THE HYBRID LIFE
How’s your work/life balance? Keen for long-term sailing adventure but not yet able to fully quit work? Coen van Gaalen and Eline Wielenga, owners of Nautilus, a 1981 ketch-rigged Contest 38, charmingly nicknamed Sharky, have found their perfect way.
With smiles more than a mile wide, Eline and Coen together laugh with such contagious joy that instantly you know they’ve got it right! “Fifty-fifty, that’s our way! We call it the hybrid life: sailing half a year, then home and work for the next period … then repeat! Working for ourselves, we can do this – stop work completely, then pick up again. It is challenging, combining everything, but it makes for huge adventure!” And that it certainly does, with the couple so far sailing from the Netherlands to Sardinia through the 2024 season, before flying home to work through the winter, and in spring 2025 then rejoining their Sharky for another six months, targeting Greece and a subsequent haul out for the winter spell ashore. “We’re home again now but it’s still an ongoing adventure,” they say, Eline further explaining, “It’s a good combination, and differently to being on board for a year or more cruising in just one go, our way it never becomes the ‘normal’, it’s constantly refreshing.” JOINING FORCES
Coen, whose sailing began, as he says, when still in his mother’s belly, had already more than 20,000 miles under many shared keels, before five years ago finding and buying the ketch-rigged, 1981-built Contest 38 to live on while, as he says, “bringing it back to life”. Eline, whom he met just months after, had previously never sailed but as an avid campervan traveller quickly felt the connection.
“From the first time I was on the boat, it was like, ooh, this is a cosy house, I love it; and then that you can take her anywhere is so special.”
In breaks between the renovating, introductions to sailing began, including two weeks chartering in the Greek sunshine for a taste of the potential good life to come, and then a more challenging, long Danish cruise aboard their own boat.
“After just one year together that’s a big thing,” they both agree. “Six weeks together in such a small space and with a lot of bad weather; you really do get to know someone!” says Eline. “These were great times, though, including our first full night crossing, outside in the dark with all the lights. And that’s where and when the 50:50 idea started. I had no idea what to expect but thinking, yeah, we have the boat, why not do it, let’s just go! And our preparations started from that moment.” The renovations and refitting continued through the next two years, always with confidence in their boat. “45 years old now but still so strong and built for this kind of travelling,” says Coen. “That’s the difference with Contest. And it’s the same in its sailing, even in difficult weather it feels like the boat is doing it itself, always in control. And this is why we could do this. I had wanted to for 20 years and can’t afford a boat costing a couple of million, yet here we are, having so much of the same experience. That’s the beauty of this brand.” And as Eline cheerily says, “In our 45-year-old Sharky we’re sailing into the same anchoring grounds, enjoying the same sights and surroundings as the newer, much more expensive neighbours. All safe and comfortable. It’s beautiful and says so much about the quality of the build, which seriously helps confidence.”
“From the first time I was on the boat, it was like, ooh, this is a cosy house, I love it; and then that you can take her anywhere is so special.”
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SETTING OFF
Leaving IJmuiden, NL, bound for the Med in May 2024, first came stops in Belgium and Britain before the stretch to Brest on the western tip of France, in mostly really challenging conditions, and where finally landed a well-earned break was enjoyed before the weather settled for an untroubled crossing of the Bay of Biscay to La Coruña. “Three days, two nights, it was a magical experience,” Eline remembers. “Out in the middle of nowhere, with 3,000 metres below you, and the dolphins. So special!” “After all those years preparing, the Bay of Biscay gets worse and worse in your mind,” says Coen. “So many stories of storms and difficult crossings, but it was perfect and again helped confidence as we got into the rhythm.” With the Biscay crossing behind them, a new realisation set in. “As we went on,” Coen explains, “the places and names – Brest, Biscay, La Coruña, Porto, Lagos, Gibraltar – so legendary, and yet here we were, arriving at another every couple of days. Doing this yourself, on your own boat, that’s really something special.” High in mind, too, though were the orcas, and for avoidance they followed advice to stay within 20 miles of the coast and saw not one whale. Sailing also was only by day, reducing the risk of snagging the wide-spread fishing fleet’s pots and nets in the dark. Emotions ran especially high passing through the Strait of Gibraltar. As Eline says, “Yes, there were some tears. Europe to port, Africa to Starboard, the Rock ahead, and kite surfers everywhere in the shimmering sun light. A really special moment.”
Along the southern Spanish coast, stopovers at its sleepy, little white villages were enjoyed but still at some pace, before a two-day crossing to Ibiza in the Balearics. “On these crossings you get in the flow,” says Eline, “the rhythm of sailing and sleeping, taking turns, in a sort of state of surrender. You know that two days, eight hours, you’ll be in harbour. You deal with whatever is coming. Storm, calms, whatever. Sometimes you hate it, then you love it. The stars, and the lights in the water, it’s like heaven. Then here, this time, through a beautiful sunrise we watched Ibiza just rise up out of the ocean as we neared. It blew my mind!”
ISLAND LIFE
After a few days’ chilling with extended birthday celebrations and multiple cappuccino moments, it was time to head for Sardinia, and with the decision made to leave the boat there over winter, a full month and a half’s leisurely exploration lay ahead. “Sardinia was so nice,” says Coen, “we could have spent a lot more time there, too, so we’ll be going back. From the stories, many people seem only to touch Sardinia in the north, and for just a couple of nights, see the Maddalena Islands, and then go. But the east coast is absolutely beautiful.” “Like another planet,” says Eline.
“On these crossings you get in the flow, the rhythm of sailing and sleeping, taking turns, in a sort of state of surrender. You know that two days, eight hours, you’ll be in harbour. You deal with whatever is coming. Storm, calms, whatever. Sometimes you hate it, then you love it. The stars, and the lights in the water, it’s like heaven. Then here, this time, through a beautiful sunrise we watched Ibiza just rise up out of the ocean as we neared. It blew my mind!”
Starting from the south, anchoring was often in solitude, in beautiful situations along shorelines with little protection, so done with a preparedness to move on if the weather turned. And so many great beach destinations where the hook could be dropped just metres from the Lido with its cappuccinos and people watching. Many spots filled with tourists “like flies” by day but before nine and post-five peace descended for private isolation and quiet perfection. Come October, Sharky was back in the south and craned ashore in Cagliari for a winter on the hard, Coen and Eline then reappearing in antifouling gear the next April, making good for the new season’s passage to the Greek islands via Sicily, taking in the Aeolian Islands and infamous Strait of Messina. The months that followed were filled with new and very different discoveries. Their route leading through to the Ionian isles, and on to the Corinth Canal – transited perhaps unusually through the night. As Eline enthuses, “Highly recommended! With the canal’s steep sides all illuminated at night, it was a crazy, beautiful experience.”
From here they worked their way through the Saronic Gulf and on northwards to the Cyclades, Sporades and finally to the mainland and Volos where Sharky now sits ashore in a timeworn yard after an old-style beach haul out, awaiting her next adventures. “Much of this season was in a real heatwave, with the Meltemi wind blowing almost constantly, and there was so much upwind sailing. It was really a very different type of sailing to the previous year. And the next no doubt will be different again!” say Coen and Eline. And with, in their words, every island in these Greek waters like a country of its own – each with its own individual energy and natural characteristics – there is plenty more to tell of this ‘hybrid life’. So, stay tuned for more! Follow Sharky on Instagram.
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