How a book inspired this family to sail through some of world’s most dangerous routes

“Mary and Robert were so lucky to live in those wonderful times”, Marina, as a child, would think reading her favourite book ‘The Children of Captain Grant’ by Jules Verne over and over again.

She grew up, built a career, got married and gave birth to two children. It seemed that her childhood dreams were abandoned.

But during a holiday in Thailand, she saw a note on a palm tree, that read ‘In need of four people for the yacht crew for travelling’.

“My husband and I stared at each other and said ‘can it be this easy?'»

Five years later, the couple bought a yacht.

All childhood Marina dreamed of being Chingachguk

“Not how we imagined it”

2014, winter, the Mediterranean Sea – definitely not the best time for the first expedition, as it later turned out.

Ms Klochkova’s husband, Andrei Klochkov, tried to take into consideration every little detail of their first trip with their kids. But he could not predict the severity of seasickness Ms Klochkova and their eldest daughter would experience.

“At that time, our daughters were 12 and two and a half years old. I was mostly worried about Lada, the little one. But she was fine, while my other daughter, Nastya, and I were terribly rocked.

“You imagine how you would be heroically pulling the ropes, setting sail, but in reality, you feel like you’re dying while you uselessly lay there, and you can barely breathe as your head aches so much because of the terrible illness,” she said recounting the initial troubles of their sea adventures.

Ms Klochkova recalls crying a lot when it became completely unbearable. A terrible physical condition was mixed with strong fear for their daughters in winter when the Mediterranean Sea was cold, gray and deserted.

The first expedition was the hardest

With that experience, it was far from an easy decision for her to set sail on another expedition.

I guess, I agreed only because of some kind of internal obstinacy. I thought: ‘So what, you’ve dreamt about this for 20 years, and you’re giving up?’

This time the family sailed from Montenegro, through the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean to the Canary Islands.

In the open ocean, Ms Klochkova and her elder daughter Nastya started to feel better.

“You just need more than three days without landing to get used to it.”

After it became clear that traveling will be ongoing, they took care of education for Nastya and Lada by enrolling the girls in an online Russian school and they could study right in the middle of the ocean.

«We might be pioneers among Russians «

The Klochkova family calls their epic voyage ‘an expedition through the three great capes and Antarctica with kids’.

According to Ms Klochkova, none of the families with kids from Russia have yet done anything like this, and perhaps, no one in the world.

The youngest crew member Lada travels almost all her life

“The expedition began in November 2018. First, we went west in warm latitudes. There were some deviations from the route. For example, we went to Senegal, to the Gambia”, Ms Klochkova told SBS Russian.

“Then we visited Easter Island, where only about 25 yachts per year travel to because it’s a very dangerous route. And when you have already done something like this, it’s easier for you to take the next step.”

Antarctica — beyond all expectations

Like the heroes of their favorite book Children of Captain Grant, which of course they brought on board with them, they were looking for the lost island, visited Cape Horn and then headed to Antarctica.

Ms Klochkova says they were preparing for a very serious test, thinking it would be so cold that «everyone will have to sleep in felt boots under one blanket, and in the morning they will have to knock an icicle off their nose.»

Antarctica was so beautiful, beyond any expectations!

But in fact, she says, nothing was so dramatic, while the beauty of Antarctica seemed «simply unrealistic».

«Every time Nastya stepped out on deck, she would exclaim ‘Wow! Oh dear! Wow!’ Antarctica was so beautiful, beyond any expectations.”

“The true path often hides in childhood dreams”

While almost everyone has their childhood dreams, but only a few take that one step to turn that big dream into reality.

“Each of us is born with some kind of a higher purpose. And very often your true path is hidden in your childhood dreams. If something inspires you very much, then you must definitely go this way. I think, that’s when God touches you to show the right direction,» Ms Klachkova says reflecting on the decision to embark on this expedition.

Always follow your dreams!

“It took me about 20 years to realise that, and I am very glad that I finally did. Any fear can be overcome because any dream comes to you with the strength to bring it to life”.