#1 Selling everything and moving onto a sail boat – Our Story | Sailing Sisu

The idea of sailing. That age-old axiom of love the idea of sailing, but not sailing?

Me and Petro started preparations to find out. We have sold everything and with the money, we want to buy a boat. This is our journey of the research and decisions we made to the point where we set sails.

Logo

I think this is one of the most difficult creative activity for us. What should go into the logo? So, we started to think about sailing. The other guys are using anchors, compass, helm, fish, sailors, sailor girls, and ropes. Which pretty much leaves us with not many options with regards to the sailing topic. However, Frik crossed the Atlantic in 2006 and he remembers the one thing a person looks at the most during those long lone watch hours. The wind direction. One stares for hours at that windex meter, either on top of the mast while looking at the sail shape, or at the helm’s lighten up multi-function display where a monohulled shape is depicted in the middle and the point of sail is displayed around it with a small red on port side and a small green on starboard side. The problem from our decision-making journey point of view, was that that is a monohull and our heart is pulling towards a catamaran. Further, we needed to make it personal and bearing branding in mind, brought our face profiles into the mix. And Voila! Sisu logo is born!

The Fisherman’s story

One day a rich and successful man went on an tropical beach holiday. This man was jogging every morning along the beach island where he notices a fisherman catching his daily catch. After a week’s observations, the rich man stopped to talk with the fisherman who was living a very simple life, very different from the rich man. The rich man thought he can increase the quality of life of the fisherman and his family. He suggested that the fisherman stay longer on the beach and catch twice as many fish.

Why? Did the Fisherman reply. Well, then you can catch twice as many fish and sell the fish you and your family do not eat and make some money.

Why? Did the Fisherman reply. Well, then you can buy two rods, sell more fish and make more money.

Why? Did the Fisherman reply. Well, then you can buy a fishing boat, sell more fish and make more money.

Why? Did the Fisherman reply. Well, then you can buy two boats, sell more fish and make more money.

Why? Did the Fisherman reply. Well, then one day you will have a big business, with lots of employees, sell lots of fish and make lots of money.

Why? Did the Fisherman reply. Well, then one day you retire and do what I do now by relaxing on the beach and spend quality time with my family.

The Fisherman’s simple reply was: “What do you think I am doing now?”

Introduce Petro

Single mother and Business woman from South Africa, daunting statements!   It is a very challenging lifestyle, constantly caught up in the rat-race society has, and very subtly forced me into having to wear big girl panties in an extremely competitive workplace and permanently living up to the Jones’s on a social level, it brought very little satisfaction and seriously affected my self-worth. Being a Short-term Insurance Broker, you might as well slap a “complaints department” sticker on my forehead!!! I have lost track of much more important and soul pleasing qualities of life like family time, traveling, reading a good book, laughing until your tummy hurts. I can totally relate to the Fisherman’s story. Time for change has come. My daughters emigrated, the last and only tie that kept me from changing my lifestyle, and as sailing was a long-life passion, it was an absolute no brainer to make the call.

The urge to travel has been with me for as long as I can remember, don’t know if it was the Lust to Wander or Wandering what the Lust to travel will bring me! Born and raised at the coast, the ocean has always held a great fascination, the mere vastness was mind boggling. My scuba diving escapades gave me an amazing view of what can still be explored . . .which lead to my ex-husband and I buying a mono hull called Windeb, back in 1999, ready to live aboard and circumnavigate the globe.

Introduce Frik

We are thinking of changing our lifestyles completely. Me and brother, Eben had discussed this now for a while (always over a glass of single malt) that our lives as IT Guys is super challenging in today’s rat race. Myself worked for 8 years at the Atomic Energy Corporation of South Africa and then became a majority shareholder and CEO of a large ICT company in South Africa at an age of 26, then from 2002, I was a United Nations ICT Consultant on large population registers such as Biometric Voter/Citizen/Population Registers and help establishing democracy or Identity Systems in over 24 different post conflict countries. Further, not that I needed a degree or a piece of paper to proof my skills, but I was forced through the system to get those pieces of paper. I managed to get part-time, my BSc., MSc., and double PhD in Science, Management, and Information Systems (three majors for each degree) just to fit as the best into the system. As a consultant, it became a race to keep up with my degrees, my experience, and my networking. I had to be better, sharper, willing to working longer hours, but still more productive and more efficient than my competitors to be able to get a new contract, every 4-6 months for 15 years. I was well known as the architect who can put these big systems together, budget to a cent accurately, developed to a day the operations plan, an IT guy who can keep 65,000 lines of code in his mind, who memorizes laws and regulations, who never needs a pen or paper to jot down notes… It was not all work, I did have fun, I did visit 95 countries, lived in 24 countries, learned a lot about different cultures, went on extended safaris with the best 4×4 money can buy (although Toyota fans will disagree!), slept many nights under the stars in the biggest game parks in Africa, but it took a great toll on my life and I found myself more often thinking of that simple life of the Fisherman…

So, I want out. It is time to make a paradigm shift. It is time to make a huge change. It has always been a fascinating idea of moving without an engine…it is just awesome! But I never owned a boat. I took a look at the local boat clubs and I always saw a lot of old broken or forgotten boats full of bird poop. It dawned on me that it may be a great idea to sail, but not so great to maintain. I started diving, paragliding, motorbike touring, flying ultra-lights, powered paragliding, and went on wild safaris in Botswana and Namibia, also my wondering lust took me to 95 other countries I loved the excitement! In December 2006, my brother Eben and I took a crew job on delivering a Leopard 40 catamaran from Cape Town to Ft. Lauderdale. This trip kick started the sailing idea good and proper!

The Next Step

The brothers Olivier always choose the roads less travelled, always pushing the boundaries, complete adrenaline/adventure junkies – a winning recipe for one helluva adventure. Eben is not just Frik’s blood brother, he is also his best friend. Not that they were best of friends from the beginning, they had many arguments, some leading to bloody noses or bruised limbs. Not that the arguments stopped, but at least lately the bruises are only ego related.

The four of us went on many safaris, many SCUBA trips, many motorbike trips, both owned small aircrafts, both were licensed Powered Paragliders and often flew together on trips around South Africa, but also to neighbouring countries. Eben is a joy to have on any trip, always a guy with a plan. A guy that you can trust to get you out of any tough situation. Melanie his wife, is a super fun creator, always ready with a fun suggestion. In fact, currently, they also sold everything and is currently traveling Asia with their two awesome daughters. Please follow their YouTube videos!

We discussed this with our life partners and they agreed. So, we decided to go for it. The big step into the unknown. Boat ordered, and building has begun!! We are going to live on a Catamaran.

This season is going to be all about the decision-making process until we set sails. We are going to discuss how we decided what type of boat, what length of boat, what brand and model, what the standard options are, what the aftermarket options are, what electronics, storage space, what to leave and what to take, our gear, basically, everything which we read about and researched about until we sail into the sunset.

Links

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All the links mentioned in this video is here:

1. My brother and his wife, Eben and Melanie UsLovingWanderlust YouTube Channel