enough how it is a MUST stop if you are sailing past.

We left Guadeloupe and headed further north to Antigua ? We waited for a "perfect" weather window to head across in but the weather Gods were against us ONCE AGAIN. We headed out expecting great conditions only to be hit with squall after squall and big seas that were beam on. It was completely manageable it was just completely opposite of what we were expecting. We've gotten used to the fact that almost every weather station we look at is not accurate. We were looking at 3 different sites and for once they all suggested great conditions. At one stage it started to get really rough and the wind started picking up. We noticed that the monohull about a mile in front of us suddenly did a 180 degree turn and started heading back to Guadeloupe. We then started to panic while wondering what the heck lay ahead of us. We carried on and once again it was just a big squall. It seems after speaking to a few other boats that did the crossing on different days, everyone experienced squalls off the north coast of Guadeloupe and rough seas. We pushed through and about half way across the channel the skies started to clear and the conditions got a lot better. We arrived at Jolly harbour, headed in to customs and immigration and checked in. With 3 other "buddy boats" in the bay we headed out for a hike and beautiful sundowners before we headed across the Falmouth to be closer to the school Colben and Teagan were doing their courses through. Antiguas waters were AMAZING, clear and bright blue! We really enjoyed Falmouth because the water was so clear you could see the anchor chain lying on the floor. In next weeks episode we show you some more of Antigua, it's beautiful waters, amazing views and we say final goodbyes to some special friends ?

This is a video of our beloved 38' Island Spirit Catamaran. After packing up Saoirse for her new potential owners we took this video, it is a walk through of what the new owners would be getting. She is currently on the market. You can find the listing below: https://www.yachtworld.com/yacht/2020-island-spirit-38-8667811/

We left Les Saints for Guadeloupe, we had beautiful wind and calm seas. We arrived at Bouillante, a little town on the west side of Guadeloupe. We had heard of the amazing hot springs that flow into the bay and we had to go and try it out. The hot springs are supposedly full of nutrients and minerals and are believed to have healing properties. We dived off of a tiny little island off of the south of the bay and we saw the most amazing and concentrated area of coral in all of our travels up the islands. There wasn't much marine life on the day that we went snorkelling but it was incredible to see such healthy coral. We motored around the corner to the bay just off of Pigeon island and dropped anchor. After about 3 hours we noticed Saoirse was rocking around and went out to investigate, we noticed the sea state was horrendous and some of the monohulls in the bay looked like they were underway! The waves were coming from a very unusual southerly direction. After a few hours the seas calmed down and we all had a good nights sleep. We headed across to Pigeon Island to see what all the hype was about. There had been mixed reviews about the condition of the Jacques Cousteau reserve and how its coral was dead and there was litter everywhere. When we got into the water we were greeted by bright blue, clear water and lots of fish! We swam around the dealer parts first before heading into the shallower area. The shallow area was bustling with people, they were standing on the coral and most of the coral was dead. It is always disappointing witnessing the lack of regard and knowledge about coral reefs and marine life. Even though the shallow sections were dead, there was an abundance of fish. We saw the most parrot fish we have ever seen! After one of our dives at Pigeon island we decided to head back because the water was getting rough. We only realised how rough when we were trying to get back across the bay to Saoirse. Then the fun began! Dragging yachts, drifting tenders and 36knot gust winds. Looking back at it after all the commotion, we had to laugh. So much went wrong in such a short period of time, if only we could have gotten it on camera. We really enjoyed our time in Guadeloupe and couldn't get over the abundance of sea life in the reserve.

Les Saintes is a group of 5 islands off of the south coast of Guadeloupe. It was one of our top 5 places we've stopped at in the Caribbean. It is quaint, occasionally quiet, and beautiful to explore. With the islands being so small it is easy to walk around or rent an electric bicycle. Only 2 of the 5 islands is inhabited and the population of all of the islands is around 3500 people. The town of Terre De Haut is beautiful, colourful and full of people riding bicycles and scooters through the streets. Best part is there is a beautiful little pink bakery with a giant ice cream statue out front that sells the most delicious Baguettes ? The water at Les Saintes is beautiful and clear. The snorkelling is incredible and you can spend hours in the water exploring many different coral shelf areas. Unfortunately the one area off of Terre De Haut where you can anchor is being torn up by anchors, the coral reaches far out into the anchorage but you can avoid anchoring on coral by checking on your navionics and keeping a wide berth around the coral areas ??? Les Saintes is a definite must stop on your way north or south up the Caribbean chain.

Our time in Martinique was great. We arrived at St Anne's from Dominica and set anchor in the beautiful spacious bay. 'Checking in' on the French islands is super easy. We went ashore and found the little coffee shop that had a small room off to the side, where we went onto a computer, put in all our boat details and crew list, printed out our official document, paid the €3 for the shop owner to stamp and sign it and viola, we were legally in French territory. No immigration or customs officials involved?. St Anne's is a beautiful little place with a historical church at its center, and 2 little beachfront streets of stores and houses. The residential area expands up the hill from there. We did a bus ride into Fort-du-France to go to the Decathlon outdoor warehouse type store that didn't disappoint. It's an incredible store that has everything from rollerscates to diving equipment to dingys, fishing, and camping equipment. It was amazing to see. It was also a great way to see a bit more of the island where they have expansive banana plantations and hills of sugar cane as far as the eye can see. From St Anne's we headed around and into Le Marin, a very crowded anchorage, but it put us closer to the shopping area that has large Leader Price and Carrefour stores, perfect for reprovisioning the yacht. We were also able to get to the fuel jetty to stock up on water and fuel. The water here is some of the least expensive we have experienced in the Caribbean, so that made a nice change. We then headed up the coast to St. Pierre. What a 'historical' treat. We got to explore the beautiful old town that still shows so much of the original damage caused by the 1902 eruption of Mt Pelee. From the old theater and adjacent prison to the original old cobbled roads, it was a beautiful place to explore. For Robin's birthday, we headed up the long and winding uphill road? to the DePazz Rhum Distillery where we got to tour the distillery and adjacent beautiful villa, ending off in the Rhum store. We went in saying that we wouldn't be buying much, but that didn't last when we saw and tasted ? the amazing selection of rums and rum based  liqueurs that they have on offer. Martinique was a beautiful stop, with some great memories to and to our ever growing memory bank.

We left Bequia and started our journey to Martinique. We didn't want to do the crossings at night, so we broke our journey up and stopped in St Vincent and St Lucia along the way. We had been watching the weather and decided to take a gap that was showing very good conditions. Unfortunately, yet again, it wasn't the conditions we were reading. The swell and wave intervals were shorter than predicted and the waves were bigger. We powered through and were grateful for the stops that we had planned because everyday was a beat. Chateaubelair, in St Vincent was our first stop and it was a hair raising one. The anchorage was deep and the bottom was very rocky and full of coral heads. After setting the anchor the first time, we dragged, so we lifted it, and re anchored and it held. We did 360 degree turns all night so we had to leave enough swing room between us and the shore to keep ourselves in a safe area. After St Vincent, we stopped at St Lucia in Rodney Bay, a beautiful huge anchorage, and we got to have a very calm and quiet night. After catching up on sleep we headed across to Martinique and anchored in St Anne. We headed into town and checked in, a quick and easy process compared to the rest of the islands that we've been checking in and out of.

We headed across to Admiralty Bay in search for some calmer waters. Wind and rough seas were predicted for the week and we thought it was better to get around to more protected bay. After about 10 days of constant wind, rain and rolling in the anchorage we had a little 2 day break in the weather and decided to explore Princess Margret Bay and Lower Bay. All the little bays are joined along the water by little walk ways with beautiful views! Colben had been on the super yacht for 3 weeks after initially being told that he would only be on for a week to 10 days. Teagan was very excited to finally have him home.

We arrived at Petite Nevis, a little uninhabited island off the south of Bequia. The island was beautiful and secluded, there was one other yacht there and the water was beautiful. We headed to land and after we decided that the dingy landing wouldn't be great for our hard bottom dingy, we had denver drop us off while we went to explore. The island is beautiful and untouched. There is a man old whaling station that is apparently not used anymore. The snorkelling between where we anchored and the shore was beautiful, there were tons of fish and coral. We headed across the Friendship Bay in Bequia which is also on the north east coast of Bequia. It was a quiet and beautiful little bay. As soon as we stepped onshore it immediately felt so different from the rest of the islands we had been to. The colours of the houses, the abundance of different coloured flowers that lined the streets and the goats that were chilling under the trees gave friendship bay a beautifully quaint feeling. We explored around the bay for a few days but when the swell started turning easterly we decided the anchorage was getting quite rolly and we headed out to the main anchorage of Bequia - Admiralty Bay .

This decision hasn't come easily. We have been going back and forth, trying to find, work out, work through and plan any alternative options but we have settled on this. Watch our video for more details. This isn't the end of our videos just yet, we have still got lots of footage of places we've visited and we've still got places we are going to visit. We would like to thank all of you guys for the support over the years, our dream has been cut short but as one door closes another opens. Bellow is the link to our beautiful homes listing on yacht world: https://www.yachtworld.com/yacht/2020-island-spirit-38-8667811/

After spending a short time at Frigate island, we tried to head across to Bequia. Unfortunately the sea state was very mixed up and we had the swell right on our beam. Luckily we had the convienience of being able to pull into Glossy Bay and wait it out for 2 days. In those two days we got to explore a little bit of what Canouan had to offer as well as walk through the very fancy Sandy Lane Marina. The water here was an amazing crystal clear turquoise but unfortunately there isn't much to see in the water at glossy bay because it is just a big sandy bay. This was just a quick stop on our way up the Caribbean chain.

After the most amazing few days spent mostly in the water at Tobago Cays it was time to head across the Mayreau, an island about 45 minutes sail away. Mayreau is the smallest inhabited island of the Grenadines, with an area of about 0.46 sq. miles and a population of about 271.The population is centered in an unnamed village, located on Station Hill, a hilltop in the south-west of the island. It is an isolated community, accessible only by boat. Electricity was only recently (2002) provided by a central generator located on Saline Bay. There is a single-lane concrete road leading from the wharf on Saline Bay through the village to Saltwhistle Bay. The top of the island is crested with the small elementary school; the telecommunications building; the brick and stone Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, christened on May 12, 1930, and a Pentecostal church. From the crest of the hill behind the Catholic Church, there is an overlook of the Tobago Cays, Canouan and Union Island. We set our anchor in Saline Bay and rested for the first time in days ?. Mayreau is so tiny that we walked the entire length of it, in a couple of hours. We explored about 80% of its circumference and its really beautiful. From the stunningly beautiful bays, to the view across to Tobago Cays from the islands high point behind a quaint beautiful church, we had a great few days exploring before heading back to Union Island to catch up with fellow cruisers again.

Drone footage Tobago Cays, Sailing Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ???? We had so much beautiful drone footage from Tobago Cays that we decided to dedicate a video solely to the incredible views from the sky in Tobago Cays. To see a more in-depth video follow the link to our YouTube video all about above and below the water. ?PATREON - https://www.patreon.com/sailingsaoirse?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator ???Follow us on our Social Media:??? Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/findingfr33dom?mibextid=LQQJ4d Instagram - https://instagram.com/sailing_saoirse_?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Karen - https://instagram.com/karen_zastron?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Teagan - https://instagram.com/teags_holmes_?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Colben - https://instagram.com/colbenholmes?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

We set out from union island and headed across to Tobago Cays This has been a bucket list destination for quite some time. We have always been fascinated by the incredible blue water, reef and being able to swim with the elusive turtles we've been trying to catch a glimpse of since arriving in the Caribbean Sea. We always thought people's videos were obviously very over edited because the colours were way too bright and blue. Welll? as we sailed towards Tobago Cays the colours started to change, it had us all hanging over the side of Saoirse catching a glimpse of the suddenly turquoise water. Little did we know what we were in for when we dropped anchor and had a look around at this incredible island paradise. The water was crystal clear, and an unbelievable turquoise that you didn't look real, I kept reaching to take my sunglasses off in the effort to make sure i Was seeing the true colours but I wasn't wearing any sunglasses. Trying to get video of this amazing destination was hard because we constantly felt like we needed to adjust settings to bring down the saturation but it wasn't the settings of the camera it was just what was actually in-front of us. Tobago Cays is located in Saint Vincent and grenadines. It is part of the tobago cays marine park. It is home to a series of globally significant habitats including coral reefs, sea turtle nesting sites and feeding areas, aswell as small systems of mangroves. The only thing protecting this area is the horse shoe reef that surrounds the islands. That is the only form of protection between tobago keys and the North West coast of Africa. I think that is pretty incredible. You are able to anchor on the windward side of the cays because of the protection from the coral reef. It is still bumpy and the wind still howls that side but it is so worth it for the view. We took shelter behind Petite Bateau because there was some swell and wind coming through. There was also a massive amount of yachts on the other side of the park. We picked up a beautiful and new mooring ball. We were told that they were 3 weeks old. We guess this came into effect around the same time the fees went up over new years. We took the dingy across to Baradal , it is known for the turtle sightings and it is cordoned off by bouys around the south side of the island. There is growing evidence that this ecosystem is being affected by non-sustainable use and natural environmental impacts. Significant sources of "natural" threats to corals are storm damage and white band disease and bleaching. The impacts associated with visiting yachts are anchor damage to sea grass and coral aswell as yachts running aground, snorkeling and diving, and bilge and wastewater discharge from yachts. We noticed while we we in the park and snorkelling the lack of knowledge people have about the coral eco systems. While we were snorkeling we saw Many people stand on the coral aswell as touch it. There has been a recent uproar about the Tobago Cays marine park because of the increase in marine park fees. You used to be able to anchor for free and only pay per person but now they charge you for anchoring too. There is no aproblem with charging to be in a marine park especially one as beautiful as tobago cays but maybe putting some money back into pamphlets that are given out to visiting yachts on how to protect the marine park and it's eco system would help enlighten people about how to treat it. Our stay in Tobago Cays was nothing short of magical. We hope to head back there again. ?PATREON - https://www.patreon.com/sailingsaoirse?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator ???Follow us on our Social Media:??? Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/findingfr33dom?mibextid=LQQJ4d Instagram - https://instagram.com/sailing_saoirse_?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Karen - https://instagram.com/karen_zastron?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Teagan - https://instagram.com/teags_holmes_?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Colben - https://instagram.com/colbenholmes?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

WE ARE IN SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES ?? we are settled in at Union island, we take a little walk from frigate island to Clifton to check in and we do a little hike (on a path that we aren't even sure is an actual path) up frigate island ??

In this video we get ready to leave Carriacou ? we head across to Sandy Island for one last night and then on to Hillsborough. Karen catches a taxi back to Tyrell Bay to check out and then we are on our way up the coast towards Anse La Roche for the night before we head across to Union Island. Unfortunately Anse La Roche Bay was FULL. We aren't used to last minute change of plans like that. Fortunately we took it in our stride, plotted a new course and headed to Petite Martinique for the night. This is very unusual for us because we usually get into quite a spin when plans change in the matter of a few minutes but for some reason these plans changed, fell into place and we were rewarded with seeing a beautiful new island that wasn't on our list of islands o visit! In sailing your plans are constantly changing, I don't think you realise how rapidly until you are doing it full time. This is something we are learning to take in our stride as we have a few control freaks onboard that love a good plan to stick to, which often isn't possible with the ever changing elements that are involved in sailing. Petite Martinique was a quaint tiny island and we are glad we stopped there for the night. The next day we stopped at Mopion Island, a tiny little sand bar between Petite Martinique and Union island. We dropped anchor just off of its shore, jumped in the dingy, did a few loops of the tiny little island known for its sole feature - a grass umbrella and headed back to Saoirse to carry on across to Union island. Once again plans changed, we didn't head into Clifton like we originally wanted to to check in because it was also SUPER busy so we headed around to Frigate island/ Ashton Bay. We dropped anchor in a beautiful, quiet and unique little bay.

We go walking around Carriacou, a tiny little island what could go wrong? We get lost of course. It was just a slight detour in our day but it added a few kilometres onto our seemingly short trip. We explore the mangroves around Tyrell bay and we find something very odd in someone's garden!