Three passionate women set out one day to make their dormant sense of adventure a reality, sailing across the sea on board a 50-year-old catamaran, the Mara Noka. We invite you to join us once again in the latest episode of our DIVE series, this time actually into the ocean waves. Dive in!
In our bi-weekly DIVE series, we descend into the murky waters of Instagram and bring you some of the accounts worth following.
The story of the voyage begins with the captain of the ship, Kiana Weltzien, who decided to leave her former profession behind and start a different life. She first encountered the Mara Noka in the Gulf of Panama in 2017 and knew immediately that this was the boat that belonged to her. Despite never having had a close relationship with sailing or even the sea before, it was clear that this was her calling. So, in 2018, with the purchase of the vessel, an alliance was formed between the young woman and the boat with so much experience and history to take to the sea together and embark on their first voyage in the Caribbean.
But Kiana is no longer sailing alone, as she has since acquired two new traveling companions. Alizé Jireh, a Dominican photographer and filmmaker, considers herself mostly an observer, seeking to reveal the widest possible spectrum of human vulnerability and beauty through her art. She tries to walk in the world with her eyes wide open to show as many corners of it as possible. Although she has never sailed before, she has always wanted to go on a sea voyage, so this adventure is a dream come true for her.
The third member of the crew is Danish artist and environmentalist Lærke Heilmann, who spent most of her childhood summers sailing, so she developed an ability to communicate with the big blue at an early age. She currently lives in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands and works as a coordinator for the Clean Ocean Project, an NGO working to save the oceans and fight plastic pollution.
This effort is also an important part of the Women & the Wind project, because as well as taking us on an adventure, one of the crew’s main tasks is to raise awareness of ocean pollution. Previous estimates suggest that there are at least ~21 million tonnes of microplastics in the Atlantic Ocean.
The crew’s days are now most closely tied up with a documentary that captures their latest adventure. They are determined to sail across the North Atlantic, raising awareness of the pollution of the Earth’s waters and the sustainable yet adventurous life that is open to all, male and female.
You can also support the project on the Women & the Wind Patreon page, which can be found at the end of the article!
In two weeks, we’ll be back with the background story of another Instagram page, but in the meantime, dive into the previous part of our DIVE series, in which we revisited the vibe of the sixties and seventies with acid memories.
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