Embracing couples heading off at sea around South America (8)
I believe the answer is:
espousal
'embracing' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'couples heading off at sea around south america' is the wordplay.
'heading off' means to remove the first letter.
'at sea' indicates an anagram.
'around' indicates putting letters inside.
'south america' becomes 'SA' (abbreviation).
'couples' with its initial letter taken off is 'ouples'.
'ouples' is an anagram of 'espoul'.
'espoul' enclosing 'sa' is 'ESPOUSAL'.
(Other definitions for espousal that I've seen before include "Adoption (of a cause) - USA's pole (anag)" , "Acceptance with approval" , "Adoption, support (of)" , "Backing, support" , "old-fashioned marriage" .)