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New Launch -December 2022

Updated: May 31, 2022

With a great project comes great responsibility. So, as a team, we have decided to postpone our Atlantic Ocean in a tiny boat for one year until December 2022.


In 2020 when we began planning our project to crossing the Atlantic Ocean we made a list of promises to our friends and family; these decisions concerned safety, equipment, and training.


Little did we know what the next 18 months would have in store for us, our families, charities, our country, and the world. Yet, throughout multiple lockdowns, cancelled events and fundraising opportunities, and lost sponsors, we remained positive and committed to still carry on with the adventure on our original planned departure date of December 2021.


We have been a bit quiet on our social media for the past few months. Both crewmembers John-Kenneth and Courtney*, have been enduring hardships in our health, personal, family and professional lives. To make up for the lost time, we had started to compromise our equipment and training as “that will have to do”. We had planned contingency for unexpected events happening during our preparation for the trip. These personal challenges alone would not be enough to delay our trip, but on top of the COVID pandemic, it has severely affected our first priority to our families; SAFETY.


Our charities represent significant hardships we have faced and are enduring in our personal lives. Physical in-person fundraising and promotion was our planned primary method of spreading the word about our adventure and their work. Unfortunately, local and national cancellation of events where we had planned to raise awareness for our charities has significantly affected our expected fundraising. Nevertheless, with a few small events and online support from our friends, families, and strangers, we have raised and donated £1,885.82 to Macmillan Cancer Support, Mind, MS-UK, and St Helena Hospice. We are proud of this effort, but it falls short of where we hoped to be.


By postponing our trip, it gives us time to address the compromises we had started to make, support our families, and manage our own mental and physical health, which we have both been neglecting. It will also give us more time to replan events to represent our charities and sponsors and thoroughly do them justice with a further year of fundraising and promotion.


We hope that you support our decision. If you feel negatively impacted by our delayed trip, please do not hesitate to reach out to us directly at contact@sofatosailboat.co.uk. We will simultaneously be making this announcement to our sponsors and charities, so please bear with us if we have a sudden influx of emails. John-Kenneth, our skipper, has taken this week off work to replan the project and spend time with his family.


Please consider supporting our charities with a direct donation at: www.virginmoneygiving.com/sofatosailboat Sincerely

John-Kenneth D Habbershaw - The Skipper





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