Emma

Navigator, victualler, photographer

Emma was seasick on boats and ferries everywhere: on the car ferry to Bergen, Norway; on the tourist boat to the Arun Islands, Ireland; on a New Year cruise across the Bay of Biscay to Bilbao, Spain. She was as surprised as everyone when she fell in love with sailing. A lifelong love of being by the sea and the challenge of learning something new in her 40th year made it very easy indeed.

Stefan

Skipper, engineer, fisherman

After years of messing about in motor boats, Stefan got into sailing literally by accident. When an unfortunate incident involving a wet bathroom floor, a smashed sink and a sliced elbow put pay to a mountain bike holiday, Stefan took to the water instead, got his keel boat licence and started dreaming about sailing around the world.

Together our sailing adventures started in Turkey, Croatia and Greece. We did our training in the Gibraltar Strait with dolphins and tankers and have slowly honed our skills amongst the tides and sandbanks of the Thames Estuary.

We’re not sailors for sailing’s sake. We sail to travel, to explore new places and get under their skin.

“Instead of bringing back 16,000 plants, we might return from our journeys with a collection of small, unfeted, but life-enhancing thoughts.”

Alain De Botton