We are Becka and Zach, also known as the crew aboard SV Teulu. We both grew up in a similar area but it wasn’t until we went to Swansea University in 2018 that we crossed paths. I (Becka) was studying Criminology and Zach was studying Marine Biology and we bonded over our mutual love for travel and adventure. Most weekends were spent either in the water, surfing or spearfishing, climbing and hiking around Wales. We both felt so honoured to live in such a beautiful bit of the world.

As kids, I loved to horseride, freestyle kayak and i was an avid member of the Scouts (you would be correct in thinking boy scouts! It was my mother who rung them up and begged for me to be let in!). Zach had a similar upbringing, although with a bit more dingy sailing, skiing and surfing. We both seemed to been drawn to water from a very early age.

We both spent a lot of our school education day-dreaming about the wide world and what where we would both end up. Guided by the traditional mentality that you had to go to university, we had both somewhat closed our eyes and picked a subject to study, with Zach picking mechanical engineering and I, graphic design. Needless to say, neither of us found our true calling in these areas and we shortly dropped out and packed our bags.

Zach headed to Ko Tao in Thailand to do his dive masters qualification and i went to the French Alps to scrub toilets in exchange for a single bed and ski pass. Seemed a pretty good deal! Did i give the future any thought whatsoever? Absolutely not! All i knew is i was happy; a happy now as i used to call them back then. Three summers in Greece and a summer spent working at an all boys summer camp in the states later, i found myself in another ski resort, having quickly become best friends with one of the new Chalet Hosts. Only a few weeks later, she sprung the question ‘I am going to apply for Swansea University, you coming?’. Well, that certainly wasn’t on the cards for the next three years and i didn’t even really know where Swansea was, but it sounded like fun, and what else was i going to do? By coincidence, at some point in Zachs travels (and also at a few summer camps in Canada later), he had the same revelation and also ended up applying to Swansea University.

A few years, two degrees, and multiple jobs later, and here we are, living on a boat, travelling around the world. If you could have told my fourteen year old self that i would be doing this, i would have laughed and said ‘tell me how exactly’. Was it a perfectly executed plan for the start? Absolutely not! Life has so many twists and turns and i am a firm believer of everything happening for a reason. It’s bizarre to think of the parallel lives we would be living if Zach was an engineer and I, a graphic designer. A life which would be far more professional (and profitable- no less!) but i can say with certain we would not be living as rich and fulfilling life bobbing around the world on our old ketch.