WELCOME to worldwidewaterz

A bit more about us (by Nick)

 

From the time we met, travel and exploring was a major part of our relationship. Fran, originally from Germany, had backpacked around Australia in her early 20’s, then moved to Canada where she met me a over decade ago. I had traveled a great deal on business as well as on vacation. Although we both felt we wanted "travel" to be a significant part of our future, the concept of sailing was always in my head. What I couldn’t get over about Fran was how supportive of the idea she was. She had always had a deep connection to the water as many of us do, it didn’t matter how small the room was or how basic, but if she could hear water she would always be delighted with it. As we discussed having a family, this never deterred her from the idea of us all sailing around the world and she constantly thought of the positive impacts it could have on us all and in particular on our offspring. Fast forward to 2019 and our son Ben was born. 18 months later we packed all our belongings and moved to the US since I was offered a new job in Orange County, California, a place Fran always dreamed about living. Before we settled on the West Coast we needed to get the boat from Florida across and organized it to be shipped through the Panama Canal to Mexico where we then sailed her up north to San Pedro where Malilia currently resides.

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For the next 5 years we would live close to the ocean in a charming equestrian town between big LA and San Diego, spent most long weekends sailing across to Catalina Island and participated in the 2023 Transpac race to Hawaii - that's another long story better told with a cold beer around a campfire (Fran may post some videos about our race endeavors on here somewhere, have a watch if you are already equipped with time and a beer in hand).

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As we now enter the final quarter of 2025, our beloved home is sold, our belongings cramped into a 12ft storage container, my working days as a CEO have come to an end, our now 6 year old son has started the homeschool life and said good bye to his Kindergarten buddies and our boat is officially enrolled as a participant in the 2025 Baja Ha-Ha Rally from San Diego down to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico - this dream to travel the world on a boat is finally unfolding and becoming a reality. We are counting down the days to kick off for good on November 3rd while sailing with 130+ boats at the same time down south towards Cabo.

 

As we embark on this journey and call our boat our home we decided to also explore social media and use this to achieve a few objectives, each quite distinctive in themselves, but all connected by our desire to sail around the world. These are:

 

Where we are and what we are doing:

 

- Charting our adventure as it unfolds

- Participating in the Transpac Race to Hawaii in 2023 and Baja Ha-Ha Cruisers Rally 2025

 

Sailing the boat and everything on board:

 

- Outline the steps we took as we tried to make this dream a reality

- Provide a resource, where someone with the same idea could turn to & find what they were looking for 

•         Why did we choose the boat we did?

•         What is the process involved in buying a boat?

•         Review equipment on the boat as well as items that we use as we travel

 

Travel and our way around: 

 

- Places to go and what to see, trying to combine David Attenborough with National geographic (I know we won’t be able to compete, but hopefully you get the idea)

- Weather, route planning, events not to miss and things that might influence where you go and when

 

Raise awareness:

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         - Raise awareness to some of the issues affecting our oceans and the planet as a whole

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A boy on a boat: 

 

- Ben, our son just turned 6 months old as we surveyed our boat, living on a boat and sailing around the world will be his education (this includes home schooling and promote social interaction whenever possible with others). Accepting this is not conventional, we think this could be one of the best ways to bring up a responsible, well educated and well rounded young man. We will start the story, but hopefully Ben himself will pick this up later on. 

 

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