The Journey 

In the yacht Loquax, Peter and his family will sail a total of about 15,000 miles between Plymouth, England and Coff's Harbour, Australia.

Leaving Plymouth on Tuesday 18 August 1998, Loquax will sail south into the Bay of Biscay and out into the Atlantic towards the Canary Islands. From the Canaries, Loquax will pass through Dakar, and the Cape Verde Islands en route to Banjul, The Gambia.  During the first week of November 1998, Loquax will journey up the River Gambia. Peter and his crew will deliver learning toys to a blind children's centre near Banjul and medical equipment which will be used upstream by waiting eye surgeons to carry out 200 sight-restoring operations.  Once delivered, Loquax will sail west again into the Atlantic calling in briefly at the Cape Verde islands again to stock up before the 11 day Atlantic crossing.  Peter plans to arrive in the beautiful Caribbean Island of Barbados in December 1998, in order to spend Christmas and New Year with his feet firmly on the beach!

Departing from her well-earned breather in Barbados, Loquax is off again around the Windward Islands to Grenada, Venezuela and finally passing into the Panama Canal at Cristobal in February 1999, which is a very special year for Panamanians, as the USA is to return it wholly to Panama.   Exiting the canal at Balbao, the journey will continue for 3,800 miles until she reaches Nuku Hiva on the Marquesas Islands, around mid-March 1999 for re-stocking and a brief stopover before attempting the treacherous Tuamotu Archipelago, known also as the "Dangerous Archipelago".  A  series of reefs, alive with corals, fish and marine life stretching for 1000 miles, Peter wants to view it's beauty for himself before the effects of pollution and global-warming potentially kill off this natural wonder. If Loquax survives the Tuamotu reefs, then it's onwards throughout June and July 1999 cruising to Papeete, Tahiti, then Bora-Bora in the Society Islands, pausing at Aitutaki in the Cooke Islands,  then Tongatapu and Nuku'alofa, Tonga. The final stretch will take in Suva, Fiji, and New Caledonia before finally reaching Coff's Harbour in Queensland, Australia hopefully in October 1999.

see map on Education Afloat page