I'm going ocean sailing!

I firmly believe that magic happens when doing what you love. That has proven to be right many times since Ryan and I embraced sailing. Sometimes, that magic has taken the shape of fun professional opportunities arising. Sometimes, it takes the shape of really cool people life throws on our way.

Two of them are Andy and Mia, from 59 North Sailing. Andy and Mia are a couple of great souls, whose mission is to make ocean sailing accessible to everyone. They do it through their podcasts “On the Wind”, “How I think about sailing”, and "Sailing Stories", but also by taking people sailing offshore aboard Isbjörn, their beautiful 48 foot Swan.

I had been listening to the podcast ever since we started thinking about sailing, and they have been a big inspiration when we made our plans. We met them for the first time last summer in Stockholm, and well, they are as cool as they sound!

So when we met them again at the end of February and they had a bunk available on Isbjörn on their passage between Marstrand (West coast of Sweden) and Orkney (North of Scotland), I did not hesitate too long :)

  

I am super excited to announce that from May 1st to May 11th, I’ll be joining Andy and Mia's crew on Isbjörn, for my very first ocean passage!

Ocean passage for the non-sailors reading this, means we will be sailing non-stop between Marstrand and Orkney. That is a total of about 500 nautical miles. For comparison, our our most extended sailing passage to date was between Stockholm and Kalmar, roughly 200 nautical miles.

It is a big step forward regarding distance, but even regarding conditions. The North Sea early May will be COLD! During our sail between Marstrand and Orkney, we should encounter all kind of weather conditions, fog, tidal currents, oil rigs... That will make for a fun challenge, that I very much look forward to!

It is a great opportunity to go out of my comfort zone under the leadership of a very experienced captain, in conditions that Ryan and I wouldn't probably dare to venture in right now. I have no doubt that this experience will make me a more confident sailor, and will take off a lot of nervousness ahead of our own first ocean passages.

Besides, it is said in the sailing community that Andy and Mia attract the coolest of people aboard Isbjörn. We've experienced that first hand when we spent a day with Tom Harkin last summer on their boat, and I can’t wait to meet the rest of the crew!

 

For those of you following of our sailing plans, you are probably wondering if the dates aren’t a bit close from our big departure. The answer is: oh yes!

Our initial plan is to leave Stockholm by May 15th. I will be back from Scotland on May 13th. Quite a tight timing, which Ryan and I discussed for a while before deciding together that it was worth it.

Doing this passage is an investment. Both Ryan and I are confident that the benefits of going ocean sailing with a fun and experienced crew before our own voyage will greatly exceed any potential delay in our plans.Knowing that, we are considering taking an alternative route (there we go, it begins!). That alternative route involves making a straight passage from Cuxhaven to Dover, instead of staying at different harbours along the way, as we had initially planned.That route should save us a couple of weeks, and shorten the one segment of our voyage that we are the least interested in: the North Sea. 

For those of you wondering “What about Ryan then?!”. Well, Ryan will be staying ashore in Sweden, probably missing me a lot ;)

The departure is in less than 2 months, and I AM EXCITED!!!!  

PS: I can’t talk about Andy and Mia without recommending some excellent episodes of the podcast. So don’t miss:

• Andy’s interview with former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who we met in September 2017. What an amazing person! Any sailor and non-sailor will enjoy listening to his incredible stories.
• Andy's lecture about "How to mentally prepare to go offshore", which I listened to back in 2015 when I had never set foot on a sailboat.
• Andy's interview with Lin and Larry Pardey, whose book "Care and feeding of the sailing crew" was one of the first books I bought and counts among my "sailing bibles".
• Interviews with Paul Exner and Brittany Meyers who survived hurricane Irma. Paul lived on Tortola by the time Irma hit the BVI, and the story of his and his family survival is both terrifying and inspiring.

If you also want to experience ocean sailing, Andy and Mia have a few opening left on their 2019 passages, check them out!