The crew

Hi, we are Tina and Markus, married in 1993 and in our 60’s who have turned our passion for travelling, adventure and sailing into a lifestyle in July 2024. Some people say we are grey nomads of the sea.

We will share highlights and lots of photos from our previous trips, plus new sailing and travel adventures in our blog and gallery pages.

Markus was raised on an orchard and farm in the Tamar Valley, at Kayena near Beaconsfield in Northern Tasmania and has lived in Adelaide South Australia since 1997. His grandfather, Colin Calvert, was originally from the Huon Valley in Southern Tasmania where the Calvert’s are known orchardists and sailors.

Mark followed this sailing tradition, with influence from his boat loving Father Clem Trezise, who grew up on the Tamar River. Mark helmed dinghies at the Deviot Sailing Club, having fun sharing these times with his brothers and friends as crew, then later crewing on a keel boat during club races at Beauty Point and once in the Port River Adelaide. He owned power boats from his teens until 2023. He gained much pleasure through hours spent with family and friends fishing and water skiing at Bonney Beach Kayena, Trevallyn Dam, plus scuba diving around Bicheno, Swansea and Coles Bay Tasmania. His boat doubled as camping gear trailer in Tasmania and for family trips in South Australia, to New South Wales and Victoria.

After cruising the Inside Passage to Alaska, Mediterranean and Carribean with Tina, he was further motivated to take up a long-held passion to sail oceans on his own live aboard sailing boat, so now is the time with Tina and Dione!

Tina grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. With a strong passion for finding new experiences and adventure, Tina has travelled extensively in Australia, Pacific Islands, Europe and the United Kingdom, North and South America and Asia. Journeys often included cruise ship cruising, both prior to meeting Markus in 1991 and since.

Tina trained as a Travel Agent, though only working briefly in the industry, gained valuable insights used to enhance her experiences. Tina has kept travel diaries and always enjoys taking lots of photos to record her adventures, destinations and the people she meets. She absolutely loves being social, so after leaving full time work, decided to start a ‘blog’ to document and share her and Mark’s travel experiences and fun times with friends and others who are interested.

Hello, it’s August 2026 now and I’m writing to you from Dunk Island, Qld.

We are still sailing after 2 years onboard Dione. We have experienced good and bad times, seen some amazing places, and met lots of lovely and friendly people. It hasn’t been all smooth sailing, but when it’s good, it’s really good. We have learnt so much on weather and sea conditions, sailing in general, anchoring, using mooring buoys, tides and wind conditions, geography, all aspects of navigating, including getting to places on land for provisions, such as water, fuel, groceries, and boat supplies. When there is no transport to get to where you are wanting to go you become very good at finding different ways of getting to where you need to go. We have fold up bikes which we use a lot of the time and are invaluable. We have been very good at finding bus routes, trains, ferries, barges or just walking sometimes long distances to get that part we need for that boat repair. We found by asking people for directions and information, people are generally so helpful and often offer us a lift to a bus stop or the shop, when they don’t even know us. Boaties also help one another and are great company as sailing can sometimes be isolating and very quiet. You have to get on extremely well with your partner, as there are days that you don’t get off your boat and you only have each other.

We have been home a few times in-between our sailing which is always nice to do something different and catch up with family and friends. While we are still enjoying our travels, we will continue sailing for now, but only time will tell for how long it will continue.

I’ve added a photo of us laterly. Yes I have gone grey, as it was too hard to keep colouring my hair, so my common line to people is “I did have dark hair when I started …. and this is what sailing has done to me : }

manyhave anchored here for protection from some rough weather approaching. We are on our way up to Cairns and Green Island. We were hoping to reach as far North as Lizard Island however that will not be happening now as we will be turning around and travelling down South after Cairns so we can travel back to Adelaidethe weather