Atlantic Circuit aboard Marée
In August 2017, Paul Siggelkow (@psgglkw), a Mechanical Engineer from Munich, Germany, cast off from his home dock in the Netherlands and wouldn’t return for 11 months. Aboard his family’s Puffin 42, he skippered Marée on a circumnavigation of the North Atlantic Ocean, touching Europe, Africa, and North America.
Marée is a bluewater capable dutch style canal boat with 42,000 pounds over 51’ of boat (bow sprit included). After two years of preparation Paul knew Marée inside and out - by the time he got home, he knew Marée inside and out, upside down and backwards.
Over the course of 20 countries, Paul had 42 friends and family join him aboard for individual legs and created enough memories for a lifetime: He watched dolphins leave bioluminescent trails around his bow while crossing the much dreaded Bay of Biscay, 6 days out of the Canary Islands the crew had fresh sushi on board after landing an 18 pound tuna, throughout the Caribbean Paul made friends by hosting his “German Disco Party“ - dancing on the foredeck under the stars.
The trip had its challenges. Paul had his co-skipper walk out on the adventure after one leg, he faced nasty northern fronts in the Bermuda Triangle, spent a night in the ICU of hospital due to a non sailing related illness of a crew member and experienced endless gear breakages including: engine failure in the English Channel at night, total gearbox failure in the Canaries, steering loss in the middle of the Atlantic, and a Caribbean fishing net in the prop that destroyed part of the shaft just off St. Lucia.
Paul and Kyla (founding Sloth) met as strangers in Bermuda to sail Marée to the Azores, together with two other sailors. It was a particularly eventful transatlantic - 19 days later and 1,450 miles under emergency steering they made landfall in the Portuguese archipelago, all too pleased to feel hard ground again. Quite literally an adventure for the books, Kyla and Paul became lifelong friends that only offshore adventures can create.
Region/Route:
Atlantic Circuit - return from the Netherlands via France, the Canaries, the Windward and Leeward Caribbean Islands, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Azores, Falmouth/UK, and France again.
Featuring:
SV Marée | Puffin 42 | Skipper Paul (@psgglkw), plus 42 friends over the course of 332 days
