INTRODUCTION #
Introduction to us both. Our sailing experience, how the idea came about. Why we both thought we’d love it (Sean with hatred for 9-5, desire to go away, love for sailing. Me with my travelling and down for a new adventure and always loved watersports type thing). Welcome to Sailing Selune blog! As a writer and copywriter, I thought that setting up a blog and sharing more about our experiences in some depth was something I’d really love to do. On this blog page you should be able to find out more about us, why we made the decision to move onto a boat and sail around the world, why we chose the boat that we did, and lastly some insights and recommendations from some of the places we’ve visited to date! But first let’s jump right in with a little introduction to the two of us, individually, as well as together.
A bit about Sean #
Sean is a South African born sailor, programmer, and gamer! He grew up in Durban but is half Scottish too, and he moved to Edinburgh at age 24 for a new start. He grew up sailing as it’s something his family loves. He spent a lot of his youth holidaying on boats with the family, and has fond memories of sailing around Greece when he was little with his grandparents and parents. At around age 6, he began dinghy sailing. He’s now sailed many, many different types of boats (definitely too many to name…) and has competed nationally as well as internationally, representing South Africa. He got a Day Skipper qualification in his late teens, and even taught young kids sailing for a little while with the charity Sail Africa. He has always enjoyed sailing, and has dreamed of doing it more some day in the future.
A little about me - Abigail #
I was born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland. It’s a city I still love fondly, even though I keep finding reasons to leave! My background is an education in law and criminology, but most of my adult work experience has actually been as a barista - I really love coffee and working around lots of people! I’m a keen traveller, and hope to visit 30 countries by the time I’m 30 (only 4 more to go!). I’ve spent some time in Canada and Australia; I’ve interrailed around Europe; and some of my favourite holidays include trips to Japan, Hawaii, Seoul, and South Africa of course! I’ve never really sailed before I met Sean and began this journey. I’ve always loved the water and the sports around it - I did a great school trip in the South of France canoeing and doing various other watersports, as well as some working by a lake in Canada too. But I never took to sailing, and was never very good at it the once or twice I tried! Learning to sail was something I did so we could achieve this goal of moving onto a boat and travelling on it. Thankfully this attempt at learning to sail was much more successful and I found a real love for it.
Our Story #
We met online, soon after Sean moved to Edinburgh (on Hinge! - modern times after all). We fell in love, moved in together a year or so later, and then whilst in Japan last year Sean popped the question - what a way to make a dream holiday even more special! I of course said yes, and we’re now also wedding planning alongside this sailing adventure that we’re on.
The Sailing #
Now, onto sailing, the important thing here ! As Sean mentioned in our first ever Youtube video, this honestly started as a little bit of a joke. A joke that one day we could buy a boat, move onto it, and sail around the world! As we looked into this idea more and realised just how many people were doing it… it quickly became less of a joke and more like a reality that we could pursue. A while later, after much research, we made the dream a reality and bought our first ever boat - a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 39DS. We both fell in love at the viewing and knew it was the one! As we both didn’t love our jobs and the mundane reality of a 9-5, we decided it was the right time to give the sailing around the world thing a go. While all of this was happening, I had cracked on with the rather crucial task of learning how to sail! After a couple of courses at Port Edgar Watersports, with 2 intro to sailing courses and a good few miles under my belt, I did a Day Skipper course with Go West Sailing. Sean also thought it would be a good idea to brush up on a few different skills he hadn’t used in a while, and did a Coastal Skipper qualification at the same time. Both of us really enjoyed our courses. Armed with a few new skills, but aware that we still had a lot to learn (god did this turn out to be true!) we thought there was no time like the present to jump into life as travelling liveaboards. And what an adventure it’s been so far. Full of learning, with some hard times, but countless amazing memories and a real sense of achievement.
Check back in to find out more about our journey in the future! I’ll be posting blogs about how we chose this boat, more information to go alongside each of our Youtube videos, and also information on a number of the places we stopped off at!