by Henrik Sternberg, Board of Directors, DCC
What made a young man from Aulum, near Holstebro and a Sri Lankan lady from Kandy, decide to pause the traditional corporate world life to plan a trip around the world on a sailing boat?
Good question, we both realized how we enjoy travelling and spending time together, exploring new destinations, try different cuisines and meeting people to hear their stories. Especially being close to nature and on the water makes us be in our element. Originally we were planning to travel a month here and a month there while making time to immerse into local communities enriching our lives with their cultures and traditions. Then when we started sailing more and more, we realised that we could do a lot more if we were on a sail boat. Not only we will have the chance to explore countries, vibrant cultures and food but also unique landscapes and places that can be only seen if one traveled via a boat. We decided then that a yacht was the perfect means of transportation and a home away from home for us.
This project was in development for a few years and finding the perfect yacht was always an interesting discussion between us. When Covid suddenly hit, we had to postpone the project for a short while but we quickly got back on it with all the time we had where we simply assessed the investment into buying a yacht and acted on travelling to see a few, then once found the yacht, getting the evaluations and surveys done, completing a test sail and the purchase it self was all important and we went ahead with it step by step. We are very much aware of the future complexities of travelling itself including getting visa’s etc which in itself can be a little extra work but we look forward to the adventure.
Now the time has come to cast off on this new endeavour. We have both quit our day jobs, managed transition to successors, downsized significantly, shipped/ moved the most important belongings to the yacht, “Black Swans” which is based in Gocek, Turkey, and she is ready to set sail from November this year with a plan of completing a circumnavigation in the next 5-7 years.
How do we feel?
Excited! Sailing never gets boring as Mother nature finds ways to keep us busy. A little apprehensive: Perhaps, will it be everything we have been dreaming of? Feeling accomplished: although we haven’t started the journey, we are proud that we have taken the first few steps which were significant life changes. We are curious to see what each day will hold for us when it is just the sun, the wind and the ocean dictating our days.
What else will we be doing?
Well, as sailing around the world generally is about 10% sailing and 90% at anchor or in Marina’s it may be the wrong labelling however, the benefit is that it does provide us with plenty of time to relax, exercise, cook, do puzzles, play games, learn how to spear fish, not to mention some rod fishing catching dinner, and in parallel stay connected to the business world and not just disappear into cruisers oblivia.
Sam has been working diligently on her own jewellery brand
www.favedbysamanthi.com using her platform to advocate a pollution free ocean and supporting initiatives that act on them positively which means a lot to us. She will showcase her newest collections in the Christmas Bazaar this Nov. So stay tuned! I’ll be connected freelance on mentoring, coaching and organizational development. In addition, I have signed up as commercial skipper for a charter company.
Feel free to follow the journey below – we intend to keep a steady flow of pictures, videos and stories on the social network, and primarily keeping in touch with good friends and family ♥️whom we will be fondly remembering on our quiet days. It has been such a pleasure to be surrounded by my fellow countrymen through DCC during our time in HK, where I got a chance to speak my mother tongue and engage in Danish cultural events in a new home far away from home. Thank you and wishing you all the best.
• MMSI – 235116951 – Black Swans
