Our Story

We are Roman and Mackensie, a young couple from Orange County, California. About four years ago, we began envisioning a dream of traveling the world by sailboat. We created a plan to set sail in the fall of 2022. Having limited experience in sailing, we knew the next few years would pose a challenge to accomplishing our goal of full-time cruising. After countless hours of studying, researching, and training along the Southern California coast, we were finally ready to commit to our trip.

In May of 2022, we purchased a sailboat in Turks & Caicos and cemented our plan to set sail south to the Caribbean in November of 2022. The next six months consisted of many late nights of planning and preparation. We were eager to explore what the Caribbean had to offer, from the different cultures and cuisines to the sea life and topography. On November 7th, 2022, we said goodbye to our family and friends, packed up our lives, along with a couple of surfboards and spearguns, and moved aboard our boat, Après Sail. Après Sail is a Beneteau Oceanis 40CC outfitted for long distance cruising. Over the course of the next year, we plan to sail as far south as we can before the coming hurricane season. We are currently 1,000 nautical miles into our journey, exploring the French West Indies. Our goal is to learn more about the ocean, discover new cultures, and live for the now. To us, sailing is the essence of exploration. The ability to pick up your home and move to new destinations at any time is what keeps us going. The adventure is in the unknown.

The Boat

Après Sail is a 1997 Beneteau Oceanis 40 CC (center cockpit), 2 cabins version. Built in France and previously residing in Rostock, Germany, she has spent most of her life in Europe. In January of 2022, she made the Atlantic crossing to Caribbean shores for the first time.

We were fortunate to find her in Guadeloupe, through Jean-Paul at Caraibe-Yachts. A survey was conducted by David at Marine Surveyors in Simpson Bay, St Maarten, Dutch Antilles. We finalized the purchase and took delivery of the vessel in Turks and Caicos.

Year

1997

Make

Beneteau

Model

Oceanis 40 CC

LOA

41 ft / 12.5 m

Beam

12.75 ft / 3.95 m

Draft

5.5 ft / 1.7 m

The Crew

The Captain - Roman

Hey, I’m Roman. I was born and raised in Deerfield, Wisconsin. Moved out to California for my senior year of high school and the rest is history. Opting to take a gap year in college, I moved to Portland, Oregon to work on a start-up and in the shipbuilding industry with my older brother. Having a few beers after work, I stumbled across a Beneteau sailing on the Columbia River. Having never been on a sailboat in my life, I was hooked at first sight. That night I had already found a college program in the Caribbean that I made a commitment to myself to be on at the end of this gap year. In June of 2017, I was stepping on a schooner in Tortola, BVI for a summer of sail training. Through this program, I gained my International Yacht Training certificates for CREW???, VHF Operator, and emergency first responder. This gave me a great foundation into a hobby I was ready to pursue further. That trip changed the trajectory of my life and I knew sailing would influence my future. Moving back to California to finish school, I met Kensie shortly after. Luckily it didn’t take much convincing to pursue this dream of cruising that I had my sights set on. Over the next 4 years, we spent our time training through US Sailing and American Sailing courses, as well as boat ownership on our Catalina. In the summer leading up to our trip, I also began getting into racing. Prior to departing for our voyage, I spent nearly 100 days on the water and sailed over 500 nautical miles. Professionally, I have mixed my hobbies with my job, and current work for American Sailing.

The First Mate - Kensie

My name is Mackensie, but Roman calls me Kensie. I grew up in Mission Viejo, which is a city in Orange County, Southern California. Before I met Roman, I had never been on a sailboat or even thought about a sailboat, other than boozy catamarans down in Cabo. Roman has a lot of crazy ideas, which are pretty hard to adapt to as someone who is a stubborn planner and likes doing things by the book. I had met him just after he had returned from living on a sailboat in the Caribbean for a summer, so going on a bigger sailing adventure had become his newest goal. I knew how much living a life of adventure was important to him, and because I was super into him (still am) and wanted to be a cool and easy-going girlfriend, I helped him talk through and research how to make the big dream a reality. I didn’t want him to be an 80-year-old man talking about the things we could have done and didn’t, so I made it a goal of mine to do whatever it took to make this trip happen. I took sailing classes and obtained ASA certifications with him, all while trying to balance my law and business school schedules. I know I won’t be the most experienced sailor on the waters, but I will be doing my best to learn as much and as quickly as possible. During our trip, I’ll be working remotely for a corporate law firm as a transactional attorney. I’ll miss my family and friends, pickleball, snowboarding, and long showers, but I am looking forward to the new experiences and skills this trip will provide.