Team

A family as a crew

This page brings together the story of the family and the achievements of Travely-Family. The greatest achievement is turning a family into a crew capable of reaching the most demanding goals.

About us

Travely-Family – Russia's No. 1 family cruising sailing team

Captain

Andrey Klochkov

One of the world's leading sailing captains and Russia's No. 1 captain in family cruising. More than 100,000 nautical miles of sea experience, with more than 100,000 nautical miles as captain. Around 40,000 nautical miles in high latitudes, including navigation among ice.

Captain and leader of two family sailing circumnavigations and holder of an unofficial world record for the southernmost circumnavigation completed by a family with children.

Before sailing became his life, he took part in extreme mountain treks and speed ascents and was actively involved in snowboarding and motorsport. Competitor and prizewinner in major yacht races including the Rolex Middle Sea Race, Fastnet Race and Monaco Cup.

Graduate of Tomsk State University. Author of coaching programmes for both new and experienced sailors.

More about the captain

Chief mate · polar guide

Marina Klochkova

More than 80,000 nautical miles at sea and more than 20,000 nautical miles in high latitudes, including navigation among ice. Author of With Children Around the World, a book about a family circumnavigation through high latitudes.

Professional traveller and researcher, two-time circumnavigator, organiser of Antarctic expeditions and producer of ambitious educational projects. Member of the Russian Circumnavigators' Union and the Russian Geographical Society.

She has crossed the Drake Passage under sail 26 times. Expedition leader and polar guide in Antarctica, specialising in educational programmes aboard vessels and on land in Russia and abroad.

Leader of the nationwide cultural and educational project Film Laboratory for School Students: Filming Science in Antarctica. Travel journalist, educator and participant in demanding mountain expeditions, including in the Himalayas. For many years she contributed to Yacht Russia and the Russian travel portal My Planet and volunteered with WWF Russia.

Leader of international expedition and educational projects and a researcher of engagement practices and socially significant initiatives. She develops ways to turn unique expedition experience into educational, cultural and media projects that bring together people, organisations and regions. An expert in leadership, team management and project delivery under uncertainty.

Motivational speaking topics:

How to turn unique experience and an expedition into a socially significant educational, cultural and media project.
How to engage people with complex subjects through expeditions, media and personal participation.
How to unite people and organisations with different interests around a challenging idea.
How to make an impossible dream come true when you are not a hero.

More about Marina

Second mate

Anastasia Klochkova

More than 70,000 nautical miles at sea and 20,000 nautical miles in high latitudes, including navigation among ice.

Completed her schooling remotely through the Geographic School of St Andrew the First-Called. Travel blogger. Graduate of Cape Town Sailing Academy (RYA), qualified RYA yacht skipper and IYT instructor.

She has been able to berth a yacht independently since the age of 12. She has slept on bare ground in the Sumatran jungle, seen Komodo dragons and encountered hippos and crocodiles in an African river. She speaks English and studies Spanish.

Works in the Andaman Sea during the winter season and in Arctic expeditions to Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land during the summer. Yacht skipper and instructor.

Junior crew member

Lada Klochkova

More than 60,000 nautical miles at sea and 15,000 nautical miles in high latitudes, including navigation among ice.

From the age of three she could tell the mizzen from the mainmast, rode in the bosun's chair below the spreaders, tied nautical knots and wrote songs and stories.

Completed nine school years remotely through the Geographic School of St Andrew the First-Called. She now studies at an international school following the Cambridge curriculum.

Achievements 2013 - 2022

Two circumnavigations and the high latitudes

The first and only family crew with children in the post-Soviet world to sail to Antarctica, spending three and a half weeks there and landing on the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic mainland.
Cape Horn – the "Everest of sailing" – rounded four times during the family circumnavigation.
Nine years of living, travelling around the world and undertaking demanding expeditions aboard Lady Mary.
Two crossings each of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, plus the Indian and Southern Oceans.
Sailing expeditions to Easter Island and Tristan da Cunha, among the world's most remote inhabited islands.
Point Nemo – the oceanic pole of inaccessibility – reached on 31 December 2018.
An independent expedition along the 37th parallel in the South Pacific investigated the area of the phantom islands Maria Theresa, Ernest Legouve, Wachusett and Jupiter and demonstrated the absence of land shown on contemporary nautical charts.
Family expedition high-latitude record: 65°06′ south.
Longest passages: 53, 55 and 62 days non-stop; 57 and 85 days with stops.

Storm experience

The ocean without a filter

Strongest storm at sea – Beaufort Force 11, winds up to 62 knots, South Atlantic, 2019.
Strongest storm in port – Beaufort Force 12, winds up to 84 knots, Almerimar, Spain, 2015.
Longest continuous storm – 29 days in the South Atlantic.
Wintering aboard the yacht at 55° south.

Recognition

Festivals and awards

Nominees for Russia's Yachtsman of the Year national award in 2018 and 2019.
Nominees and finalists for the Russian Geographical Society's Crystal Compass award in 2020.
Nominees and finalists for the Crystal Peak and Star Under the Backpack awards.
Antarctica Under Sail: Survival – winner of the 2020 Man and the Sea festival.
To Antarctica with Children Under Sail – winner of the 2021 Gran festival and third-place winner at the Golden Globe festival.
In 2022, Storm and Suwarrow Atoll won first prizes at these festivals.
Twice nominated for the My Planet National Award.
Best Journey of 2021 according to the Russian Circumnavigators' Union.

Professional expeditions

Andrey and Marina Klochkov

A professional schooner crew consists of six people: captain, chief mate, engineer, chef, deckhand and polar guide.

Together with their daughters Anastasia and Lada, Andrey and Marina completed a circumnavigation around all the great southern capes with a visit to Antarctica. Across two circumnavigations they reached every continent and crossed both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans twice.

Andrey Klochkov led the family sailing expedition to Antarctica and captains high-latitude expeditions. Since 2013 he has lived and travelled around the world and led expeditions aboard Lady Mary. Since 2023 he has captained a 37-metre gaff schooner operating in Antarctica and the Chilean fjords.

Marina Klochkova is a polar guide, member of the Russian Geographical Society, creator of Travely-Family, journalist, writer and leader of nationwide cultural and educational projects. In November 2026 she begins her fourth Antarctic season as an expedition leader and polar guide.