How A Family Lives And Travels On Their Own Yacht

How A Family Lives And Travels On Their Own Yacht
How A Family Lives And Travels On Their Own Yacht

Video: How A Family Lives And Travels On Their Own Yacht

Video: How A Family Lives And Travels On Their Own Yacht
Video: Family Has Been Sailing Around The World Non-Stop For 9 Years 2024, March
Anonim

Vasily and Elena Surikovs have been living on a yacht for two years, which they bought at the price of an average car. They have two children growing up - Philip and Olivia. Now the couple are going to winter in Tunisia, and then they plan to go on their first trip around the world. In an interview with RT, Elena told in detail what kind of expedition they had conceived, how they earn and how much life on their own boat costs.

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- How did your story begin?

- I come from Sevastopol, my husband is from Moldova. We met in Moscow, worked in the same office. And then I left: I traveled across the Crimea, across the Krasnodar Territory. We met again when one of our mutual acquaintances offered to go beyond the Arctic Circle, to Teriberka, to ride kites. This is where our family history began.

We got married and moved to Crimea. But it didn’t sit still. Six months later, we had a desire to return to Teriberka, to our sacred place. We lived there for six months and realized: we want to travel.

It's hard to travel by car: a lot of documents, roads, borders. And then the idea was born - to travel on a yacht. But at that time, it was 2013, there was very little information: how to start, how to buy, how to organize it all. For a whole year we have been collecting information on how yachts are bought, how to choose them. And from the Arctic Circle we went to Vasily's home, in Transnistria. But we went through Norway.

We found a site thanks to which you can travel all over the world, find people offering to live with them, in exchange for the fact that five days a week for five hours people will help them do something. And we left for a Norwegian house in Lofoten, lived there for a month. Everything is very expensive in Norway, but we traveled through the whole country for free, got acquainted with the local culture, learned languages. We also dived there, rested, we made a lot of friends.

From there we left for Germany in the same way, and lived there for two months. And so, gradually, we arrived in Moldova. I was already in position then. In fact, we brought our first child from Norway.

We gave birth to our baby in Kaliningrad. And from there we decided to go directly to the Mediterranean Sea, closer to the yachts. We spent a couple of months in Montenegro. There we also met a family of yachtsmen from Sevastopol. We showered them with questions and compiled a list of 150 boats in 11 countries.

Our boat was waiting for us in Germany. As soon as we stepped on it, we immediately realized: yes, this is it, that very boat. It took us ten minutes to decide that we didn't need anything else. The boat was in perfect condition, built in 1972 in Amsterdam. We shook hands, that same evening we carried our things out of the car and began to live on the water.

- How much did the purchase cost in the end?

- We bought a boat for a colossal small amount - 9900. We made money on freelancing. We work remotely all the time.

- Did you and your husband have sailing skills?

- Vasily did not have any experience, we did not even know whether he would be rocked at sea or not. It was a very interesting experiment. I had the skills, I studied in Marmaris on the Mediterranean Sea. There I got my skipper's license. I buzzed all my ears to Vasily that it is so interesting to live on the water that a yacht is wonderful: everything is so clean, beautiful, white. And she infected him with this idea.

He learned everything already at sea, in Kiel. Kiel is the north of Germany, in the Baltic. We read a lot of books, watched video lectures. There were several trial exits. We bought the boat at the end of July 2016, and we had two months to fully get to know it, equip it with everything necessary and prepare for going to sea. We didn't plan on staying in Germany for the winter because there are very expensive parking lots. And it's cold. From Germany we decided to go to the Canary Islands.

- That is, the beginning of your circumnavigation, which you are aiming at, can be considered July 2016?

- Yes. We have traveled all over Europe. Our kid crossed about 30 borders, visited everywhere. But he doesn't remember much now.

- And what citizenship do you and your husband have?

- I have Russian, and my spouse has Moldavian. And we also made Moldovan for children, it is very convenient to travel with it, without visas.

- You earn by working remotely. What are you doing, what is your husband doing?

- I am a web designer. At the same time, I do design for mobile applications, printing, branding, logos. And the spouse is a programmer. He develops highly complex websites.

We are very fortunate to be able to work in pairs. We take one project and develop it. We do not need additional cooperation with anyone. Everything is discussed in the kitchen at breakfast. We have orders almost all over the world.

They started with a minimum of five dollars an hour. And now they have reached 35. When the goal was to earn money for a yacht, we worked with four hands 24 hours a day.

- How do your parents feel about your lifestyle, given that your grandchildren are also at sea?

- They had to come to terms. In the beginning, of course, they said that the sea is scary, it is waves, a storm, suddenly what happens. Now the more we go out, the less fears.

There is no concern at all with small children. When they start walking, it is more difficult here, you need to watch out, there is more fatigue. Now we are trying to lure at least one of the grandmothers to us so that they can help with the kids. Because we have an idea to do one project. Freelancing on a boat with two kids is very difficult. We convince that the sea is not so scary. We've been in Mallorca for a month now, it's so great here. Come enjoy nature.

- So far none of the grandmothers dare?

- One grandmother, Moldavian, is preparing to come to us. We are leaving for the winter in Tunisia. It will be warm there.

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russian.rt

- So it was not you who followed your husband into the sea, but you yourself dragged him into the sea?

- Yes. I have always loved the sea, I grew up on the seashore, in a small village. Our windows overlooked the sea, I looked at it all the time. And then she left for Moscow. I missed the sea, every vacation I got closer to the water. And when I realized that there is an opportunity and it is not so expensive

I used to think that yachting is only for the elite, it costs millions of dollars. That the common man cannot afford it. But it turns out that it can very well.

We have enough to live on 250 a month for four. So we lived in Ibiza, about the same budget was in Mallorca. It is very economical. And we no longer have any expenses. We are anchored wherever we like, or in front of a restaurant with some good music, or just in some chic bay. And it's completely free.

- You have ambitious plans for traveling around the world. How are they implemented?

- We came up with two round-the-world tours. And both of them are non-standard. First, we want to walk through the tropics. Towards the Around the World. Vasily has a dream - to collect the history of people around the world who are now on their way or are finishing their travels. Each of them went through many adventures. And we'll go across the Red Sea, across the Indian Ocean, east. And many people who left before us, are now in the Pacific Ocean, we will catch them on the way, ask what they saw there, and interview them. This will be the first trip around the world.

After that, we have an idea to make not just a circumnavigation, but also scientific research. We want to organize a hike along the meridians, entering the polar latitudes, across all continents. And to choose such corners that are little known, little studied. Equip a boat, put the necessary equipment on it in order to explore some other ocean currents on the way.

These will be all climatic zones, not only warm latitudes. Everything will be there. It will be possible to see glaciers, icebergs, and everything in the world. And not so many people go on such trips, because they are difficult to organize. It should be a special boat, reliable, insulated, and a lot of equipment. The team must be good. Now it is easier to do this, there is a lot of equipment on the market, or rather weather forecasts.

But in comparison with travel in the tropics, this is three to five percent of the total number of around the world. Now we have a boat of 10 meters. We have been living on it for two years. There was only a two-month landing when we gave birth to our second child. And so we spent all the time in the ocean. And pregnancy as well. And it is very healthy, easy and healthy. Now we realized that this boat is already too small for us.

We came up with a dream - a sailing ship with two masts, very beautiful. When all the sails unfold, it is a stunning sight. We want to change to a catamaran. There is more room.

Vasily said this: two children - two masts. And now there are also two floats. We are now looking at oceanic models, reliable and roomy.

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russian.rt

- Where are you now and where are you going?

- We are now going to the winter quarters in Tunisia. Then - to Turkey, to change the boat. We will do the first trip around the world on a catamaran. In it, we want to apply all these technical solutions that we will have, try them out, see what fits, what does not fit. And already start thinking about another catamaran, which will go around the world along the meridians. This boat will already be difficult.

We plan to cook it at the shipyard. At first they wanted it themselves, but then changed their minds. It is too long and difficult. Let people do it professionally. We will have the blueprints, we will hand it over, and we will organize the construction at the shipyard. It will already be a large catamaran, serious, with equipment. We will write to the scientific community, people who want to join. We will do everything so that you can travel safely and with pleasure.

- How are things with you? Your work is completely connected with the Internet, how is this issue resolved?

- Very dependent on the Internet. And therefore, when we need to make a project of some kind or the budget ends and we need to earn extra money, we find a bay where there is a connection. Now we have installed a special device for ourselves, it catches the Internet from the shore. We find a place where there is a good signal, drop anchor and work as long as we need, receive translations and move on. If there is no such place, then you can always buy the Internet from the shore. In Portugal it was very cheap, in Spain it was more expensive. Until we had this wonderful device, we used satellite internet. He does not fish at sea.

On the one hand, this is, of course, good, you can relax, not worry about anything, not reply to messages. On the other hand, when we need to work, of course, it ties us to the shore.

- Will you share your impressions of your trip around the world on social networks?

- We have several resources that we maintain. Our program has already become very popular. We have both Russian and English versions. One thing is interesting in Russia, another is interesting abroad. Therefore, we write in different languages about our history. We have a total of about six thousand subscribers.

We tell you in detail how we did everything. Because the interest in Russia is growing. And when people find out that, it turns out, it is possible to live this way, it is cheap, interesting, with health benefits and for children, more and more questions come to us. There are even several families who have already moved to the water with our help. We started our own video blog. There are also about a thousand subscribers. We make entertainment video series.

Sometimes there are technical issues about some useful things: how to look after the boat, how to organize a safe space for children on the boat. And in parallel, of course, on social networks. We will definitely continue this. Because we are interested in it, and our relatives can see where we are, what is happening to us. And the creative process itself inspires us. When we do video series, we laugh, we have a lot of good music. And the kids really like to participate. The more we do it, the more pleasure we get. And then there will be very interesting and unusual places.

It is customary among yachtsmen to exchange information by word of mouth: weather, visas, where is the best parking place. And we are transferring this to the Internet.

- And the most important question is small children on the yacht. Hygiene, safety, how to teach, how to treat, what to feed? How do you solve the issue of socialization of children?

- There is absolutely no difficulty in socialization. Our children are very sociable, and on the water they are even more mobile than on land. Children learn to swim with us. They walk on the deck, communicate with a large number of people, speak different languages. These are children of completely different mentalities. They have friends from Sweden, Greece, and the USA. With languages - we will learn several languages. We speak Russian in the family. A little later, when they start talking, we will connect the English language.

We will have remote education on board. In Europe, this is now common, and a large number of families travel with children and study remotely. There are many resources, it is possible.

Children are with us 24 hours. And this is great for them. We have a lot of games, a lot of education, we do something together all the time. And not like in the city - tired parents come in the evening, they have a couple of hours to rest, eat, read and take time for the child. We are with children all the time.

Medicine is everywhere along the road, there are medical staff everywhere. You can get vaccinated and whatever is needed. This is not cosmic money. Do not be afraid of anything.

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