Nick Jaffe travelled from Australia to Germany in the footsteps of his father, lived and worked as a programmer in the capital and got to know his second home in this way. But at some point he asked himself what might lie between "these two homes". The best way to find out is on a sailing boat.
In YACHT 9/2010, we told the story of his adventurous journey from Germany to Australia: he never had much money in his pocket. "I set off with a bottle of water that I drew from the Markermeer in Holland and six sultanas," he later recounts. He used his meagre savings to buy an old, run-down Contessa 26, barely eight metres long and in a pitiful state even before the trip. He can't sail yet either, but there should be enough time to learn on the way.
In order to fulfil his dream, he lives from hand to mouth for months. Driven by his ideals of not conforming and later relying on the kindness of other people he meets along the way. They and the rapidly growing internet community that follows his journey help him time and again to get out of a financial jam and a little further. He no longer feels like the skipper of the journey, but just the pilot, because he is living the life that many wish for. He succeeds in taking the many fellow sailors on the screens with him on his great voyage through video recordings and diaries.
The journey succeeds. Three years after the start, Jaffe reaches the Australian continent. There are 14,000 nautical miles between the two places. A journey through the highs and lows of being alone, which challenges him through isolation and fear, but at the same time shows him the beauty and richness of life and takes him to places he would never have reached without a ship.
Link to the film: www.betweenhome.com
