BY: ROB HOFFMAN
Here’s a glimpse into the lives of Australian globetrotter couple and travel-bloggers, Riley and Elayna, currently circumnavigating the high seas on their sail-boat, La Vagabonde.
Riley traded nearly a decade of toil in mines and oil rigs for the watercraft, a 43.4ft Beneteau Cyclades, which he purchased in Italy. According to Riley, “if a Yacht is worth $1 in Europe or the Caribbean it’s likely worth $2 in Australia.”
Though the couple set out with almost zero sailing experience, they have managed to MacGyver their way into an endless tour of paradise, hitting locations like Martinique, St. Lucia, Grenada, Dominica and French Polynesia.
Riley made a radical lifestyle change after breaking his neck bodyboarding. Sometimes death is like a stern father that throws away your video-games to get you the fuck outside.
Elayna is mostly responsible for maintaining their blog, which they crowd fund through patreon.com, a website that crowd funds artists and “creators” allowing people to donate to each individual project, instead of one overarching campaign.
They keep their finances in check, they eat ocean-caught fish and follow Riley’s unique money-saving secrets like “Maybe don’t check into every single country you visit?? (you didn’t hear that from me).”
Patreon has been good to Riley and Elayna, with the couple now earning almost $3,000 per video, each basically serving as a hand-held documentation of their day-to-day lives with an occasional side of travel reviews.
The couple represents the possibilities of a life unencumbered by the anchor-like comforts of stationary working-class life.
Though realistically, their success in the blogosphere may also be attributed to their relentless youth, whiteness and good looks.
Still, their blog is largely tribute to the spirit of autonomy, exploration and the courage to abandon the soothing monotony of 9-5 office life.
Riley’s hilarious moustache, commentary and satire silent-films are enough to forgive the fact that, sometimes, their videos stray a bit close to the vagabonds version of Laguna Beach.
Either way, their endless stream of watercolour sunsets and pristine Caribbean ocean views may inspire you out of your job and into a boat.
