major, packed up their family two years ago and set out from England to South Africa in an 81-year-old wooden sailboat with no engine.

"We wanted to see the world,'' explained Mrs. Brickhill, the mother of Dale, 18, Duma, 15, Daisy, 10, and two-year-old Hazel.

After a rough voyage - but with no mishaps -- the family arrived in Cape Town.

They ended up staying two years in South Africa but left because of apartheid.

But the travel bug eventually hit again and they loaded the boat with provisions and set sail for the Caribbean, via Brazil and staying several weeks in Surinam and Guyana.

The Brickhills arrived here last week with a group of yachts to take part in the first Bermuda-Brest Transatlantic Race for Classics.

Brest, on the western tip of Europe, is the site of a triennial maritime festival which is expected to lure some 2,000 classic yachts and rowing boats in July.

Getting through Town Cut, St. George's, proved a tough task as the Brickhills had to row most of the way through, however, the couple insist that was the only time an engine would have come in handy.

Their 72-foot sailboat Guide Me does not have the luxury of an auto pilot either, and in order to tack they have to lower the main sail to switch it over to the other side.

The couple found Guide Me , a dipping lugger, in England and laboured for years to restore her from a rugged fishing boat to a comfortable home on the ocean.

The only metal on Guide Me are the fastenings, Mrs. Brickhill points out. The entire boat is made of pine larch with oak frames.

Mr. Brickhill keeps a workbench set up on the boat as he is constantly repairing and maintaining it.

"She may be old,'' Mrs. Brickhill says, "but she was designed to handle the North Sea and moves along very steadily.'' To entertain Daisy and Hazel on lengthy voyages, Mrs. Brickhill organises games and treasure hunts, and for the rest of the family there are "feast days'' and other "special occasions'' they can look forward to.

Mrs. Brickhill teaches the children English, while her husband teaches them math. They have course books for the other subjects and geography is taught "along the way'', she says.

Had it not been for the race, hosted by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, the couple said they never would have come to Bermuda, which they want to return to "as soon as we save the pennies''.

Mrs. Brickhill pointed out she would have been able to buy two weeks worth of provisions with the money they would have had to fork out for the $30 a person head tax. However, because they came here to take part in a race, the head tax was waived.

TRAVELLING THE WORLD -- Mr. John Brickhill, his wife Judy and their 10-year-old daughter Daisy next to their yacht Guide Me , a 72-foot, 81-year-old, engine-less, dipped-sail lugger made entirely of pine larch and oak. The family restored her from a fishing boat to a comfortable home-on-the-ocean sailboat in which to travel the world.