Family crossed Atlantic in homemade boat with four children and a dog

Family crossed Atlantic in homemade boat with four children and a dog Almost five cards later, Tanya remembers the voyage as an unforgettable adventure, while her mum Antonia says the experience still leaves her suffering nightmares A family crossed the Atlantic in a 46ft catamaran built in their back garden, taking four children and a dog on a 6,000-mile journey to Brazil. Tanya Gleed was just 12 when she set off from Bideford in September 1978 with parents Christopher and Antonia Wheller and her three brothers, then aged eight, nine and 14. Their homemade boat had taken Christopher, an electrical engineer, two years to build, with the family relying on little more than paper charts and a plastic sextant to navigate their way across the ocean. Now 60, Tanya looks back fondly on much of the adventure - but admits she would never attempt the same thing with her own family. Tanya, from South Wales, said: “It was an adventure that I’d never forget and I used to love stopping at every port because I’d make friends. But I would never put my children through that if I had to. “I wouldn’t do that again myself in the conditions that we went - on a DIY boat, second-hand motor and no experience of navigation whatsoever. I look back on it as if we were protected by something because, for a family of six, it was a dangerous thing to do.” For her mum Antonia Wheller, now 81, still suffers nightmares about the voyage. She said: “I wanted a bigger kitchen and my husband said, ‘Well, I want a boat’. I didn’t think much of it, but he said, ’I will make a big one, and then we all go back to Brazil ’, and I said, ‘all right’. “Next thing I see is the lorry full of wood, and they started building it. I ended up working on the boat as well. I did all the painting, and so I was a great help to them.” Christopher came up with the idea of building the boat in 1975, but getting the family back to Brazil by sea proved far from straightforward. Soon after leaving England, they were caught in a severe storm off Ilfracombe and narrowly avoided rocks. More bad weather followed as they headed south, while the boat’s second-hand engine repeatedly caused problems and sometimes left the family relying on fishermen to help tow them into port. Navigation was largely down to Christopher, who used the sun and moon, a plastic sextant and paper charts to work out where they were. Tanya said: “Dad would look through the sextant, which would locate the horizon and the sun. He would align the horizon and the sun, and then he would ask the time, we would write down the time and the position of the sun and the horizon. “He had his charts, and he would put those details on the chart - I don’t know how he did that part - and that’s how he managed to find out where we were. But I always helped him with the navigation side of things.” The family travelled through Spain and Portugal before continuing towards Madeira, Tenerife and Cape Verde. But crossing the Atlantic brought a different set of challenges. At one stage, the catamaran became becalmed near the equator and remained almost motionless for close to a week. The family also encountered whales during the voyage and could hear them breathing beside the boat in the darkness. Mrs Wheller said: “During the night they were still following us, and so I was petrified - those big heads - then they disappeared and we didn’t know where they were.” As they travelled down the Brazilian coast, the family also spotted dolphins and sharks while their food supplies began to dwindle. Tanya remembers eating stock cubes for the salt as they became increasingly aware of how little food remained. Eventually, they reached Porto Alegre, where their arrival attracted reporters and curious locals keen to hear about the family’s extraordinary journey. Christopher later found work and the family eventually made a new life there, even living aboard the catamaran for a period after it was transported inland. Almost five decades on, mother and daughter have different outlooks of the extraordinary trip. Tanya said: “I look back on it as if we were protected by something. For a family of six with no experience of navigation - dad didn’t have any navigation experience - I see it as an adventure. My mum was not afraid, she dealt with everything as it came.” But Mrs Wheller said: “For me it’s a nightmare.” While Christopher concentrated on navigation, Antonia was responsible for looking after four children as well as cooking, washing and making sure the family had enough supplies. She said: “I had to teach them to behave." Decades later, the experience remains difficult for her to revisit. She said: “I have nightmares about the voyage. I don’t like talking much about it.” Tanya now hopes she may one day write a book about the adventure and honour her father, who died aged 83 in September 2023.