“In a mad world, only the mad are sane." Akiro Kurosawa

We were soon to find out just how mad the world can be. I took this shot from the helm as we sailed from Saba at dawn for Saint Martin. Little did we know this would be the last freedom of any sort for over three months; and the beginning of two crazy years.

Within a week the pandemic would turn the world, and our lives, upside down. We would soon be physically locked down in Saint Martin on the yacht; with our children not allowed onto solid ground for almost three months. Australia, my beloved home country, a proud nation of immigrants and prolific travellers, then turned it’s back on us.

The Australian government would quickly place a Level Four travel ban, previously reserved for war zones, on the entire world. This immediately rendered our travel and health insurance policies invalid. It would then go on to declare its own overseas citizens persona non grata, slamming the borders shut. We were locked out of returning home. All geographically accessible borders in the Atlantic would also close to Australian flagged vessels. The Panama Canal shut to vessels under 80ft. We were essentially on our own, stateless, 18,000 km from home, drifting on 40ft of fiberglass. So began two, often stressful, years at sea, reliant on the benevolence of small foreign countries to provide the very shelter that our own country refused to render.

This image represents a point of sublime bliss, but also a turning point of freedom lost. I love leaving places in the darkness of predawn so you can watch the sunrise light up the island as you sail away. It’s a peaceful time to be at the helm. We had no inkling of the chaos the next two years would bring. We were heading off on an adventure; just not the adventure we were expecting to have.

Saba is a particularly scenic island, every bit the clichéd lost volcanic isle one could hope for. Steep and inhospitable, with no natural harbour the early settlers had to carve 800 steps by hand into the rocks of a cliff known as "The Ladder". Prior to the opening of a small artificial harbour in the 1970s, this was the single point of entry for all supplies to the island, with all goods having to be taken up the ladder.

Mount Scenery, which dominates the island, is the highest point of the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands at 887 metres (2,910 ft).