Living the Dream

Architect couple Ana Couto and John Hoogwerf embarked on an ambitious mission to sail around the world in 2017. They talk pandemic seafaring, exploring deserted Italian isles and embracing local life with Helen Dalley

What’s it like sailing round the world during a pandemic? We ask a couple who are doing just that

Tell us about your journey so far and how the pandemic has impacted on your travels

We first set sail Summer 2017 in Lisbon and since then we’ve sailed to almost all countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. When covid hit in the beginning of the year, we were in a marina in Tunisia doing maintenance work and waiting out the Winter. The impact on our plans for the year was massive as we saw Europe closing its maritime borders as did Tunisia, effectively locking us down. The Tunisian maritime border only reopened late June but before the European borders opened so we had to cross half of the Med non-stop to Turkey, the only country with open borders at the time. We got a 90-day visa and when that finished the maritime border of Turkey with Greece was still closed so we had to sail again non-stop this time to Malta. From there we sailed to Sicily and then back to Greece.

We’re still in Greece but in complete lockdown, not even able to move the yacht from anchorage to anchorage. This year’s season was very limited in terms of movement and our plans to cross the Atlantic have been delayed by around 12 months.

You’ve been living on your yacht for more than three years now. What are the highlights of your journey so far?

Sailing across this sea in itself can be quite exhilarating and challenging and we’ve experienced some epic passages with magnificent sailing conditions and surprise storms that were equally memorable.

We’ve really enjoyed sailing the Italian islands between Italy, Corsica and Sardinia starting from northernmost Elba to the volcanic islands just north of Sicily, which was like discovering a best kept secret. We sailed them during Summer 2018 when the weather conditions didn’t enable us to proceed with our plan of sailing extensively in Sardinia. No-one in the international sailing community seems to pay them that much attention but that the

Italians love these islands very much. We spent the entire Summer surrounded exclusively by Italian yachts that sail from their marinas to these spots for the day and return to the marina at the end of the day in amazing anchorages with picture-perfect landscapes and clear waters. We had these places all to ourselves except between noon and until 5-7pm. It felt like we were not even in Europe.

Croatia was also amazing, but that’s not a surprise due to its popularity with sailors. We chose to explore the not so touristy islands and obvious towns and ended up seeing very few other boats and experiencing a completely different vibe from the Italian islands. Tunisia was an amazing surprise for inland travelling – they have some of the best Roman archaeological sites that hardly anyone visits and then there’s all the film set locations for the Star Wars movies.

How do you travel differently as sailors?

We travel with and in our home and tend to spend around 90 days in each country, so we need to do the normal things people do where they live, like supermarket runs and visits to the pharmacy as well as making repairs to the boat. We end up having to rediscover the basics every couple of days and we’re not on a holiday budget so we think local. We pick up a lot of cultural things and new friends as we go and tend to start understanding the history and connections between places and how they define their people and relationships with their neighbouring countries in a deeper way. We almost become expats in each of those countries without actually settling there.

How have you adapted to living on a yacht?

We’ve adapted very well – our yacht is set up as much as possible like a normal home with some obvious limitations and differences. I think it would actually be more difficult to adapt back to our old land lives. We plan to sail around the world at a slow pace so unless we change our minds, this is our home. That’s the beauty of calling our yacht home – the journey never ends.

Do you think there is more of an appetite for travel given that many of us haven’t been travelling for the past year?

There is definitely a visible appetite for travel and for unique travelling experiences. We have conversations with people that just want to go and experience our lifestyle. People are looking for alternatives to hotels, Airbnb stays and travelling by plane.

Tell us about the next part of your journey

We’re planning crossing the Atlantic at the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022 and do the loop of the Atlantic in the following years, basically a circumnavigation of the south Atlantic and the North Atlantic. Leaving from Lisbon, we’ll head to Madeira, the Canaries, Cape Verde, Brazil, Uruguay,

Argentina, South Africa, St Helena, the Ascension Islands, and then pass through the Caribbean to Bermuda, the Azores, maybe north Europe before crossing again towards Panama Canal. But there is still lots to decide – we may do the North Atlantic loop before the south. It all depends on how Covid pans out.

What advice could you give to others thinking about embarking on a big travel adventure based on your own experiences?

John has a saying: “Feel the fear and do it anyway”. I say: “Follow your dreams, no matter how big or small.” Planning is the key: set your goals and work hard for them. svthedream.com