After picking up Kwilena in France, Caroline and Sven decided to dip their toes in the water by starting their adventure locally in France and gaining enough experience in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean sea, before crossing to the Caribbean.

So far, says Caroline, “We sailed down the Atlantic Coast from Les Sables d’Olonne to Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar into the Mediterranean sea and continued along the coasts of Spain, France, crossing to the Balearic Islands (Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca), Corsica and Elba Island. We will be heading to Sardinia / Italy in a few weeks where we will stay over winter.”

When asked where their favourite location was they admitted, “There have been many exciting and beautiful places. It would be unfair to pick just one. After a full day of adventure, our favourite place is to be back on the boat.”

Hearing that there are too many incredible experiences to narrow down is like music to our ears. In the end Caroline managed to whittle down a few from a “very long list”.

• “The freedom of sailing in the middle of nowhere with the autopilot on, sitting upfront on the trampoline, watching dolphins following the boat.
• The experiences of new places, different cultures and contrasts like multimillion superyachts with Helipads to simple small fishing boats and high rising cities to empty magnificent bays.
• The always-changing views from the boat, not only due to the new locations and time of the day but also due to the boat movement. It feels like being in a revolving restaurant the whole day.
• Sleeping feels like being on a waterbed or slowly being rocked to sleep by the waves and the sound of the wind and water.
• Not knowing what a new day brings: From “Glowing toilets” (Bioluminescence effects) to cows on sandy beaches or cheeky monkeys, to shooting stars and thunderstorms, to big tankers crossing our path, to being asked over the radio to leave the military shooting zone immediately, to being boarded by man in black with guns (they were friendly police and customs officers) to everything in between!”

“We had no idea that we would like living onboard full-time this much. For now, home really is where our anchor drops and we cannot imagine going back to a normal life. We are definitely infected with the travel bug and are glad that we are doing this in our 50’s and not our 30’s or 40’s. What can top something like this?”