Welcome. *Drinks are on me today.
Richard's suggestion is a good one. *We've met couples cruising the S. Pacific in boats smaller than yours who have been quite happy. *One or two of them eventually found and bought a larger boat during their travels, another couple we knew made it around the world, slowly sniffing the roses as they went, in their small boat.
I don't think that you will find a group of other sailboats circumnavigating that you would travel with. *You will find, if you spend a winter or two in Mexico, a reasonably sizeable group heading for French Polynesia that you could tag along with. *You will probably lose visual contact with all the boats within about 24 hours, and then you, along with all the other boats in that group, will be sailing alone with twice-daily radio contact until you all meet again when you've made landfall. *Except for daysails, this is the pattern most boats follow as they cruise. *
There are quite a few places around the globe that cruisers congregate and leave together in these loosely connected "flotillas". *In a crossing from Mexico to Nuku Hiva, you'll find that arrival times will be days and weeks apart by the time all the boats arrive. *Usually there will be one or two boats close enough to render assistance should it be needed, though.
We heard about two boats that were inseparable in their cruising down the coast of California through Mexico and on to Panama. *One boat's name was Endless Weekend, the other's Grimsby. *I heard a number of people referring to them as "grim weekend". *Theirs was an extreme connection in our experience, though.
Regardless of your choices, I think you'll find that cruisers are a very social group who welcome all the newbies into their ranks. *
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