Meet Leia and Jackie, two Jack Russell’s with a love of sailing. This is their story:

An introduction to an intrepid family

These sailing dogs’ human family is made up of Mike And Maja. Mike is originally from South Africa but has lived in Mozambique for the past 20 years and Maja is a Slovenian but also moved to Mozambique to live and work. Mike has been sailing since he was 10 years old but Maja is completely new to sailing.

The couple bought their Leopard 40 cat in the Seychelles in 2015 and took the boat to Mozambique with the plan being to sail the world at a leisurely pace. However when Mike took the boat to Richards bay for a major refit in January 2020, he ended up staying much longer than planned due to the COVID restrictions. When Mike finally managed to get out of South Africa and sail back to Maputo, Maja, Leia and Jackie, got straight on the boat. They raised anchor and sailed out to Santa Maria at the tip of Mozambique’s Inhaca island for two weeks of quarantine on the boat. At this point, neither dog had been on the boat at all!

Like a fish to water

Mike quickly realized that he should have introduced his dogs to the boat much earlier as they adapted very quickly and absolutely adored being with their humans in such close proximity 24/7. At Inhaca Island, Mike took them to the beach every morning and evening and they loved running free on the beach, chasing crabs and digging in their holes to find them. What was interesting is they never did any pees or poos on the boat. Mike then decided that we would cut a piece of the fake grass mat he had in his backyard for them as they would recognize the smell.

After their quarantine, the family went back to close up the house for rental and took the fake grass back to the boat. Jackie immediately started using the mat but dear little Leia had decided that pooing or peeing on her house was not going to happen.

Sailing away from Mozambique

In October 2020, the family left Maputo and sailed up to the Bazaruto islands. The sail up was tough on little Leia as she held until she simply couldn’t anymore and exploded on the matt. This was after 3 days. The family got to Bazaruto after five days, beating into the wind all the way north. They went ashore and Leia immediately took full advantage of this. They had an amazing time on the islands and the doggies loved it. They ran up the large sand dunes with such ease. They loved the dinghy and obviously associated this with the beach so every time the dinghy was dropped they came running. They could not resist getting onto the dinghy and a few times ended up in the water instead of the dinghy, good thing they are really good swimmers.

After 10 days at Bazaruto it came time to head off to Ilha da Mocambique island. It was another five day sail and it was the same experience with the doggies, Jackie using the mat and Leia holding out as long as possible. From there, they carried on right up the coast to Tanzania and Zanzibar.

Time in Tanzania

The next stop was Mtwara in Tanzania. This is the entrance to Tanzania. Mike and Maja moored their boat on the side of the harbor where there was a beach and spent five days in the harbour going to the beach every day with the dogs. From then on all of the sailing was max 1-day trips and the dogs enjoyed going to all of the islands along the way. There was never ny problems or animosity shown towards them and most locals seemed fascinating by these sailing dogs. The navy even came to inspect the boat and was interested in if we had any arms but had no interest in the doggies.

From there it was easy travelling all through Tanzania, Zanzibar, Pemba Island, and Kenya. Wherever the family went they would always find a friendly taxi driver to take them and the doggies around. At grocery stores, Maja would wait outside with the pups while Mike grabbed what they needed. One day, in the north of Zanzibar while Mike was in the shops the school was next door and Maja and the doggies were totally surrounded by kids wanting to see and touch the dogs as there were very few on the island.

Sailing on to a better place

Sadly whilst on route north Leia developed a small ulcer on her belly and the family was forced to seek out a vet that they later found out had never dealt with small animals. He overdosed her with meds and she got very sick and died in Kenya at the end of February. Mike and Maja buried her overlooking Kilifi which is a wonderful estuary. This hit the family very hard as she loved riding on the seat of the dinghy checking out the surrounds with the wind folding her ears back. She was in heaven out on the boat and on the wild natural beaches. And she loved eating any fresh fish that was caught.

Heading back home

After more than a year in East Africa, it was time to head south so off Mike and Maja set off with Jackie. Jackie had found his safe spot right next to the helm and when things got bumpy would climb into the rope box and sleep there. At night, Mike dropped the saloon table down to make a bed and he jumped up there and spent the time sleeping with whoever was off watch.

Upon arriving back in Mozambique, the family spent time in Inhambane with lovely beaches for Jackie to run and play and then down to Maputo for a short stopover before heading to Richards Bay in South Africa. There was a lot of intrepidation as Richards Bay had refused entry to a South African boat returning with two dogs and cats from Indonesia. They were told to sail to Cape Town where the animals could go into quarantine for some period. The state vet then put out a document stating that foreign boats that were not staying in South Africa arriving with animals and then leaving were considered to be in transit and that no quarantine was neccessary. The proviso being that the animal must stay on the boat and that all of their vaccinations need to be up to date and they need to be chipped.

In order to comply, Mike and Maja stopped on the way down in Dar es Salaam, researched a good vet and had Jackie’s rabies updated there. The vets in Dar were great.

The adventure is not over for this sailing dog

They then sailed to PE and are now in Cape Town getting ready to leave for Namibia and the Caribbean. Leia managed to clock up 3000nm of sailing before she passed away at 11 years old and her father Jackie is now 15 years old and has just over 6000nm of sailing under his belt.

Some people ask Mike and Maja why they took the dogs with and their answer is simple; they are part of the family. They simply couldn’t just dump them and go. Mike says, “If I look back my biggest mistake was NOT to get them on the boat earlier. They absolutely loved being on the boat and enjoyed the new destinations as much as we did.”