“Finding Dory” – Crossing the Atlantic Together (Again!)

From little things, big things grow – Peter reflects on the success of Finding Dory IV, and has an exciting announcement for the 2026-2027 season.

For many cruisers, an East-West transatlantic (transat) crossing is their first open ocean crossing. Typically they sailed the Med, North Sea or the Baltic for a number of years, and now want to take it a step further: sail across the Atlantic Ocean and around the Caribbean, then possibly onward to the Pacific.

But the E-W transat is felt by many cruisers as a step beyond their normal comfort zone or cruising experience, and rightfully so. Open ocean sailing, and indeed crossing an ocean, is quite different from the typical “day sailing” in more confined waters, where shore or a protected anchorage are close by.

Quite a few cruisers cross the Atlantic E-W, as part of an organized flotilla, like the ARC, ARC+ or Viking Explorers. But even more cross “on their own”. However, “sailing on your own” does not mean you have to “sail alone” – and this is where we come in!

Finding Dory

For a few years now, we organized Finding Dory, as an informal group of cruisers who were crossing the Atlantic on their own, meeting up at the typical sailor aggregation points like Gibraltar and La Linea, the Canaries or Cape Verde. Up to last year, these were smaller groups of 40-50 boats, socializing at those aggregation points, buddy boating during their passages, and occasionally exchanging position reports during the crossing or requesting assistance for practical problems, via the online group chat.

Encouraged by the increased interest from fellow cruisers to participate in these Finding Dory informal flotillas, back in April 2025 I got together with Helen and Steve from noforeignland, to see how we could extend our support. From the start, we were in sync: all three of us are cruisers ourselves, and we are passionate about “cruisers helping cruisers”, about building sailing communities, and helping others while investing some of our own time and energy into a good cause, without asking any financial compensation.

And as such, Finding Dory IV was born. Little did we know, this informal flotilla would grow into the largest fleet to ever cross the Atlantic…

The development of Finding Dory IV

The initiative was announced on the noforeignland blog early June, when we had some relatively vague ideas of organizing webinars and a Whatsapp chat group, as a way to connect cruisers socially and help them prepare for the actual crossing.

While “size” – the amount of cruisers in our flotilla – was never a goal for us, it became quickly apparent that many sailors hooked onto the initiative. Personally, I was surprised that in a few weeks, we got more than 100 skippers and crew participating in our Whatsapp group. That encouraged us to start organizing several webinars to help our flotilla to prepare for their ocean crossing.

“With 280 boats, Finding Dory IV was the largest single flotilla to cross the Atlantic this season – or possibly, “ever” -… But the size of the group was never a goal for us. The goal was to create a social community of like-minded spirits, collaborating towards one goal: Cross the Atlantic together, and safely. And I think we achieved that goal.” – Peter Casier, Dorian facilitator

Between July and September, we offered 10 webinars covering a wide variety of topics, from navigating the orca territories, to boat and crew preparation, insurance, weather routing, fishing while on passage, food and medical provisioning, catamaran ocean sailing, and so on.

As our community of cruisers grew, we split up our single Whatsapp group into several sub-chats, so it was easier for people to socialize and request local support around the main aggregation points (Gibraltar, Canaries and Cape Verde), while we kept a single “on passage” chat-channel open for the fleet to provide daily position reports and pictures while they were doing the actual transat crossing.

We also started a group on noforeignland, which we used as our main fleet position tracking map and as a repository of relevant information with a longer shelf life “than just a Whatsapp chat message”.

Way beyond my expectations, the “Dorians” (as we started to call ourselves), grew to 280 boats, and 330 chat-participants. That meant we were now an “ad hoc” flotilla, bigger than the ARC and ARC+ combined!

Coordinating an online community, that large, meant I needed help… Several “Dorians” stepped up to monitor and manage the different chat channels, aggregate the fleet’s passage plans, and to keep track of the fleet as whole, as the yachts moved from mainland Europe to the Canaries, onto Cape Verde and then crossed onto South America or the Caribbean.

It was a thrill to see the fleet move on the map, across the Atlantic, in different stages, and reading their daily position reports in the passage chat channel. While some were crossing early in the season, others still awaited weather windows in Gibraltar, Canaries or Cape Verde.

In these aggregation points with their associated chat channels, the cruisers were socializing and exchanging practical information such as “Where can I find a sail repair guy in Las Palmas” or “Where do I refill my gas bottles in Mindelo”, up to “The easiest way to clear in, in Barbados”, while others exchanged ideas on weather routing for their upcoming passage legs.

Looking back on the success

For me as a group facilitator, above all, it was truly endearing to see all “Dorians” share their experiences while on passage, often concluded by a picture of  their anchor beers once they arrived “West”, be it the Caribbean, Brazil, French Guyana or Suriname. And even more encouraging was to experience how everyone participated, with a positive, collaborative and supportive attitude.

“We prepared for our Atlantic crossing for four years, and your support through Finding Dory IV was the most perfect way to conclude our preparations and left us ready to cast off our lines. The seminars, the chats, the contact with other sailors, has been amazing and has made a real difference.” – Julian, SV Lalaria

There were the shared joys of “yesterday we had an amazing starry night”, and “one more visit by a group of dolphins”, but there were also the shared challenges of rigging problems or fights to keep the windvane free of sargassum. But shared joy is double joy, shared pain is half pain, right?

“Being part of Finding Dory has benefited us in ways that are hard to fully put into words. The sense of community, meeting like-minded sailors, the webinars covering almost every topic imaginable, the best practices shared so openly, the focus on what really matters rather than just where to go — all of this made a real difference in our journey” – Sencer, SV Sal

These sentiments were not just mine, with many of the “Dorians” also feeling they had benefited from the strong sense of community and support.

“Joining “the Dory Group” turned out to be the best spontaneous decision ever. What started for us as a pretty isolated sailing adventure suddenly became packed with information, reassurance, shared knowledge, great people, and some seriously lovely new friendships. Our journey felt more connected, way safer, and (most importantly) a whole lot more fun.” –  Kimi, SV Moonlight Saunter

As I write this in Feb of 2026, the majority of the fleet has finished their transat, and several “spin-off groups” are being organized, for those staying in the Caribbean, going back East to Europe in the spring, or crossing the Pacific. It is nice to see Finding Dory IV friendships living on, beyond the E-W transat passage.

Now on to the future!

All of that encouraged me, together with Helen and Steve from noforeignland, to prepare to continue, and to help support the next season’s fleet. So, we are formally announcing “Finding Dory V”, the 2026-2027 East-West Transatlantic fleet. 

If you plan to cross the Atlantic E-W in the 2026-2027 season, join us. There are no entry fees, we only count on your commitment to participate actively in the community. Our group is open both for skippers and crew who are planning the next season’s crossing at their own pace, just keep in mind that we are not a platform for sailors looking for a boat, or skippers looking for crew.

You can join our community’s chat group on Telegram via this link or this QR code:

You can also join our group on Noforeignland via this link.

Join Finding Dory V, our 2026-’27 E-W transat community, and once again let’s sail the Atlantic together!

With thanks to all 2025-2026 Dorians, with a special mention of Steve and Kerry (initial fleet overview sheet), Monika (fleet tracking), Tina (group logos), and our chat moderators/admins (Monika, Ana, Julia, Sencer, Kay, Kimi and Sandrine).