RETO – the skipper (commander):

Reto was born in Grison, Switzerland and has done an apprenticeship as TV and radio electronics technician and did several years of computer servicing.

At that time he went on the first sailing trips in the mediteranean and started to grow a passion for off shore sailing.

After his studies in Elektrical Engineering he worked as research and development engineer, department head of electrical assembly, production manager of tooth racks, power tools and electrical control cabinets and became family father of his two sons Jannik and Fionn.

Then there was a phase of Lean Consultancy for Nestle in Vevey and finally he took on the direction of the tooth rack production site of Wittenstein Switzerland.

Therefore is is clear that Reto is responsible for everything electrical, electronical and the mechanical maintenance on board. And also the part of killing the fish…

ANGELA – Co – Skipper (Admiral)

Angela was born in Bavaria, Germany.

After discovering a certain interest for mechanics (through the maintenance of the motorbikes) and also for beer (through the bavarian culture ;-)) she did her master as brewing engineer in Freising Weihenstephan.

Starting as sales engineer for brewery equipment she then joined Heineken Switzerland as Project engineer, then Technical Support, Energy and Environment and Implementation of TPM. After a period of 3 years within Nestle she rejoined Heineken as brewing and quality manager for both production sites in Chur and Luzern.

Having only few sailing experiances she always liked travelling by motorbike, plane, bus or bycicle and enjoyed to explore new countries and cultures and of course also food. She is speaking fluently English, French, Spanish, Portugese, some Italian and little Indonesian.

Therefore Angela is responsible for the fresh water systems and hygiene on board (but the black water is delegated to Reto…), maintenance planning, navigation and travel routing,  provisioning and communication, photo documentation and blog. Oh yes, of course all the rest of the work once the fish is dead…

Our Catamaran SHE SAN:

SHE SAN is a 43 ft Belize from Fountaine Pajot built in 2003. It was love at first sight.

Even the name we immediately liked, without knowing what it means for a long time. We thought about SHE as in English or the Abbreviation of Safety, Health and Environment. After more than a year Bettina, the former owner cleared the mistery and explained to us that SHE is the snake in the chinese horoscope and SAN the polite ending in Japanese (we had guessed that). Bettina is born in the year of the snake and so is Reto.

And what the heck motivates us to quit everything at home and to sail around the world?

First of all we want to get to know other countries and cultures and dive in a bit deeper as what you usually can do as a short term tourist. Of course here it helps to speak the local language as far as it is possible.

We also want to check out the underwater world, as long as corals and fish are still alive and not yet destroyed by the human mistakes resulting in environmental pollution, overfishing and global warming.

And then of course it is quite an adventure to live on a boat.
Especially the maintenance and repair is a constant challenge and it is important to always find creative ways to help yourself in the middle of nowhere.

On the radio net in Grenada once another cruiser told these meaningful words: “Living on board a yacht is not a vacation but a vocation” and we feel that describes it sometimes quite well ;-)…