Then we sailed away

One rainy October day, the Ridgway family embarked on a remarkable adventure, fulfilling a dream that rarely becomes reality for armchair travellers.

Leaving behind the challenges of running their School of Adventure in a remote corner of north-west Scotland, the Ridgways and their crew sailed away from the rocky peninsula that had been their home for the last 25 years.

Their 57ft ketch, ENGLISH ROSE VI, became a magic carpet, taking them anywhere the wind blew on an extraordinary voyage, across the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean and back home again via Antarctica.

They visited South Sea island paradises and remote Andean villages, and braved windswept Patagonian wildernesses and fierce ocean storms.

They also endured the trials and tensions of domestic life in a confined space, and awaited a very special family reunion for their adopted daughter Isso, returning to her native Peruvian jungle for the first time.