CREW STORY · 20 May 2026 · BY Dmitry Badiarov
The Boy Who Thought the Sea Was Home
Sometimes the next chapter begins in ways you can neither anticipate nor predict. You cannot force it, delay it, or negotiate with it. It simply arrives.
From the voyage: Sailing Ragnar
| DatesFrom / To | VesselClass, size, tonnage | VoyagePorts visited, capacity in which sailing | Days on board | Distance logged | Night hours | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08 May 2026 – 11 May 2026 | Dufour 44 | Lemmer - Kornverdersand - Terschelling - Hindeloopen - Stavoren - Lemmer; Capacity in which sailing: skipper. | 4 | 107 NM | 2 | Force 6 (22–27 kt) |
From the member's personal logbook.
His first chapter began before he could properly speak. It was sailing. He was about two years old when he broke my heart after a week-long voyage had come to an end. We had just returned to a marina in The Hague. As we walked away from the boat, he began crying, pulling me back towards the pontoons.
“Sea! Boats! My home!”
The next day, at a grocery store, I asked him: "What shall we buy?" "A balloon. And a boat." For years, that was life. Boats. Harbours. Charts. Ropes. Sea stories. Voyages. By the age of six, Captain Strawberry had already sailed some 2,000 nautical miles. Some of our most meaningful memories happened at sea. A quiet anchorage after sunset. The stars far from shore. Friendships formed while sharing watches, meals, uncertainty, weather and adventure. For years it was all around boats, harbours, anchorages... If you had told me at the beginning of April this year that my son would be speaking Chinese in his sleep, I would not have believed you. Even less that he would become obsessed with Wu Shu. Yet perhaps the signs were already there. In May we docked at the historical village of Stavoren for the night. About five minutes after we tied up, Reno spotted a young man practising with a Shaolin staff. Immediately he announced: "I urgently need to join him! He is rotating the staff incorrectly!" The ancient art of Wu Shu had found a way aboard. Soon the forms appeared everywhere. On his favourite beaches. On pontoons. In harbours. In the cockpit. On deck. Anywhere with enough room to move. The boats remained. But now his world has expanded with something new.