Meet Elayna

I grew up on the west coast of Australia, a windy town called Geraldton. After school, I’d fallen in love with scuba diving, traveling and playing guitar and singing. I met Riley on the Greek island of los, whilst I was there working as a musician for the summer. It was sort of your "boy meets girl, boy asks girl to sail around the world" kind of story. He was sailing his first monohull he’d just bought in Italy and named ‘La Vagabonde’ single-handedly at that point.. and he and his friend Jimmy bumped into my friend and I one night out, in the village. A few weeks went by and he’d come to watch me play music.. and he’d taken me for a day sail. Riley was due to leave the island with some good weather and asked me if I wanted to join him for “a month long island hopping adventure”. Of course I said yes! When I moved aboard, I noticed a DSLR camera lying in the corner of the saloon that he never used. He told me one day “mum wanted me to take some photos and videos but I can’t be bothered.. so if you wanted to use it, you’re welcome too”. My want, to document what Riley was doing, and this unique life we were living, was strong. The videos I began making, started off being a way to share the adventure with my friends and family back home in Australia, but it quickly became obvious that a larger group of people out there were interested in seeing what we were doing too. Being a musician, I naturally loved to entertain.. so after the first couple of what we’re calling ‘viral videos’ we posted, it was decided that we’d give this whole YouTuber thing a crack. Alongside what developed into a new relationship.. and Riley asking me to move aboard indefinitely.. whilst we were still learning to sail. YEAH.. it was a wild time! We couldn’t have expected what would happen after posting our first (terribly edited) videos to YouTube. Here we are, quickly approaching a decade of living on the ocean in this exciting way, with our beautiful children. We feel incredibly lucky.

- Elay xx