Ahoy!… and welcome aboard!

Hi! We are Wim and Sher. We’re savvy sailors, ocean dwellers, and inspired world travelers. Join us, and follow the adventures of Dione IV, our custom-designed sailing yacht and home, where we share and navigate life and love as full-time live-aboard cruisers. Our journey will be one of exploring the world… mostly by sea, sometimes by land, and (hopefully) always with curiosity, courage, a sense of humor, and gratitude.

Imagine the possibilities. Expect the best. Trust the journey.

Our family and friends speak a variety of different languages, so we have included a language option on the upper-right corner of the website. You may choose your language of preference from the pull-down list at any time. The text is being written in American English and then automatically translated, so please forgive any potentially strange phrasing or slightly unexpected words you might encounter.

In the Ship’s Log you’ll find posts and pictures from our travels. We’ll have highlights and an overview at the top with more detailed descriptions in the “Captain’s Log” section below that for those who are interested in more depth. Occasionally, you might also find a snippy comment or two from Frechdachs in the “Badger’s Bunk”. Frechdachs (naughty badger) is our tiny crew mate and Sher’s long-time traveling companion… he’s a good little sailor, but quite the rascal.

The posts in the Ship’s Log are in Blog format (reverse chronological order) with the most recent entry first (at the top) and posts from earlier dates following below that.

AND, speaking of dates…
you will notice that we may post dates/times in the format: “T plus (+)” or “T minus (-)”. T = “Launch!” This originates from the US space program and the communication countdown to planned time of lift off.
The official start time of our world adventures and journey together on Dione IV is “T”, July 1, 2024. This is the date we leave the home port and sail out of the Netherlands into the big world beyond. Many important things happen before this, so we’ll note that as “T minus” in days/time, and all things after departure as “T plus”. But fear not… posts will also have normal calendar dates and times for clarity!

About our journey and plans… Where are we? Where are we going, and when will we be there?

We won’t be including real-time tracking of our ship’s exact position, but we will be drawing our overall route on a world map. You’ll be able to follow and see progress along the way visually and also with summaries in a “where in the world is Dione IV?” section.

In the case of plans, sailors always say that plans are written in the sand at low tide. Which is to mean, that all plans in the boating world are fluid and easily washed away. They are subject to frequent and last-minute changes, dependent on many things including weather, wind and waves, functioning of equipment, health, availability of resources like fuel, water or provisions, tides and currents, inputs from other cruisers or authorities, as well as real or imagined threats of alien attack and the like, etc. So no matter what you might read in our “plans” section, we might very well be doing something completely different. It’s all part of the cruising life!

Find out about the lovely and unique Dione IV… data and specifications, how she was designed and built, how she got her name, and a bit about Dione I, II, and III.

Find out about us, Wim and Sher, and about the Badger on board.