Find your People
Live the ocean Life

250+ members from 35+ nationalities. Liveaboards, adventure travellers, sailors, surfers, freedivers, eco-project builders, vanlifers, and overlanders. Ages 20s to 80s. A strong cohort of solo travelers, including many women on their own journeys. Some brand new to the life, others have been nomads for decades. What connects us: the drive for ocean adventure, conscious living, and positive impact.

A lot. The network accelerates what you’re already doing: finding the right crew, project visibility, connections in the next port, and a trusted circle who understands the lifestyle. No small talk. No explaining yourself.

For boat owners, trust is the whole game. 50+ vessel members use the network to find vetted crew, connect with skippers who share their standards, and tap into a community that respects boats and the ocean. Post a crew call, pin your vessel, get hands-on help with refits, passages, and route intel, from people you actually know.

Yes. Many members joined from zero. Being a vetted member also gives you credibility with captains: they know you’ve been reviewed by Ocean Nomads before reaching out. If you’re brand new and want structured guidance alongside the community, start with the Travel by Sail Course. The community is your ongoing network; the course is the step-by-step path from dreaming to crew-ready.

The Travel by Sail Course teaches you how to travel the world by sailboat as crew, through structured video modules, checklists, and guides. The Community is your ongoing network for support, connection, adventure opportunities, and impact. They complement each other, but work independently too.

Sailing is our origin and still our heartbeat. But we’re naturally expanding to include vanlifers, hikers, surfers, and off-grid explorers because the values are shared. Many of us navigate between different ways of living with nature over time.

Ocean Nomads was founded by Suzanne van der Veeken. YachtMaster Offshore, author of Ocean Nomad, 45,000+ nautical miles sailed, 5 Atlantic crossings. In her own words: “The hardest part is not the ocean. It’s finding the right people, and feeling at home.” Ocean Nomads is the community she needed on her own journey. Now it’s no longer about Suzanne. It’s by nomads, for nomads.

Permanent member pricing on every Ocean Nomads trip. 75 GBP off RYA sailing courses (Skippersonline). 25% off TrustedHousesitters. 20% off Stream2Sea reef-safe sunscreen. Plus deals on compost toilets, water filters, wetsuits, plant-based nomad nutrition, and 50% off the Ocean Nomad book. All from ocean-aligned brands we actually use. The RYA course discount alone covers more than a year’s membership.

Most people piece this together over years. A single sailing course or intro trip runs €500+. Crewing platform subscriptions €100/year. One coaching session with an experienced sailor or mentor €150+. One marina night in high season €80+. Plus months of scrolling, weeks figuring it out the hard way, and the draining energy of second-guessing every step.

A year of finding your people to sail, roam, and build with? Priceless. The RYA course discount alone (75 GBP off via Skippersonline) already covers more than a year’s membership. The rest — the network, the map, the hub, the meetups, the perks from ocean-aligned brands — comes with it.

You still have to take the steps. But you don’t have to figure it out alone.

Honestly? Most open communities are noise: ads, algorithms, strangers, short-term exchanges. Ocean Nomads works differently because we keep membership intentionally small (~250 members), hand-review every applicant, and build on trust over years. People show up because relationships actually form. That changes everything about how a community feels.