Love Boat

In 3 years, we have travelled across the Atlantic, through Patagonia, the vast expanse of islands dotting the Pacific and finally to Japan. A trip around the world by boat, a trajectory through various cultures and realities, across diverse lands.

It was just after midnight somewhere on the Atlantic between Gibraltar and The Canaries when the moon crested over the clouds, almost full, creating a, majestic pool of light about 2 nautical miles off portside. I admittedly had never paid so much attention to the moon before; yet there she was, almost life-like, illuminating the vast dark expanse of water around me and any possible oncoming ships. For thousands of years the moon and the stars have provided safe passage for explorers. It is perhaps in that moment that I too became an explorer, recognizing elements in the natural world not only for their aesthetic but rather for their essential function.

It was just one month after I seemingly effortlessly released the doc lines of our 50-foot catamaran, Takaroa, (meaning sea god in Maori) from her berth just outside of Rome. I knew nothing about sailing, only that, boats made me queasy. Now my husband and I traded off two-hour night watches on long passages; nights which blur into days, days we tend to lose track of, as we do time zones. We home school our two children, Rafael and Olivia, although the books seem futile compared to watching live sea turtles lay their eggs on the beach at night and witnessing giant chunks of glaciers calving into estuaries  in a private showing.

In 3 years, we have travelled across the Atlantic, through Patagonia, the vast expanse of islands dotting the Pacific and finally to Japan. A trip around the world by boat, a trajectory through various cultures and realities, across diverse lands, all connected by this vast body of water. Love Boat is a documentation of the magic of the natural world and of living completely by her elements. It is an exploration of those who live and survive in some of the farthest corners of our world, in the most sustainable way. It is about stepping away from the noise to reach a quiet space where one can connect, with the self and therefore transform and connect with each other in a unique way.

As the great explorer Ernest Shakleton once said, "We had pierced the veneer of outside things. We had reached the naked soul of man."