Meet Jurre
Words: Jurre Witte
In the middle of planning our wedding, we decided to buy our first sailboat and sail the world instead. We sold everything and got into the ‘digital nomad’ lifestyle. Sailing to the most amazing and remote kitespots with our own ‘house’. Amsterdam was our former home, and we left it in August and sailed via England, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and the Canaries to the other side of the Atlantic. We are clearly no professional kitesurfers, and unfortunately not millionaires either. But we did find our own way to live the dream!
Meet our home Yndeleau
Meet Suus
So let us take you on the trip with us, showing you the most amazing and the most remote spots while telling you about life on a small, floating home. How do you stay sane with your partner in such a small place? How to cross oceans, and how did we get into this lifestyle without being millionaires or pro kitesurfers? Well, we’ll tell you…
We were anchored at Union Island in the Grenadines. For all you non-boaties: that means we were not in a safe harbor, but our entire boat hung from an anchor which we put out ourselves. The anchor has to be crazy strong and well-placed, otherwise our boat could drift off when we’re kiting (or sleeping)! But back to the spot… this spot has crazy flat water and offshore wind. One night I watched all the YouTube videos I could with the slow internet connection, about doing an unhooked raley. The next morning, I put my bar in ‘suicide’ mode… Launching on the small pier is a bit tricky, but when on the water you have the spot to yourself. After a couple of jumps for self-confidence, I start to visualize the unhooking. Trying to remember all the tips I watched on YouTube.
Arriving in Union Island copy
Union island kitespot
Anchor union Island bay
I load, unhook, pop, and… I lose my board, accidentally turn my kite into the powerzone, and get pulled horizontally above the water, holding my bar as tight as I can. It feels so unnatural to let it go. Shortly afterward I hit the water and the bar slips out of my hands. When I surface, a bit dizzy, I see Suus surfing by, laughing. It seems to be pretty easy to relaunch the kite after losing the bar and after a few additional crashes, I finally land my first unhooked raley! Suus tried her first backroll today too. What turned out to be a backroll kiteloop, landing flat on her back, she decided that she needs a bit more time to practice this trick. Her jumping has improved quite a lot though! It is so much fun to motivate each other and to push boundaries. Suus taught me to kitesurf two years ago, and now we are pushing each other to do new things.
Unhooked Raley FAIL
Kiting just next to where we are anchored
Just after landing that first unhooked raley, we decided to rush to the French island of Martinique. We received more and more news about Covid-19 and it felt good to go to a bigger and more civilized country. We made our transatlantic crossing from the Canaries and just as we were running out of food we sailed into Martinique, and just two hours later the lockdown started. 113 days, knee surgery, and many days dreaming about kiting, we have just been on the water again! We are still in Martinique and found several kitespots on the east side of this magnificent island. We’ll tell you all about it next time…
In the meantime you can follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
Finally sailing again, up to new kitespots
