Meet Ocean Nomads skipper: Thomas van Thiel | By the Ocean We Unite, SV Windfall

One of the skippers of our first Ocean Nomads flotilla, in Croatia in 2019, and with us ever since: Thomas, aka Tomaatje. Born and raised sailor, captain and owner of SV Windfall, ocean activist. Many Ocean Nomads have sailed with him and many more will.

My name is Thomas, ocean lover, who could sail almost earlier than walk. I have a big love and hunger for new adventures, traveling, nature, film, books, and chess or whatever game there is on the boat available.

Thomas! What’s your story?

I started sailing in and around the lakes of my home town Almere in the Netherlands. When I got older I started working for Amorgos, a sailing school for yachts where I sailed a lot in and around the Dutch waters and throughout the Croatian islands. In 2014, I did my first Atlantic crossing and opened my eyes for all the plastic pollution by seeing a plastic bottle 10 days away from the nearest land. Therefore I started By the Ocean we Unite when I came back home. By the Ocean we Unite is an organisation that spreads education and awareness through organising sailing research expeditions on microplastics in the sea.

Feel free to send me a message or ask me on the boat. Last year I bought my beautiful 53ft steel ketch, Windfall, with whom I will leave for a circumnavigation.

Why are you excited about joining the Ocean Nomads flotilla?

I met Suzanne in 2014 on the internet when we both were on a different ship and island in the Canary Islands making our way to the Caribbean and we always kept in touch. I’ve been following Ocean Nomads for some while now and when Suzanne asked me whether I’d like to skipper one of the boats in September I could only say yes.

Connecting with each other on a boat is one of the big powers of sailing. Together with the crew, you make your own small community on the water with the boat as our home, hopping from island to island. All together with all the small communities on all the other boats, we will be a moving village together. These are the ingredients of an awesome week where you make friends for a lifetime sharing the same experience. We combine this with aiming to keep our footprint as low as it can be and increasing our impact by learning and discussing the challenges and solutions the ocean is facing. I hope to find and share a lot of inspiration and good energy so together we will be the change.

Why are you passionate about sailing?

For me sailing is everything. It’s freedom in the purest of its word. Your compass is 360 degrees and you can go wherever the wind blows, working with the elements over this wild and tremendous blue desert. You will get what you get and it comes how it comes. Over there, the here and now is the only thing that counts and when you accept that you find freedom. At least I do. For me, that’s the most beautiful thing there is.

Thomas

What’s your wildest ocean-related dream that you would love to experience in your lifetime?

Drop anchor in Polynesia!

Look who’s back: skipper for Greece, 2024

Five years later, in 2024, Thomas skippered for us again on the Greece flotilla, Lefkada to Athens. With Ocean Nomads since the very beginning, a wild winter in his logbook, and we were fortunate to have him with us again. He’s a legend to learn from, and by then many Ocean Nomads had already sailed with him on Windfall.

Thomaatje is the one and only who has inspired me and so many others to get a boat, everything I know I’ve learned from him and he’s one of the best sailors and teachers I know. He has the knowledge and experience but most important he’s kind and patient which makes him an amazing captain.

Lovisa

I so agree with Lovisa! Without Tomaatje, his boat Windfall and the Ocean Nomads trip I would never have gotten into boating. Learned so much from this legend!

Nadiem

Where Thomas is now

In October 2026 Thomas cast off from Almere after years of refit, bound for the Canary Islands and then Cape Verde, where Windfall sails as the support boat for Koen’s kite crossing of the Atlantic. After that he heads north to spend a winter frozen into the Arctic ice. Almost everyone on board met through the network. He hosts our new moon meetups, and his crew calls and profile are inside the Ocean Nomads network.

Come sail with us. 💙