by Larry Chowning –
After making the trip across the Atlantic Ocean starting in March 2021, Clare Padilla and Oliver Vauvelle have been cruising through the West Indies and southern U.S. and recently found their way to Middlesex County.
The couple sailed into Deltaville the Saturday of the final day of boatbuilding week at the Deltaville Maritime Museum and in Urbanna Creek the next weekend to celebrate the Fourth of July events.
Oliver and Clare met nine years ago when Oliver was working in Chile for an investment firm. They married and moved to England, Oliver’s home country.
In January 2020, they went to a boat show near London where they intended to purchase a powerboat. “Neither of us knew anything about sailing other than I had sailed in small boats as a child,” said Oliver on their 41-foot Jeanneau sailboat in Urbanna Creek.
“There was only one boat broker at the event who took us seriously and he was selling Jeanneau sailboats,” said Oliver. “We bought the boat with only an hour left at the show.”
The boat had to be built and it arrived in August 2020. “I took a five-day sailing course to get the boat insured and we began taking short 10-mile or so cruises on the boat.
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After spending time in the Caribbean, they traveled to Miami, Fla., then onto Wilmington and Beaufort, N.C. and into the Chesapeake Bay. “Wherever we have been, we have found the people very friendly, but here in Deltaville and Urbanna people have been extremely kind and friendly,” he said.
“People make the place,” said Oliver. “When we arrived at the Deltaville Market and they learned of our trip, people were so friendly and interested,” he said.
“The same has been here in Urbanna,” he said. “We particularly like the convenience in Urbanna where we can walk to the grocery and drug store and eat a meal in a restaurant and not have a long walk back to the boat in the dark.”
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At the end of the interview, reality kicked in. “I guess we will have to settle down at some point,” said Oliver. “Right now, neither of us are working and so I guess we will have to find jobs.”
He looked over to Clare and sort of rolled his eyes.
She shrugged her shoulders as if to suggest — yeah, but hopefully not anytime soon!
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