Travels of Jaci and Kevin Jacioutthere

I received this delightful Email from Jaci and Kevin so how could I resist getting them on the podcast?:

“Hello Franz

Firstly I want to say thank you and I am really excited about finding you by accident on podcasts.

We are currently day 13 into a Mediterranean crossing originating in Croatia down south with the actual crossing from Greece and we are heading to Spain and have survived a Medicane en route.

My partner Kevin gets sea sick so on the journey to pass time I found your podcast interviewing Chris and his covid Croatia journey which is very similar to the start of ours. So on the long days, it’s perfect to have discovered something that not only has captured our attention but is knowledgeable 😀.

The heading to Spain is to spend winter as part of our new life as live a-boards which started in Covid.

If you are interested in my story I have written a few blogs of our unique adventure so far, mostly for family, friends and others I try to inspire with our journey from corporate to nomad.

https://jacioutthere.wixsite.com/home

Great work and thank you, we are about to listen to Nathan.

Kind regards

Jaci

We are Kevin and Jaci from Cape Town South Africa. We belong to the category Global Nomads and currently reside on a catamaran between Spain and Croatia to follow our dream. With much angst and sacrifice we took the chance and quit our corporate jobs in order to make adventure our life and become liveaboards in the Mediterranean.

The desire is to learn more about life, absorb new cultures and gain and give inspiration along the way. In doing so we hope that we are able to show people by example that our new lives could encourage them to believe that they too can follow their dreams.

My motto is and boy has it come back to bite me multiple times :
If your dreams do not scare you they are not big enough

Timeline
2009 was the first time in Croatia and 5 times subsequently when we have sailed Croatia and realized that we wanted to live in the wonderful country.
2 September 2018 – MTB trip in Slovenia – the desire to move to Europe become too great to ignore
18 may 2019 – obtain skipper qualification for sailing in EU
26 June 2019 – offer is made after much research on a 2015 Lagoon39
9 Dec 2019 – Lagoon39 renamed GypsyDjango officially becomes ours
26 Jan 2020 – welcome to Barcelona and a big culture shock
13 March 2020 – Spanish residency card collection- officially allowed in EU 😀
14 March 2020 – covid lockdown 😂
3 June 2020 – life gets interesting with an attempted crossing and rejection on ferry to Italy
4 June 2020 – re attempt and overnight ferry to a Italy and 1st tourists in empty Rome after border opening
9 June 2020 – overnight in dining saloon of freight ferry to zadar from Ancona with special permission by director of border police as boat owners to enter Croatia
10 June hitch hike lift with locals to split
5 September 2020 – 3 months almost over and time to exit Croatia to begin Mediterranean Crossing to Spain via a quick tour of Montenegro
15 September 2020 – bypassing Albania due to covid – hello to Greece with aim to discover Ionians and leave via Zakynthos
17 September 2020 – worst 38 hours of our lives surviving the Medicane on Lefkada which was not forecast to be hit and the wise decision we made to hide in the perfect bay and delay kefalonia.
23 September- off to Italy we go during yet another storm but needing to move because of winter season approaching
27 September- while not allowed off boat (covid and Greece) and hiding out in Reggio during another storm we took the opportunity to sail the 4.4 currents of the Messina Strait in 29knot winds to head to Sicily, a detour because of the weather conditions from original aim of Lipari and Ustica.
2 October- hugging the coastline heading west in westerly winds we finally got to the northwest tip of Sicily and crossed to Sardegna
3 October- yet another detour due to 4m swell and currents with 30knot winds and a speed of 11.9 achieved on fully reefed main we arrived at Sardegna on the east coast. Still not officially in Italy.
8 October- time to cross to Menorca – still keeping in mind the aim to get to Barcelona before winter weather. No where to check in officially to Spain on the Island.
22 October- we have forgotten about future bad weather and fallen in love with this special Island
23 October- final leg of the crossing to Barcelona

In Covid 2020 we have sailed 2297 NM over 500 hours and been in 5 countries 😊 which has been interesting. We are South Africans with Spanish Residency on an American boat which makes life even more interesting. We will be making this crossing annually.”

———–
If you would like to support the Sailing in the Mediterranean and Beyond Podcast there are several ways!
1 Become a Patreon
2 Become a Sponsor
3 Buy my Sailing Audio lessons

Past Podcasts may now be found HERE

If you have ideas for future podcasts or comments please drop me a note! and PLEASE rate my podcast in iTunes and perhaps write a note. Here is the link https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sailing-in-the-mediterranean/id566678892?mt=2

Sailing! Learn to Sail: Basic Costal Cruising Certification Lessons for the ASA 103 Exam over 9 hours of Audio Instruction to help you get ready to go sailing and also to prepare you for the written portion of the ASA 103 written exam.
https://gumroad.com/l/PvOYK

If you’re interested in my sailing instructional audio series here are the links:

Sailing! Learn to Sail: Basic Keelboat Certification Lessons for the ASA 101 Exam
https://gumroad.com/l/Eiig
Sailing! Learn to Sail: Basic Coastal Cruising; Lessons for the ASA 103 Exam
https://gumroad.com/l/PvOYK
Sailing! Learn To Sail: Bareboat Cruising Certification Lessons for the ASA 104 Exam
https://gumroad.com/l/bwXh
Sailing in the Mediterranean Website
https://www.medsailor.com

If you would like to be a guest or have suggestions for future episodes or if you would like Franz to be a speaker at your Sailing Club or fundraiser please feel free to contact me.