We are Alessandro, Arianna, and Sophie. We are living in a boat from when this little monkey was born.
This is Vela Bianca, the name of the boat.
My father used to take all the family with him in this boat sailing for
three months every year. We went with all the family. My father's family and my uncle's
family. We were nine inside this space so you can imagine a lot of children, a lot of noise.
So I started as a deckhand in this boat. The first time trying to
understand everything. When I was fifteen sixteen I was able to to move the boat
alone, to open the sails, to navigate. I worked three years as a fisherman. I'm
making two years like twenty thousand euro. I was able to buy an old boat, a
Comet 11 1975 made for crossing the ocean, the Atlantic. But when I bring
Sophie with me the first year when she was 15 days old we take a very hard thunderstorm
with that boat and we had so many problems, but we are all okay and I decide
to make an exchan ge with my, with my father. "I give you my old boat and you
give your boat". So we made this exchange.
We're here right now. We are in Zadar in Dalmatia
in Croatia. Really nice place to be. It's the paradise for the sailing.
This is the boat. It's the Nova 41 feet. It's from 2000. It's a cutter, you can see this is the
Genoa and this is the Jib. Self tacking, you see you have only one "scota" in
Italian, rope. You can go up the wind without touching anything, just with this,
with the jib, and the mainsail. My father designed it. So this is another
important part of the boat. Got the hammock here and is very comfortable for
two persons and the baby it works, it's okay. If you are 130 kilos it's not good, but if
you are normal, it's okay. This is the stroller, the dinghy, got two
solar panels. They charge 8 amp in one hour if you got a great sun and
we have it in the sea and you know that. This is another good point of this boat
is the space here in the "poteto". You can see 41 feet is a very good space. You
can have lunch and dinner. So when you have the jib on the right side, on the
starboard side, you have to tie this one because you have to come to save the
strength. Also this, the only thing you have to do when you're tacking, with the
self tacking, is to tie this one and release that one and, you know, the
contrary if you go on the starboard side or the port side. This platform, this is
one meter more. For peeing overboard in navigation,
you know, you got three points *laughter*, you can not fall. We have the Belgium flags.
The Italian flag you have to spend 2,000 euro for one year so this is 50 so it's
better. You see the mainsail is rolling inside the mast, it looked like it's
comfortable but if you have problem with the mainsail you can see that you cannot
drop down and you remain with half the sail outside and half the sail inside.
It's a, it's a big mess, so you have to know how to utilize it.
Automatic pilot. The instruments: navigation, you have the speed, and the depth. I don't have an external
GPS. I like to navigate using the charts. You can check what you have
around. You can see thunderstorms, the sky, the waters, everything, the ships. And here in
the GPS, I use it to understand if the anchor is well or not, is good or not, because I have the track
here so I can record the movement of the boat. This is my place. The inside engine is
a Volvo Penta 60 horsepower. It's an old one, but it's a good one. It's immortal.
Tank 130 litres diesel. Yeah you can navigate for 40 hours.
So, welcome home.
This is basically our home. Coming in there are two twin cabins where we
usually keep our guests in here. We prepare the dinner and breakfast for
this little baby and we have everything inside this fridge and the drink the
drinking things are inside here. Less practical and difficult to use, but it's
okay. We have more room in here. This table inside when outside is cold and
it's raining so we can eat while Sophie is running on the sofa. Keeping the water
inside here you can see the level of the water tank. Practically, they are four
like this one here, the second is there, the third is there, and the fourth is
there and for a total of 600 liters. Alex's instruments. You can put this on
the top and here's the last mat.
We made this bed for Sophie. By this way, she's safe.
We fix the net, it's actually a fishing net. She can stay even when we're moving. She sleeps well.
Maybe now she won't enter because she's too tired. *laughter* She's too tired. I know, I know.
All this stuff isn't dangerous for Sophie so like her clothes are in plastic bags
so they don't get wet, don't suffer from humidity. We keep our food inside
there. All we need for cooking, more storage, some more room and usually
we keep the bottles and the water. And also this, this is the biggest one.
Going on, we have the toilet. A big, big bed. And, you don't want to stay alone. Okay, okay.
Life is dangerous *laughter*, you know?
She's really enjoying the boat life and I like the fact that she's starting to walk on the boat.
Life is dangerous. Even if you stay at home, even if you stay everywhere, you have to watch out. The world is
dangerous. You have to, to think what you wanna do. "Oh I can't do this, oh
I can't do that", "I can do this". You want to do this, you want to, you can. Do you think it's dangerous?
Yes it's dangerous. Also staying home or walking on the street or driving the car
or go inside the bus or in traffic,
everywhere. The danger is trying to be happy and
when you're happy, think about it, don't let it go like this, think about it.
You want to play, baby?