Hi there!

We are a family of four: Oleg (dad), Lera (mom), and two boys: Fedor and Anton. This blog is dedicated to our cycling and, more recently, sailing adventures.

After finishing PhDs (Applied Physics/Computer Science) and work at Stanford University we took a gap year and cycled across South America. Fedor was 2 years old, so there were only three of us at the time. Over 8 months we cycled 7000 km from the Southern tip of the continent through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. At times, when the wind was too strong or the traffic was too chaotic, we hopped on buses.

On the way we experienced the desolation of windy Patagonia and high Bolivian Altiplano where we camped under enormous night skies full of unfamiliar constellations. We crossed the Andes over a 4800 m pass, where our lungs and brains were depleted of oxygen. We passed through picturesque fishing villages on the Ecuadorian coast and rugged terrain of Colombia. Importantly, we met an infinite number of cheerful and generous people. Tire punctures, wild berries, field repairs, hospitality, lost tent poles, TV interview, dog bite, camping by the church… There was everything.

After this trip we did a short sailing trip as crew aboard "Пётр 1" expedition sailing vessel from Iceland to Norway. We then came back to the US, where we worked in technical fields for the next 6 years. While living in SF Bay Area (California) we bought 1/6th of a 30ft sailboat and frequently sailed the SF Bay fishing for crabs. This helped us survive the COVID pandemic. Our second son, Anton, was born in 2021. Soon after we moved to Florida. Then we decided to do another adventure, we bought a 48 ft sailboat in Plymouth, UK, rented out our house, packed everything and flew to the UK to start an open-ended adventure with no particular plan. By then we were a family of 4 (Lera, Oleg, Fedor 8yr, and Anton 3yr). We vaguely wanted to see Greece as the birthplace of European civilization, see places Odysseus sailed. So we ended up sailing south, around the Mediterranean, then back to the UK and around the islands there. It has been an incredible adventure, we got to spend a lot of time together as a family, invited many of our friends and family living in Europe to come visit and sail with us. We've caught a number of huge fish and a turtle that we safely let go of (fish weren't as lucky). We've seen storms (including being caught in a thunderstorm with lightning), mirror-like calm seas, starry night skies in the open sea, beautiful gentle dawns, moonrises, and many-many pilot dolphins (including some glowing brightly in fluorescent plankton underneath the boat). And of course we've seen a ton of archeological and historic sites.

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