Adventurers Taking 'Vanlife' to a New Level with Sailing SEARCH Project

Sofia Pineiro and professional paragliding pilot, Thomas de Dorlodot, are about to leave their home (but not their friends), to sail around the world on their latest, and arguably biggest, SEARCH Project yet. They’ll be finding the most beautiful places on the planet to paraglide, dive and surf, have professional athletes and friends join them along the way, all while we share their stories, photos and videos throughout the journey. Their only goals: seek intensity.

“Surround yourself with people that reflect who you want to be and how you want to feel, energies are contagious.” Rachel Wolchin

This has certainly been no problem for these two adventurers, athletes and nomads.

Meet Sofia & Tom:

Sofia Pineiro  & Thomas de Dorlodot have spent their lives following their passions, and it’s taken them all over the place. Tom, a professional paragliding pilot from Belgium, has been exploring high altitudes since he was a teenager. He became the first pilot to fly over the Machu Pichu in 2008—simultaneously making him a “guest” in the local jail for a night—and competes in the Red Bull X-Alps (known as the world’s toughest adventure race).

Sofia is Argentinian, born in Paraguay and the daughter of a diplomat, making her more than familiar with a lifetime of travelling. “That was always a part of me, the travelling and the languages, meeting different people from different cultures,” she says.

And that is exactly what ended up bringing the two together.

“When I graduated from school in Rabat, Morocco, I came back to Belgium to study. After completing two years in acting school, studying communications was where I met Tom."

It was kind of funny because I met Sofia and I was about to go to Pakistan for 6 weeks, we were going to cross the Karakorum glaciers on foot and paragliding with friends [Horacio Llorens, Krystle Wright and Hernan Pitocco], and I said that I would be leaving the next week. And she said, ‘maybe I could come?’

After only five days of knowing each other, followed by a month of sporadic phone calls while Tom was in Pakistan, “both of us had pretty much forgotten what the other person even looked like,” says Sofia. But she made the jump, flew to Pakistan and made it the very symbolic place it now is for the two of them.

"We started doing projects together, not really realising it was going towards an official sort of collaboration between him and I. It felt natural and we kept creating projects together that took us all around the world.”

"And now here we are with this boat!”

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SEARCH ANTHOLOGY from SEARCH Projects on Vimeo.

The Plan:

“The only plan is that there is no plan,” Tom says.

Well, there is a general idea: Using the 12m sailboat as base camp for themselves and their large network of athletes, adventurers and photographers, they will continue their exploration of new, beautiful places to do the sports they love. “The plan is also to invite professional surfers, kitesurfers, other paragliding pilots, to join us and go on adventures with us” says Tom. Other than that, Sofia says, "we haven’t decided exactly how we’re going to do it. We want to leave as much as we can to spontaneity—always looking for the unexpected."

The Inspiration

Three years ago, having gone on an expedition for over two months across the Pacific Ocean on a catamaran through French Polynesia, Tahiti, Marcus Islands and more, Tom says “that’s when I really fell in love with sailing. The way you travel with a boat, using only the wind and having all the paragliders on board. The best thing is that you can bring all your tools on the boat, you bring your toys with you. But because you don’t have a lot of room, you have to decide what is important. And that’s where the idea really started.”

Sofia: "It was the classic daydreaming conversation of ‘one day we should sail around the world’. But once he came back, we started talking about it in a more realistic way. ‘You know, why not? This is something we could both do and something we’ve both always wanted.’ I’ve always been more a water person than a mountain person, so it fit perfectly that we could do something with both elements."

Completely agreeing with our views here at The Outdoor Journal, Sofia and Tom have also taken much of their inspiration from ‘a life with less’. Less stuff, more experiences and the richness that can bring. Further proving this, they spent last summer living in a tiny house—we'll even go so far as to use the word 'adorable' to describe it.

Sofia told us, "I think people have already experienced this excess, working hard and having more, and just being surrounded by very material objects. People started going the other way. We’re trying to get rid of everything unnecessary and only focus on the essentials. This is so much more important than surrounding yourself with so many things. It’s a lifestyle, a mentality, and a healthy way of living—with balance."

Learning this gradually through his years of experience, Tom adds, "When I was on an expedition, crossing a mountain range, I would have to take as little as possible with me. You have to be when you’re carrying everything on your back. At the end of the day, I realised ‘okay, I don’t really need much’. As well, travelling around the world, going to Pakistan or Africa, you meet people that have very little, yet they are always really happy to share everything they have. It gets more human. It’s back to humanity again, in a cultural way, and it’s natural."

You can try to make as much money as possible, have your vacation days, the classic life, but at the end of the day, people don’t really seem happy with that.

Needless to say, they're taking it to a new level by bringing that tiny house out onto the ocean. Tom says that "like the tiny house, we want to show people that it’s possible to live this way, a low impact life. When we were working on the boat we were really working on the energy aspect, solar panels, a hydro-generator, a water pump for us to make water out of salt water, etc."

He adds that, "with the ocean, it is just you out there. It is the last place you can really be free. You really feel that you’re alone. I think it’s interesting to still be able to get to those places—and I think the boat is the only way.

The couple has also taken inspiration from explorer Mike Horn. After having read his book Latitude Zero 13 years ago, Tom was motivated to try and find a way make his own imprint using his sport. That pushed Tom to start attempting bigger and more extreme expeditions.

"If I’m doing what I’m doing today, it’s a little bit because of him," Tom says. "One day, I was in Pakistan and I met him. We directly connected and talked about the mountains. He loves Pakistan too, it’s probably one of his favourite countries. He seems like a very calm and wise guy, but he’s also very funny and friendly and laughing all the time. Such a cool person.

"He did destroy my hand when we first met."

Our Founder, Apoorva Prasad, can attest to that after spending some time racing around Namibia with Mike Horn last year.

His advice was that "you should enjoy the difficult times," Tom says. "It has always been in very difficult situations I have thought of him: 'what would Mike do?' It’s a little bit ridiculous I guess, but Sofia and I talk about it a lot. At the end of the day, he’s a normal person. We know many guys who are doing their sport, their way. It’s people who’ve trained, worked a lot and prepared really well—from Mike Horn to anyone else. And we’re lucky to have many friends like that to inspire us all the time.

"It’s the only thing you can do, accept what comes. When we were in Africa and problems came up, we could either see it as negative, or see it as a challenge that there’s a solution to. And there is always a solution. So let’s find it!

"Sofia is really good at that. I can get a little bit negative, but Sofia is always smiling and ready to find a solution."

The Preparation

“We were both basically starting from scratch,” says Tom. “We did some courses. We learned all the theory, took some exams, the license to be a skipper. And it took awhile because at the same time, we had a lot of work between the different projects (other Search projects, Young Adventurers, upcoming paragliding competitions, and more) that we were working on. It’s been really intense.”

We can imagine! The Red Bull X-Alps 2017 starts at the end of this month—where, just in case you’re unfamiliar, Tom and 31 other athletes will race a straight-line distance of 1,138km across the Alps to Monaco, through 7 different countries, using both paragliding skills and extreme endurance.

All this while, making sure the boat was ready to go for their sailing adventure shortly after the race. Needless to say, they both have had a lot on their plates, but that seems to be the way Sofia and Tom both work.

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Sofia: With all the challenges we really learned a lot. It was part of our intention to be a part of every step along the way—not to just hire people and go to the boat when it was ready. We needed to learn how our boat works. Which has been a really rich experience.

For Tom, having been working on his own craft of paragliding for so many years, it has been like going back to school. "There are a lot of parallels though. When you’re in the mountains there are so many factors, the winds, working with a team, etc., and then you go to the sea and you see why a lot of mountaineers like the sea, and sailors like the mountains.

At the end of the day, it’s all about nature. We just want to be out there as much as possible.

Expectations

"We are basically searching for intensity," says Tom. "It’s cool to travel around on a sailboat when every day will be different. It's not going to be easy, living on a 10 square meter space. We’re going to have hard days and good days, and we’re going to have to fix problems all the time. But we know that already. We’re really luck to be surrounded by really cool people and experts that have helped us and will train us even more before we head out."

He continues, "But as a couple, the plan is to make a big family. Some little guys sailing around? We will see how it goes." This was followed by some nervous and excited giggles, but Tom assures us that “it was part of the plan. I was travelling around so much on big expeditions that Sofia could not always be a part of. We wanted to get closer. That was important. To engineer our life together, it could not be me leaving all the time. It is about finding a way to grow together—and the boat project has been amazing for that.

Oh, and in case you were wondering hoping, there will be a wedding!

Although they are officially already married as far as the Belgian government is concerned, Sofia and Tom will be holding the “big party” for friends and family in Majorca in September. Sailing there (of course), it will be their first big leg of the trip.

"We’re not the first people to sail around the world, even with families," says Tom. "It’s not new, but we want to bring it to the next level and do it differently, really explore and get off the beaten path. As far as possible.

"We also want to share as much as we can. We want good photos, good stories and good memories and we want to share with the people who might not be able to do the same at this time, so they can follow us and get inspired. That’s part of our goal, to show people that it’s a lot of work, you’re learning bit by bit, you meet the right people, and then one day you wake up and you’re sailing around the world. Just make it happen."

The Outdoor Journal will be excitedly following Tom, Sofia and The SEARCH sailboat around on their MANY upcoming adventures. We'll be relaying their stories, photos and videos on our website and social media as they come in.

Tom & Sofia will also be holding a press conference to announce this exciting trip Thursday, June 22nd at the Brussels Royal Yachting Club. Stay tuned for our coverage of the event.

Feature image by John Stapels