For Brian and his partner, the moment of reality came in 2008. The research on boats, planning, and saving money had led them to purchase a beautiful Amel sailboat, a 53 foot ketch named Delos. An amazing blue water cruising boat that could spend months on end at a tropical island without provisions or fuel. Brian and his partner left Seattle on August 2009 and headed south towards warm water and white beaches! Brian finally felt the freedom and adventure he had craved; life had a deep and meaningful purpose and it was to be happy, travel, meet new friends and experience life. Delos made her way down the coast of California, where Brian became a certified diver, and into the tropical waters off Mexico. This is where they would wait for the right season to cross the Pacific Ocean.
“Hey bro, do you wanna take some time off school and help sail Delos to French Polynesia?” Brian said to me as he handed me a rum and coke. It was Chirstmas of 2009 and I flew to Mexico to sail, dive and chill for a few weeks while on break from University. We were sitting in the cockpit of Delos. Anchored in crystal clear water as the sun was setting over the massive expanse of ocean to the East. French Polynesia lay over 3,000 miles from our anchorage and there was nothing between us but beautiful, scary, empowering, intimidating Open Ocean. I’m sure you can guess my reaction. “I’m in bro! Do you know the crazy amount of dives in that part of the world? They are in diving magazines all the time” We spent the next few hours talking about magical far away islands with white beaches, healthy coral, fish life, good visibility and of course nobody but us anchored there. I left Delos a few days later and returned back to Orlando, Florida with a mission. Work, save money, and sell anything that wasn’t useful in my life and get ready for a sailing adventure that would take us to some of the most magical and remote dive spots in the world. Places that had inspired me to learn diving in the first place.
Once I got home the time flew by. I would sit up late at night after spending hours at school followed by hours working at a local bar, researching the foreign places we were about to sail to. My precious study time went from focusing on differential equations and microbiology to learning about the Marquesas, Tahiti, Bora-Bora, Rangiroa, and the Cook Islands. The passage was supposed to take us 3-4 weeks so I planned on taking 2 months off school. Just enough time to not only enjoy the sail but enjoy the destinations. In March of 2010, I loaded up my bags with all the dive gear I had, my surfboard and a bag of assorted board shorts and Tee shirts. I didn’t know it at the time but I wouldn’t be back home for over 8 months.
The sail was life changing. The peace, the calm, the rough and the windy all came and went. We caught our own fish and read many books. I knew then that I had found my University. I wanted nothing more than to sail, explore, dive and learn about the world from the world. Good thing I took out those extra student loans because they really came in handy once my savings had run out. Isn’t something like this exactly what student loans are for? To further your education and become a better person in hopes that you can give back to society as a whole someday. This trip definitely ticked all of the boxes that any university course could have.
Well, It has been 6 years since I left home and Brian and I are still aboard Delos sailing, diving, living, loving and laughing our way around the world. Within the first year Brian and his partner went their separate ways just as life had planned for them. Brian then met the love of his life, a beautiful Swedish girl named Karin who has been on Delos for 5 years now. I have also gone through a relationship with a wonderful soul named Josje who was onboard for 4 years before we decided we had grown together enough and it was time to explore the world apart. We’ve had over 30 different friends sail on Delos over the years and we’ve run out of money countless times and had to work in many different countries to continue our voyage as dirty sailors. We’ve worked on super yachts, worked in restaurants, bar tended, wrote code and even rolled burritos to make ends meet.
From the beginning, we wrote blogs about every part of our journey! Family, friends and strangers from all over the world have been a part of our blog and have followed along for years. As time went on, our passion for writing blogs turned to filming our adventures as we sailed to random places on the map. We thought this would be a great way to show our family and friends what we were up to. Plus what a cool thing to be able to look back 20 years from now and see ourselves at this age. Being able to relive all the crazy things we’ve done will be amazing when we grow old. After editing a few episodes we started to realize that other people enjoyed watching just as much as we enjoy making the videos and sharing them with the world. We started a YouTube Channel where you can see all our episodes from the past years sailing and diving through the South Pacific, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and the Indian Ocean. We also have a Patreon account that has really made this project possible. The organic growth of these two has been incredible and has enabled us to continue our journey full time! Thanks to the amazing people around the world, who we lovingly refer to as the Delos Tribe, we can sail, film, edit and share this amazing world without having to stop for “work”.
We are stoked to be part of the Mares family and look forward to posting stories about our past 6 years of adventure underwater here.
You can also follow the journey of SV Delos and her crew at www.svdelos.com,Facebook, YouTube.
Much Love and welcome to the Delos Tribe!!
SV Delos
12th July 2016
