Local family embarks on epic sea adventure

A local couple, together with their one-year-old daughter and pet dog, is preparing for a sailing trip that is expected to take four years to complete. This epic sea adventure aims to cover all the Portuguese-speaking countries and territories and to celebrate the five-hundredth anniversary of the first Portuguese sailing trips to Asia.
João Gomes, 40, will be accompanied by his wife, Nae, who is from Thailand, and their daughter, Maria. The family’s departure date is scheduled for February from the Dominican Republic, where the boat called the “Dee”, named after Maria’s second name, is being prepared.
The route will include nine countries and territories where Portuguese is an official language, including Macau, with the passage here expected to occur by the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015. In addition, stops are planned in several other countries around the routes used by Portuguese sailors centuries ago.
“The idea to embark on this trip was conceived many years ago. I have lived in Macau since 1997, and dreamt for a long time of sailing around the world. The plan was to do it before my fortieth birthday, but my daughter was born this year, in January, so we postponed the trip for a year,” João Gomes told the Times. “We want to sail around the world, but, at the same time, the trip has a cultural purpose. We wish to showcase the Portuguese culture and try to bring together the Lusophone countries,” he added.
João Gomes, who is a civil servant, initially intended to start the trip in Macau, but the costs of bringing the vessel from the Dominican Republic are estimated to be around MOP400,000. In addition to this, the sailor didn’t receive the financial support requested from the local government in order for them to do the trip with a Macau-flagged boat, which, in a way, would represent the region.
“The government was not interested. I got a written reply from the Tourist Office (MGTO) where they stated that they could not envisage how the Macau name could be promoted with this trip,” Gomes said.
With plans to start the route in Macau flawed, the trip will begin in the Dominican Republic and, from there, will cross the Panama Canal into the Pacific, stopping at several islands on the way to the Asian continent and Australia until reaching East Timor. Arrival in East Timor, where Portuguese is an official language, is expected to land around late 2014 or early 2015. From Timor, the “Dee” will head to Macau, before docking in Malacca, Goa, Daman and Diu (which once formed the Portuguese India), Mozambique, and, passing the Cape of Good Hope, Angola. The trip will proceed with stopovers throughout the African coast, including Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. The final stages will include Brazil, North America, the Azores and Lisbon. 
According to the voyage promoter, the above mentioned route could be made in three years. “But we want to go smoothly and, overall, safely. That is why we set four years as the expected time to finish. We want to have time. In the Lusophone countries we will go to schools and associations. We plan to stay two or three months in each of those countries,” Gomes said.
Besides the family, parts of the trip, especially the longest ones, will be made in the company of friends. Stressing that the boat is prepared to sail with a short crew, or “short-handed,” João Gomes says that he is not overwhelmed by the task, since his navigation experience “is enough” to overcome the challenge. That a one-year-
old baby will be part of the small crew also causes no alarm. “I admit that there are risks, but we try to minimize them. (…) The lifestyle she [the baby girl] will have will be healthier than in the city.” 
“Many couples do this kind of trip and they mention that the adults usually have more trouble than the kids, who adapt very well,” João Gomes adds.
To follow the trip in real time, the website, www.salingdee.com, will be updated with information, photographs and video. Details of the trip will also be published regularly in the local weekly, O Clarim (where João Gomes writes a column), and in magazines in Hong Kong and Thailand. The family will also host a TV crew to film the trip in order to produce a TV series, probably to be broadcast on the Portuguese public TV channel. At the end of the long trip, the couple also plans to publish a book about their travels and to organize an exhibition.
(by PB, in MDT)