Jarrod & Tanya: Sailing Chantilly
Tell us a bit about yourselves.
Tanya: “I love travelling, and had been for the past 2 years before I met Jarrod. In Australia I travelled across the country working at music and food festivals, I have a great passion for live music! My background studies include tourism, event management and hospitality. Jarrod and I met in Darwin 2016. Before we met I got a job living on a sinking historical vessel called Alfred Noble. My job was to pump the bilge to keep the boat afloat after it had been refloated. Meanwhile, Jarrod was looking for crew to join him on the Darwin to Ambon, Indonesia... yacht race. The funny thing is... We met online on a dating site called ‘Plenty of Fish’. After 1 week I moved onto Chantilly, his yacht, and never looked back.
Jarrod: “I've had Chantilly since 2011. In 2013 I sold my company, rented my house out, and moved onto Chantilly fulltime. I then began my travels, leaving the Goldcoast Queensland, Australia I head north sailing around Australia heading for Darwin. It took about 2 & a half years to get there. I stayed at some really amazing places like Whitsundays, all along the Great Barrier Reef and Cairns. I then settled in Darwin. Where I met Tanya. Apart from sailing my other hobby is motorcross. Before we left Darwin, we travelled to Alice Springs in the middle of Australia as I contended in Tatts Finke Desert Race, the largest motocross race in Australia, which is a 1500km race in harsh desert country. Two months later we sailed away from Darwin Australia in a yacht race called Darwin to Ambon Yacht Race in Indonesia.”
Tell us about your boat
‘Chantilly’ is a 42foot Lagoon catamaran made in France. Living full-time on a live-aboard boat is the most freeing experience anyone could endure. Our boat is like our own country, we can travel all over the world and take all our possessions along with us. We make our own power and fresh water, the only real expenses we have is food, fuel and maintenance on the boat, believe me it's not all cocktails and sunsets! There is a lot of hard work that goes into owning a boat. All the hard work pays off when you arrive on an uninhabited island in the tropics with crystal clear water, soft white sand and an underwater world full of bright coloured coral and amazingly beautiful fish. We love snorkeling, diving and spearfishing, yet we only catch what we can eat. Sometimes we are out for hours in the water, it's such a peaceful and relaxing place to be, it's like another world down there.
While we were with you, after a long night of drinks and a huge bonfire on the beach, we found ourselves caught in a storm where we became unanchored in an empty bay, it was very impressive to see you both get the boat back to safety. Tell us about how you deal with the ever-changing weather conditions.
The weather does play a big part in our daily routine while living on Chantilly. We usually watch the weather patterns in the region we are in and make a decision to pull up anchor and move to a calmer anchorage if the weather gets rough. However, sometimes you may not have a choice but to stick out a storm and sit tight. At the beginning of 2017 we were up on the border of Myanmar and Thailand and we got hit by lightning while we were on Chantilly, a very scary experience, the damage done was expensive and extensive. We had to sail for 3 days down to Phuket to get the boat fixed as all our navigation equipment blew up from the lightening. Repairing the boat took a lot of time and money to fix. Insurance is important when owning a boat, it is important to have it.
What kind of music do you like to play whilst sailing Chantilly?
Usually while we are sailing we love listening to reggae island music or old school classics. We love laying on the trampoline mats on the bow of the boat with a cold beer and cruising tunes while the sound of waves splash through the hull of Chantilly, sometimes we even sleep there under the stars.
What do you get up to when you’re not on the boat?
When we do get to an island or mainland of a country we also love doing land travel. We have a Yamaha wr450 motorbike on board Chantilly that Jarrod recently got sent over from Australia, it's a road and trail bike so we can do a lot of off road travel too.
Whats your favourite item on The Chantilly?
Tanya: “Apart from the trampolines, ducky is our favourite toy on the boat!”
Where’s your favourite place you’ve sailed to? (so far).
Our favourite place that we have sailed to would have to be Indonesia, we have been back 3 times now. When we left Australia we spent 3 months sailing through the Indonesian Archipelago, from East to West. In 2017 we sailed to Sumatra and now this year we have made it to the island group of Anambas which is in-between Malaysia Peninsula and East Malaysia/Borneo. There are around 250 islands here, and no tourists, so we are loving it. Most islands are uninhabited and the water clarity is unbelievable, best we have seen so far! That's what we love the most, dense jungles, white beaches and clear water.
(Above: Jarrod & Tanya hanging their hammock under the boat.)
Why were you harboured in Puteri Harbour, Johor Bahru?
When we sailed back into Puteri Harbour it had been 2 years since we were there last. We contacted our friend Aarti and spent about 3 months there organising a website and preparing videos from our years of sailing edited for our new Youtube sailing channel which should be launched in December this year.
During our stay we met so many people, mostly expats who work in the region of Johor Bahru, we have made so many great friendships there, friendships that will last a lifetime. We also met a few sailors from around the world doing what we are doing now. It's interesting to find so many people buying boats and sailing the world, we usually meet each other in marinas and then again somewhere along our travels. The sailing community is such a vast community, we learn so much about sailing from each other. A lot of sailors who buy a boat when young never look back at living in a house again, some have been sailing for more then 30 years.
(Above) Certificate from Tanya’s mother’s sailing days. Tanya received the certificate from her mother when she past away in 2016. Her mother was Russian but was born in China. The family had to migrate as the Japanese where invading, she sailed to Australia in the 60s. Chantilly will someday sail to China to where it all began.
Where are you sailing to next?
So after we sail around Anambas we will sail over to East Malaysia, stopping in Kuching, Sibu, Miri, Labuan, and finally Kota Kinabalu. We will also take our motorbike across country too. After Malaysia we will sail over to the Philipines. All of these destinations will all be new waters for us, we are really excited to sail and explore these fascinating destinations.
Jarrod & Tanya are working hard with their editing team to bring you along on their journey by launching their Youtube channel later on this year.
For now, you can follow them on instagram @sailingchantilly and look out for them on your travels!