The Road to the Horizon: September 2025

"Finding Dory", is a social community of cruisers who plan to cross the Atlantic (East-West) next winter (2025-2026 season). It is unique "free-to-join" and "contribute-to-the-group-as-you-wish" ad-hoc group of yachties, bonded by one common goal: to cross the Atlantic safely, and making it a unique and enjoyable experience for all.
"Finding Dory IV" ("IV" as this is the 4th year we aggregate a fleet of "ad hoc cruisers" crossing the Atlantic in the same season), is organized in collaboration with Helena and Steve from "Noforeignland" (NFL). You can read about the background, purpose and setup of this group, and our planned free webinars in this post on Noforeignland - which will also guide you how to join this Whatsapp-based community - and how to participate in our webinars.

Sailing any open ocean crossing is -in my book- a balance between "Hoping for the best", but "Planning for the worst". In each of my past 14 open ocean crossings, we had hundreds of boats crossing safely with us. But unfortunately, in each of these crossing, there were one or more critical incidents with fellow cruisers. Some of those needed external assistance during or after the incident. Ensuring your yacht and crew are well-covered for the possible expenses and support/assistance incurred due to those incidents, is part of the "good practices", for any skipper. Proper insurance coverage is critical...

So, time to dive into the details of what insurance companies can offer, and how we can cover our yacht and crew in a cost-efficient way. That is the topic of our 6th (free) webinar on Sept 22th at 08:00 AM Rome time (06:00 AM GMT).

In this webinar, Michaela Claes from Pantaenius, will share her experience, and passion, to help us across the Atlantic safely.

Michaela will talk through the essentials of yacht insurance, covering everything from basic third-party policies to full comprehensive coverage. She’ll explore key factors influencing insurance costs and coverage, as well as special considerations for ocean passages like transatlantic crossings and Caribbean cruising.
Attendees will gain valuable insights into typical coverage options, safety recommendations, and how to navigate risks during long voyages.
Whether you’re planning an ocean crossing or want to better understand your yacht’s insurance, this webinar will provide important information to help protect your vessel and crew.

Our webinar will be held on “ZOOM” and consist of +- 60 minutes of presentation, followed by 30 minutes (or more if needed) of open Q-and-A/discussions/shared experiences amongst the participants.

Our webinars are free for all “Finding Dory” members. We will record the session and publish the link to the recording afterwards to all members of our community.

The instructions on how to join this webinar, are distributed to "Finding Dory" members only, rather than widely distributing the link via social media, mainly to avoid spammers to join in, and disturb our webinar.

So, if you want to participate in the webinars, first join the "Finding Dory" community. Via our flotilla's Whatsapp group, we will send you details for each webinar. Instructions on how to join the growing "Finding Dory" flotilla on Whatsapp, you can find in this Noforeignland blogpost.

About Michaela:

Michaela Claes is the Operations Manager at Pantaenius Australia, bringing over a decade of experience and a lot of energy to the role. Originally from a small village near Muenster, Germany, she moved to Australia in 2003 and joined the marine industry in 2012.
A former semi-pro show jumper, Michaela credits the sport for teaching her resilience and focus—traits that have served her well in the pleasure craft insurance world. She's passionate about supporting yacht owners globally and loves sharing practical insights on claims, prevention, and how insurers can better support their clients.

About Peter:

As the "concierge" for the "Finding Dory" flotilla community, I will be moderating this webinar. In the 1970-ies, the French actor Jean Gabin, made a song, in which he explained that when he was 20, he thought he knew everything. In his thirties, he started to doubt that. And when he was 60, he knew only one thing: "one never knows everything" - "On sait jamais"... "On sait jamais" is the stage of life I am in right now. I still learn every day. But what I am committed to do, is to share what I have learned in my past 50,000 open ocean sea miles, with fellow cruisers. That is my current passion.

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"Finding Dory", is a social community of cruisers who plan to cross the Atlantic (East-West) next winter (2025-2026 season). It is "free-to-join" and "contribute-as-you-wish" group of yachties, bonded by one common goal: to cross the Atlantic safely. "Finding Dory" is organized in collaboration with Helena and Steve from "Noforeignland" (NFL). You can read about the background, purpose and setup of this group, and planned free webinars in this post on Noforeignland - which will also guide you how to join this Whatsapp-based community - and how to participate in our webinars.

As an almost full-time sailor, there are only a handful of online platforms I find useful. One platform, Noforeignland, I have been using for years: Once I am on the move, I automatically log my vessel's location, so friends and family can track me. I follow my fellow cruisers and friends' location and their blogposts/pictures. As Noforeignland is a crowdsourced repository too, it helps me scouting for an anchorage or marina, and all services around it (gas bottle refills, butchers, restaurants, chandleries,...) etc...
Their blogsite contains loads of posts where cruisers share insightful tips and tricks

And if that was not enough, Noforeignland is run by Steve and Helena, and a group of volunteers, for free.

Steve and Helena have also been crucial in pulling our "Finding Dory" flotilla together this year. While, for some years now, I've helped themadministrating some of NFL's Facebook groups, over the past month's we worked more closely together. That gave me the opportunity to really appreciate the time and quality they put into Noforeignland...

So, time to dive into the details of what Noforeignland can offer us, cruisers and sailors, during our 5th free webinar on Sept 16th at 20:00 Rome time (18:00 GMT). Steve will introduce the Noforeignland platform, its website and app:

Outline of the webinar:

Intro

NFL as a "destination guide"

NFL yacht tracking

Meeting other boaters

Questions and Answers from the participants

Our webinar will be held on “ZOOM” and consist of +- 60 minutes of presentation, followed by 30 minutes (or more if needed) of open Q-and-A/discussions/shared experiences amongst the participants.

Our webinars are free for all “Finding Dory” members. We will record the session and publish the link to the recording afterwards to all members of our community.

The instructions on how to join this webinar, are distributed to "Finding Dory" members only, rather than widely distributing the link via social media, mainly to avoid spammers to join in, and disturb our webinar.

So, if you want to participate in the webinars, first join the "Finding Dory" community. Via our flotilla's Whatsapp group, we will send you details for each webinar. Instructions on how to join the growing "Finding Dory" flotilla on Whatsapp, you can find in this Noforeignland blogpost.

About Steve:

Shortly after retiring from a career in software development, Steve and his wife Helena, founded Noforeignland in 2017 as a fun project for sailing friends to use.
Since then it has grown to be one of the most widely used platforms for sharing sailing destination information and for meeting and staying in touch with friends on the move.
As full time liveaboards, Steve and Helena have sailed their boat extensively in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. They spend all of their free time maintaining and adding new features to their app and website.

About Peter:

As the "house keeper" for the "Finding Dory" flotilla community, I will be moderating this webinar. Growing up at the Belgian sea coast, I have always spent my holidays and weekends on the water, but in sailing, I was a late-bloomer... I only picked sailing when I was 40, but it was quite a "fast track" since then. At this moment, I cruise, teach, crew, mentor and race quasi full-time.

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