Then there were five

AN adventurous Richards Bay couple are back home after a five-year circumnavigation of the world in a yacht, bringing back many wonderful memories…and two more children than they left with!

Joop Adam, an industrial engineer and his wife Jacolette, an environmental practitioner, took time off from their work as consultants to embark on the journey with their son Johannes, then just two years old.

Joop was bitten by the sailing bug during a charter trip in Mozambique in 1995.

‘It was a beautiful sunset and I was sitting on the front of the boat thinking, ‘would I rather do this than sit in the Pretoria traffic?’.

‘As a scuba diving instructor and underwater hockey player, the sea has always attracted me and we began planning a two-year circumnavigation.’

The planning entailed the couple completing an intense sailing course in Durban and obtaining offshore yacht masters certificates, as well as commuting regularly from Pretoria to gain sailing experience.

Among others voyages along the east coast, Joop took part in three Inhaca Island races.

The purchase in 2001 of their own yacht ‘Goody’, a 33ft Dean Cat, had proved a sound decision and the family was ready to leave from the Zululand Yacht Club on 6 December 2008.

The trip would cover 32 524 nautical miles over the five years, interrupted by frequent business flights back home…and the births of another son and a daughter.

While most moms-to-be would be nervous at giving birth in foreign countries, there were no such fears for Jacolette and son Dirk was born in September 2009 on Curicao, a Dutch Antilles island in the Caribbean.

A two-month stay was necessary to obtain his passport and the epic continued as they headed for the Galapagos, French Polynesia (the highlight), the cook Islands, Fiji, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Darwin and Malasia.

Jacolette was expecting again and when plans to have the baby in Pucket, Thailand failed, they raced back 300 miles in three days back to Penang, Malasia where little Lelei first saw the light of day on 30 January this year.

‘It wasn’t without some serious complications, as Lelei was diagnosed with a critical heart condition and spent a week in ICU,’ said Jacolette.

‘We were expecting her to undergo surgery but on that day the condition inexplicably righted itself and our prayers were answered.’

After another wait for the baby’s passport it was on to Madagascar and back home to South Africa.

The trip had been without major incidents, and the intrepid family has now settled into a ‘normal’ life, with ‘no more voyages planned’.

Watch this space!