Crew

My affection for sailing started when I was a child. Once, when I was on holiday at Lake Balaton, near to Fonyód, I glanced a slim and beautiful sailing boat emerging from behind the reeds. It was love at first sight! Unfortunately, as I grown up in the Great Plain of Hungary, I could not get near to sailing. Because of that, I was just staring at boats through my father’s binoculars, sitting on the shore during my holidays. It was a classic, heavy, black, Russian binocular. I was just walking around the boats in the harbour, looking at them, and making dreams. I managed to get close to shipping in 2006. At that time I settled down with a 25 foot sailboat in the harbour of Balatonaliga. I have been dealing with shipping since that time. The usual inland adventures came after that: circling around Lake Balaton many times and mostly alone. Later Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Spain and France followed, and I even managed to sail in Norway, for two weeks. At the beginnings, I used to try to partner up with others. I kept my eyes open, made observations and learnt a lot. We used to participate in competitions at the Adriatic Sea, but all of these were not enough – maybe it is not the best word here – for me. Somehow it was not a complete thing… I wanted to sail alone… alone and a lot. Then some years alone came on the Mediterranean Sea. That was an amazing period in my life. I crossed the ocean two times. I went to the Caribbean, the Far East, and so on. I visited these places alone in most cases. It became clear to me that I must deal with sailing… I had to find a boat suitable for taking a journey around the world, which has a higher comfort level compared to those ones I used before. I used to cross the ocean by a boat in which did not even have a bed … I slept on a large backwind sail. I know life is not easy. I could be at home, watching TV programs broadcasted by National Geographic or travel channels. That would be safe, but I prefer to face challenges of everyday life: I make things fixed, I do sewing, cooking, fishing and I am ready to stay up at night, to be soaked by rain and so on. I want to be here … where everything is so different. This way is everything is so fine and complete for me. Soon I will reach the 30,000th marine mile. I found this Oceanis in March of 2017. In April, I arrived with four suitcases (three of which contained tools) with my friend, Tomi on board and together we started performing those endless tasks, which have already been listed by that time. There is no part of the boat which would not have been polished, cut, replaced or painted in the five months. I know the boat well! 1st of September – almost ready to start the journey! 9th of September – my girlfriend and I left Athen by the Oceanis. Journey has started! We reached Gibraltar through Greek, Albanian, Italian, French, Spanish, Morocco, Cabo Verde and Caribbean waters and sailed to the ocean. I am writing these lines in the port of BVI, Road Town city. There is a great deal of memory of adventure, landscape, taste and experience behind our backs. I feel that I have managed to build a boat which I was always craving for.

Nawel and Zsolt