The leg ends when the Eighty2 arrives at the disembarkation port and the bags come up from below. The disembarkation port is specified in the leg itinerary and is typically different from the boarding port, the circumnavigation moves forward rather than returning to the starting point, and the leg that began in Las Palmas ends in Barbados, and the leg that began in Barbados ends in Panama, and so on around the world.
The outbound flight is to the boarding port. The return flight is from the disembarkation port. These are two different airports and the return flight needs to be booked from the correct one.
The pre-boarding package specifies the disembarkation port alongside the boarding port, and the flight booking guidance covers both ends of the leg. The return flight should be booked for the day after the disembarkation date rather than the disembarkation date itself, the same logic as the arrival: the leg that arrives one day early has the buffer for the minor delay, and the return flight booked for the same day as the disembarkation is the return flight that the member who is still on the boat due to a weather delay or a late arrival misses while watching the gate close on the departure board from a port taxi that is stuck in the harbour traffic.
The Transfer From the Boat to the Airport
The transfer from the disembarkation port to the departure airport is the reverse of the arrival transfer: taxi, Uber, or the local arranged transport that the Naora programme provides in the ports where the arrangement is the correct solution.
The pre-boarding package covers the disembarkation transfer alongside the arrival transfer. The same logic applies: the specific marina exit, the specific airport terminal, the specific fare estimate in the specific currency of the disembarkation country.
The journey home from the disembarkation port to the front door has one final stage that the overseas transfer does not: the domestic leg from the arrival airport to home. Own car, family pickup, or Uber, whichever works for the specific situation. The member who parked at the airport has the car waiting. The member whose partner is picking them up has the text message sent from the disembarkation port the day before.
The member whose Uber is booked for the arrivals hall has the booking confirmation on the phone. None of this requires the Naora team’s involvement. It requires the member’s planning and the member’s choice of the option that works for their home situation. The Naora guidance ends at the departure airport. The rest is the beginning of the ordinary life that the extraordinary leg is now behind.
One practical note for the return: the leg produces laundry. Three weeks of offshore sailing produces three weeks of salt-stiffened sailing clothes and wetsuit neoprene and the specific olfactory signature of the offshore life at the quality it reaches by the last day of the leg.
The hold bag on the return flight is the correct choice over the cabin bag regardless of how committed you are to the carry-on philosophy. The offshore life packs light on the way out and heavy on the way back, in the specific sense of the bag that carries the weight of the experience in addition to the weight of the clothes.
