SAILING AROUND THE WORLD IN ‘LA VAGABONDE’

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” This wonderful quote from a 4^th century philosopher St. Augustine perfectly sums up the importance of travel. Exploring the wonders of the world is one of the best catalysts for happiness and a great way to challenge your boundaries.

So, if what St. Augustine says is true – that the world is a book, and those who don’t travel read only page – Riley and Elayna must have “read a library worth of books.”

Riley and Elayna, sailors aboard La Vagabonde

Riley and Elayna are an Australian couple whose love of adventure, exploration and for each other took them on a journey around the world on their beautiful 43-foot-Beneteau-Cyclades yacht fittingly called ‘La Vagabonde’ (The Wanderer in Italian). And it all started in a small southern Italian town of Monopoli when Riley bought the boat off some Italian guys. He spent some time in Monopoli, learning everything that had to be learned about sailing and navigating.

The first stop on his voyage was Croatia and after that Greece and the Aegean Sea where, as destiny would have it, he met his “partner in crime”, the lovely Elayna who also happened to be a dreamer and who also had no idea about wind, weather and sailing. As Riley puts it, sailing has been “a really steep learning curve” for both of them.

The deck of La Vagabonde isn’t the only place to spend time on

When asked what inspired him to travel, Riley’s reason resonated with many of us: “When you finish school you save up as much money as you can in as short a time as possible and travel around for as long as you can before the dreary sameness of ‘life’ rears its ugly head and you find yourself watching T.V. during dinner and working 10 hours a day.  Personally the actual inspiration was the guys a few years older than me telling me stories of their travels.” If you are wondering where did Riley get the money for this global adventure, the answer is very simple – he worked hard for it for eight years, alternating between mines and offshore oil rigs.

Sailing around the world sure does provide a lot of happy memories

Although, it sounds very romantic, sailing isn’t as easy as it looks, but, when you look at Riley and Elayna, it is definitely worth every ounce of strength and sweat they put in it. Their ultimate goal is to follow in the footsteps of Christopher Columbus, with the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific being the last stop. But then again, with their wandering spirits, we wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they have decided to take their once-in-a-lifetime adventure even further. The last time we’ve heard of them, they were sailing somewhere around the Leeward Islands, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts in the French Polynesia.

“The dreary sameness of life” is nowhere to be found with a view like this

If you would like to learn more about this amazing couple and their unique voyage, please check their YouTube channel and Instagram account. You are guaranteed to escape “the dreary sameness of life” at least for a little while and maybe even decide to “read more than one page of the book called traveling”.

Check out the first episode of Sailing La Vagabonde.