Young Badass Sailors.
In June 2011, Tormentina and Raivo were ages 2 & 9 months old when we left the East coast of the United States to make a crossing of the North Atlantic to Europe.
They had at that point, never even gone on a day sail. My husband James said, "Don't worry Somira, the coast of Canada is really long. If the kids are miserable, we can just pull into port."
21 magical days later we pulled into Cherbourg, France and were greeted at the dock by our friend Mathieu Feron. He had a bottle of red wine, a fresh baguette, and camembert in hand. My Cambodian-French cousins came to visit bearing gifts of sweet plums and cherries. We had our floating home in a foreign country. We were sold.
Six years, 30,000 ocean miles, a dismasting (+subsequent 3 years of being shipwrecked on the island of Navarino), & the birth of two younger siblings later, these two amazing kids crossed their original sailing track on the paper chart in May 2017, just off of the Brazilian coast by Recife.
This portrait of them was taken just over a year ago, aboard SV Smoke, a 62' Chuck Paine Bougainvillea that James was representing for sale & was preparing for a delivery to Punta del Este, Uruguay, where the boat was eventually sold.
With this upcoming voyage, the kids would be crossing the equator for the third time.
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Young badass sailors - Tormentina (age 9) and Raivo (almost 7).
Aboard SV Smoke. Corinth, St. David - GRENADA / West Indies (August 2017) |
