Finding Dory V (2026-'27 East-West Transatlantic cruisers group) -- Background, links and Frequently Asked Questions.

INFO FOR INTERNAL USE WITHIN THE FINDING DORY GROUP.

Who are we, and what is "Finding Dory" all about?

Read more about the background, purpose and set-up of the "Finding Dory V" (FD V) East-West transatlantic (transat) flotilla (and how to join), in this kick-off post.
You can share the link to the kickoff post on your social media channels, but please do NOT distribute the link to join the Telegram channel directly on social media, otherwise we will get over-run by spammers :-( .

And yes, all stuff we do with "Finding Dory", is for free. No entry fees, no hidden costs,... But by joining the group, you commit to contribute positively to this transat community. :-)

Our Telegram chat group:

Our central means of communicating within our group, goes via our "Telegram" chat group. The link/QR code to join this chat group, you find in this post.

Please keep in mind that the chat channel (as is the whole of FD V) is only for skippers and crew crossing the Atlantic East-West during the 2026-'27 season. This is not a group to look for a boat to crew on, nor for yachts to look for crew. If you look for a boat or for crew, you can use the Nonforeignland E-W transat Facebook page.

While in past years, we used several Whatsapp groups as our chat channel(s), this year we want to experiment with "Telegram". This will hopefully ease our work as chat-administrators, and make it easier for people to join in.

One of the main differences, in using Telegram (versus Whatsapp), is that there is only one "group", with only one "join request" needed. BUT the group has different "topics".
The topics are different chat channels within the same group: There is a general chat channel, a more safety oriented channel for boats on passage, one channel for those who have completed their transat, and one chat channel per "social aggregation area" for local coordination, meet-ups or chit-chat: (1) Europe/Gibraltar/North-Morocco, (2) Canaries/West Africa, (3) Cape Verde/West Africa.
So if you want to propose a group dinner in La Linea, just click on the "EU/N-Africa" topic, and post your message there. You are looking for a sailmaker in Las Palmas? Click on the Canaries topic, and post it there. You are on passage between Gibraltar and Lanzarote? Post your position report in the "On Passage" topic...

By default you find the "topics" listed on the left of your Telegram chat:

So if you click on one of the topics, you can see (or post) a chat message for that specific topic. If you click on "All", you will see all topics' messages.

If you click on the icon on top of the topics list, the topic list switches to "horizontal" (and you can horizontally scroll through the topics list):

Our group's flotilla tracking and other resources on Noforeignland (NFL):

Please join our group “Finding Dory V” on “Noforeignland (NFL)” (via the mobile app or website). - This is the platform we use to track our fleet on the map, as we move to the Canaries-Cape Verde/Africa, and go across the Atlantic.

In this NFL group, we also have some “chats with longer shelf-life” - including all links for the upcoming webinars -,...

To join: just register on Noforeignland, and then join our NFL group.
Link: https://www.noforeignland.com/group/6751263383355908

To enable manual (or automatic) tracking of your boat, display the position of your boat (in the fleet), check out this help page.
To see the position of the entire Finding Dory V fleet, click on the "filter" option, click on "boats", click on "my groups", enable the filtering for the "Finding Dory V" group, and the map will display the location of the flotilla.

Note that joining NFL and our NFL group, is for free, of course.

Our flotilla's basic info and status:

To facilitate our fleet to find buddy boats for the different passages, and keep eachother updated of our plans, we created a Google spreadsheet (accessible via this link). Or memorize the shortened link: bit.ly/trackingdoryV :-)

Please take 5 minutes to fill in your boat details and plans in this sheet (easiest done on a laptop, while signed into a Google account), and kindly keep it updated as your plans get refined. We encourage you to update your "status" (red column) as you go along... :-)

Our webinars:

Just like we did in the last season, we will organize a series of interactive webinars on Zoom. These webinars aim to help you prepare and enjoy your transat trip. They are also free to join, watch and/or participate in. Each webinar lasts about 1.5 hours: 1 hour of input and at least half an hour of interactive questions and answers...

Each time we organize a webinar, we will announce the join-link in our Telegram chat-group (and on our NFL group). The recordings will be uploaded into a Youtube playlist. And when you watch a recording, if you click on “CC”, the automatic captions (sub titles) will pop up.

This is the list of webinar topics we have in mind (to be fine-tuned, based on input from the fleet):
- Generic overview and introduction of "Sailing transat East to West" (probably with a small panel of last season's Finding Dory IV members)
- Boat preparation overview (rigging, safety, sail plan, insurance,..)
- Crew preparation ("what to expect", get extra crew (or not?), mentally preparing for a transat)
- Weather routing (with a meteorologist)
- Insurance (with an insurance professional)
- Food and medical provisioning and storage, cooking while on passage, passage nutrition (with a couple of specialists)
- Fishing while on passage (with a professional sport fisherman who is also a cruiser)
- Safely sailing through "Orca territory" (with a specialist)
- Introduction to the Noforeignland app and website (presented with the folks from NFL)
- Stop-over in Cape Verde or not?
- Catamaran sailing across an ocean (with a panel of experienced catamaran sailors)
- What about "after your transat"? Sailing in the Caribbean, Brazil, Suriname, French Guyana? What to expect? (with a panel of cruisers)
- The secrets of AIS: managing and debugging AIS/NMEA networks (with a cruiser/technology specialist)

If you want to watch some of last season's Finding Dory IV webinars, here is the playlist for all past webinar recordings. When you watch a recording, if you click on “CC”, the automatic captions (sub titles) will pop up.

Post-"Finding Dory V" Groups:

Each time a "Finding Dory"-season ends, there are a number of chat groups set-up by Dorians themselves outside of the main "Finding Dory"-community group. We will keep track of those and list them here.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

Do I have to pay to join Finding Dory V, Noforeignland or the FD V Noforeignland group? No, there are no entry or participation fees. There are no "optional" fees for hidden features or extra services neither. And there are no advertisements spamming you. Each of us, who works with/for/in this flotilla does this benevolent. We have no sponsors nor are we looking for sponsors. :-) We do this out of a strong conviction that "cruisers helping cruisers", is key to build a stronger yachties' community.

I will cross with the ARC, ARC+, Viking Explorers, or another flotilla. Can I still join "Finding Dory"? Sure you can!

As a "Dorian", what is expected from me? Not much, really. Participate and contribute actively in the chats, webinars and discussions. Keep the conversations positive and constructive. Don't hesitate to inject some smiles, humour and encouragements for your fellow Dorians.

Can I use text or pictures posted on the Telegram group on my own social media channels? Please ask permission from the person who posted the message/picture first. By default, everything that happens in Finding Dory, stays in Finding Dory :-)

I have some stuff to sell, can I use the Finding Dory group for that? This group is for transat cruisers only. But, as a Dorian, if you have something to sell (or donate) which other Dorians can use, sure.... But we don't want FD to become a 2nd hand flee market, nor get the channels saturated with questions about the stuff you want to sell, so keep it all "reasonable", please.

Can I post messages on the Telegram group in other languages than English? Unfortunately we prefer to keep it to English only. But don't hesitate to post non-perfect English. Hey, English ain't my first language neither and I make plenty mistakes too!

If I want to reply to a post on the Telegram group, do I reply to the group, in the chat, or do I reply to the sender directly? Well, we try to keep the volume of messages "reasonable". So: reply to the group, in the chat, if you feel your reply is useful for the group or the conversation. If not, reply directly to the sender only (in Telegram, click on the sender, and then click on "Message")...

Who admits new group members, or moderates the chats? For the moment, I admit new members (and try to keep the spammers out). But if the volume gets too high, or if I am on passage myself, other moderators will help. The chat messages themselves are "unmoderated" (they are published automatically), though I (or an other admin) might intervene if a message was not posted in the right channel, or was not appropriate.

You talked about "passage reports" in the "on passage" channel. How do these look like? Yep. Our "On Passage" channel is slightly special, and more "safety"-oriented. Whether on passage from EU to Madeira/Canaries, or on route to Cape Verde, or during their actual transat, Dorians typically post a daily "passage report" or "position report", with basic information (boat position, wind and wave info, sail configuration, magical or difficult moments... Sometimes this goes together with a picture, or sometimes, it is text only.
Here is a typical example:

Boat Name: Argo (Solaris50)
4 adults on board: John, Mary, Julia and Andrew, plus two dogs
Pos: 12°52N 059°35W
Cabo Verde to Bequia
Passage day 15
Distance traveled 2141 Nm
DTD: 95 Nm
Current SOG average 6kn
COG 285°
Wind direction 85°
Wind speed: 13kn-15kn
Waves: 1-2m, period 10 seconds
Sails: Genoa poled, main full, WoW
After motoring last evening the wind came back at 0:00, just enough to sail.
Magical moment: We first saw land (Barbados) at 12:00 but will sail on. We will be in Port Elizabeth tomorrow morning.
At the moment it is interesting that these small waves are getting significantly bigger South of Barbados where the depth goes to 100m. Don’t pass here if there is big swell.

As I sail along, I meet other cruisers who are planning to cross the Atlantic. How can I add them to the group?? Sure, ask them to join! You can send them the link of the announcement post https://blog.noforeignland.com/finding-dory-crossing-the-atlantic-together-again/ which also includes all background info, and the Telegram join link. But please do not distribute the Telegram join link itself on your social media - as that will attract spammers. But instead, you can share the link to the announcement post. :-)

You have more questions...? Well, just send me a direct message on Telegram or Whatsapp. I will be happy to assist.

With thanks to Tina from SY Mira Cariba for the group logo, and with a big THANK YOU for the past "Finding Dory" participants, who have been a true joy and inspiration for all of us!

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Find Dory IV - relevant group links

Who are we, and what is "Finding Dory" all about?

Read more about the background, purpose and set-up of the "Finding Dory" flotilla, in this kick-off post.

Whatsapp groups:

With thanks for those who helped creating and managing the subgroups

Main Finding Dory Whatsapp group, join link: https://chat.whatsapp.com/DcQz8TRnWThB9mMBSn3gf3?mode=ems_copy_c

Dorians on passage Whatsapp sub group (focused onsafety information, local weather/sea state info, position reports), join link: https://chat.whatsapp.com/FgvSyb7jNiGLowMld5F5F3?mode=ems_copy_c

Local Morocco/Gibraltar/Spain mainland Whatsapp sub group (chitchat and local coordination while in Morocco, Gibraltar/La Linea, or mainland Spain), join link: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LaDrPJMUTjh318HHMU6c8c?mode=ems_copy_c

Local Canaries Whatsapp sub group (chitchat and local coordination while in the Canaries), join link: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Gbh7saon0Kv5WKznBKoVBB?mode=ems_copy_c

Local Cabo Verde Whatsapp sub group (chitchat and local coordination while in Cabo Verde), join link: https://chat.whatsapp.com/CIhTabt5rwgEQuHvWvia8O

"Dorians in the West" Whatsapp sub group (chitchat and local coordination after the Transat: South/Central/North America, Caribbean,.. ), join link: https://chat.whatsapp.com/EjK4vGi21um3ySm87YzygJ

Other channels - useful links:

May I gently encourage you to fill in the shared fleet spreadsheet with basic boat info and planning data (and try to keep the data updated)? It will help you (all of us) +- buddy boating (for as far as that is possible in long stretches) when we know +- who leaves when from where, with which major stop-overs (— Gib, Morocco, Canaries, Cape Verde etc…) and destinations..:
Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RnLB2Pd-nsrLEXm1d-0a669oIBTQQ-lnwY3cU9OOTJ8/edit?gid=0#gid=0
PS: with thanks to Steve and Kerry who set up this spreadsheet.

Please also join our group “Finding Dory IV” on “Noforeignland (NFL)” (via the app or website). - This is the platform we use to track our fleet as we move to the Canaries-Cape Verde/Africa, and go across the Atlantic. In this NFL group, we also have some “chats with longer shelf-life” - including all links for the webinars - and the introduction of most members (since we started Finding Dory) - plus "end destinations"
To join: just register on Noforeignland, and then join our NFL group.
Link: https://www.noforeignland.com/group/6751263383355688

Webinar recordings:

Here is the playlist for all webinar recordings: (When you watch a recording, if you click on “CC”, the automatic captions will pop up).
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz1aMg5MbvDWfaNrW7ZeLqjw4I7z08cEk

Post-"Finding Dory IV" Groups:

As "Finding Dory IV" will be closed down at that end of the 2025-2026 E-W transat season (somewhere end of March), there are a number of chat groups set-up by Dorians themselves outside of the main "Finding Dory IV"-community group:

2026 West-East Transat Whatsapp group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/CqwxvQb3IoL0XiI1dZMXJt?mode=gi_t

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