Last weekend SV Twister & Ocean Nomads sailed back into Amsterdam, where she set sail 210 days ago, for a circle around the Atlantic. Classic Schooner SV Twister & Ocean Nomads teamed up winter 2022/2023 to facilitate a next level ocean adventure with the mission to connect people to the ocean and fellow ocean nomads, in a happy, safe and meaningful experience. 

In 13 legs, we’ve been sailing around the Atlantic with the focus on: Adventure Sailing, Positive Impact, Stories & Skill Building, Conscious Lifestyle & Ocean Minded Community.

210 days

13 legs

15.000 Miles

12 Countries

37 Islands 

100 Nomads!

What a voyage it has been!

Some highlights of the ocean adventures

The hands-on sailing of the beautiful ship, travelling into new countries by sail, jumping into 5000 deep ocean waters, spotting wildlife and even swimming with dolphins, the 5* meals that some of you managed to prepare, on an angle, exploring Caribbean culture and nature, especially the islands and bays that could only be reached by sail. The growth, learnings and transformation many of us experienced. From different seamanship like weather reading, navigation, to cooking on angles, facing tough times when the weather or our seasickness was giving us a tough time, and learning from each other! 

The biggest highlight have been the people! Organising a trip on a vessel like Twister allowed us to bring more people together in one place than on the average liveaboard boat. 

Connection and conversation at sea goes deeper in one day than months on land. It made us a beautiful community at sea! 

SO many inspiring people joined us and we are blown away with everyone’s contribution, skills, stories, missions, plans and drives. So many memorable moments created, friends made, and thank you’s to give! 

We are also happy that we’ve been able to facilitate scholarships on different legs, to give back, make sailing accessible, and support you on your mission.

An adventure like this does not come without challenges either. We have faced rough weather for a long period of time at the beginning of the expedition where we had the shelter for two weeks in France. Not what we expected but it resulted in deep friendships between nomads of whom some are still travelling together. But overall we are beyond impressed how well the vessel and the vibes stayed in tip top conditions. And that’s thanks to the people, to all you who joined!

As users of the ocean and visitors of places we are also responsible to give back and make our visit a positive one. We’re happy to have been able to educate and contribute on whales and dolphins thank to the collaboration with Sail & Whale. We’re happy to have been able to support the Mayreau Animal Welfare association, Eden Rest giving back to aid workers. Supporting the Woman and the Wind mission and finally met Wayne and Justin of Greening the Caribbean tackling the waste management challenges in the Caribbean. In most places we’ve been able to find the local organic farms to source our food as local and nutritiousness as possible. 

We believe our biggest impact is made by the seeds planted along the way in every way. By uniting you, your experiences, connections, knowledge and stories, at sea, we can reach way further, help more, do more, and be more. 

Our wish is for more to see how beautiful the ocean are. And hopefully ignite the superpowers within each one to take steps into a conscious nomadic life in or near the sea, and give back to the ocean, our playground, our home, our life. And we are so proud that many of the nomad who joined us on Twister are still ocean adventuring out there, of which some together!

A few special mentions…

The number 1 Sustainability Award goes to Nitya! She has been the 1 person who has sailed the full Atlantic Circle on SV Twister without taking any flights. 

For many others a big reason to join was to not have to fly. Guido, Stefan, Dorothee, Andrew, Hanna, Iker, Melanie became long term liveaboards joining 3 legs or more! And many more have been more than a month on board. Andrew and Nitya even joined for both Atlantic Crossings! 

The Low Carbon Travel award goes to Bertrand & Arline who jumped on board across the Atlantic with their Bicycles. They continue their onward travel with bicycle from the Netherlands to Switzerland. 

The Determination Award goes to Julie, who joined us on leg 1 and 2 as a newbie and got motivated to continue the sailing adventure by hitchhiking across the Atlantic. She dreamt and she did and is now still in the Caribbean living her best life and learning all about sailing and the lifestyle. 

The Smile Award goes to Grace who, despite sliding in Andrew’s delicious overnight oats bouncing from once side of the boat to the other, keeps smiling. Even when she’s seasick she keeps smiling. We hope she’s now having a big smile on the Pacific Crest Trail, her initial reason to sail across the Atlantic.

The Salty Spirit award goes to Leanne! She jumped on board with us for the crossing and her drive and determination to learn, explore and discover got her with her continuous big smile pretty much adopted by Twister.

The Brave New Horizon award goes to Menno who had been thrown into the deep by us leading the Atlantic Crossing numero 2 as Ocean Nomads leader (literally and figurally ;). With big compliments from captain, crew and ON it has been beautiful to see him shine! 

The Ambassador Award goes to Cay who joined us again and again and spreads the ocean nomads vibes wherever she goes.

The Coconut Award goes to Jonatan who chopped more than 100 coconut welcome and superpower drinks (and breads) for our nomads. 

The Bravery Bakery award goes to Brianna who made croissants from scratch, as well as pure natural multi-purpose soaps for all the nomads who joined us.

For many more we are so impressed by all of your cooking and baking creations. Milo, Luis, Stefan, Pierre & Valerie to name a few super stars! Thank you for your extra efforts in keeping everyone superpowered with your delicousness.

The Optimism Award goes to Tyler who was determined to join us but schedule changes due to tough weather, and then when he managed to join us a misstep on the stairs on day 2 made him bench bound for recovery. Tyler, we are determined to welcome you on board again one way or the other!

The Heart of Gold award goes to Jeff and Constance who were ready on the dock to make their dreams real but turned around to give needed love and care elsewhere. We also are determined to welcome you on board again one way or the other!

The Adventurous Advocate award goes to Paulita who led Leg 2 with full grace and commitment and continuously showed up offering support after. She continuous living adventurous on the beach in Dominica embracing living with nature.

The Supporter Award goes to Fabian, Wouter and Suzy’s dad (and doggy Wingo) who drove for hours to give Twister a warm welcome in the middle of night when she sailed in earlier than expected.

We can keep on going with so many inspiring souls that joined us shining their light on the trips and on their beautiful mission and purposeful travel journeys! We will roll out more stories over time. Check out photos of all legs here.

Everyone gets the Adventure Bravery award! It takes courageous to jump on a sailboat with mostly strangers and set sail for adventure with many elements beyond control.

Get connected to any of the above legends on our memberhub.

We like to give a big thanks to Robert and Thomas for daring to take the chance with their vessel!

Thanks to all captains Frans, Jans, Zakob, Jan Willem & Fosse who for keeping the ocean nomads safe and shining their light and experience. All the legendary crew who helped and taught us the ropes: Ian, Eise, Marloes, Ed, Sara, Julia, Elsa, onshore support, parents, friends and family. 

Suzy Ocean Nomads and Robert SV Twister: The crazy ones who decided on creating this ocean adventure around the Atlantic ocean. 

So what’s next for Twister and Ocean Nomads?

Twister is already heading to the Baltic Sea for the summer season doing charter and sailing events. 

Organizing a voyage around the Atlantic has been our major focus past winter. The next few months we will focus on member value and content creation and spontaneous meet-ups. We are here to help you get out to sea and with community and we’ll be expanding our toolkit to support you on your journey to make the sailing dreams real. We have gathered a crazy amount of stories, photos and videos that we roll out over time to inspire and activate for ocean adventure with impact. More and more partnerships are being made and deals created for members. Suzy is making an update on book Ocean Nomad and creating a course on how to sailboat travel if you do not have a boat, putting all her tips together to help you get out there fast.

When and where to go sailing next with Ocean Nomads?

We are think-thanking about one or two rather spontaneous raft ups with Ocean Nomads vessels somewhere in the Med or Canary Islands or strait of Gibraltar. We’re currently polling ideas and plans with members (Vote here and let us know yours plans) and exploring how we can create a gathering. Keep an eye on the member hub to jump on board. 

Somewhere this spring we may host a gathering in the Netherlands, location and activity to be decided (Vote here). And we’re contemplating raft-ups with our members vessels in the med, and another Ocean Nomads Flotilla after summer or next spring. As well as member meet-ups in the wild here and there. We have not planned our next Atlantic Crossing (yet). 

Tune in on the member network to be the first to know of every new meet-up, resource, course, and sailing event on the agenda! And help co-create the next event. Meanwhile remember we have +75 vessel members and hundreds of nomads who continuously meet-up for adventure, impact, and community. We currently have quite a few members welcoming and seeking crew. There’s always some adventure to be found within the network. Welcome on board!

THANK YOU ALL!

SEA YOU soon!

Coconut Cheers Bri & Suzy