Podcast Maré Sonora ® video
Italy to Japan by catamaran
December 13, 2025 · 52 min · 192 views · Rome
Photographer perched on driftwood frames a distant seascape.
What this video covers
Nádia Shira Cohen, a documentary photographer with credits in the New York Times and National Geographic, sailed a 49-foot catamaran from Italy to Japan over three years with her husband Paulo and their two children, Rafa (age 10 at departure) and Olivia (age 7).▶ 4:31 The family deliberately avoided the standard Panama Canal–French Polynesia route, instead sailing south through Patagonia, the Beagle Channel, and Cabo de Hornos before crossing the Pacific from Valdivia, Chile.▶ 7:11 The Chile-to-Gambier archipelago passage ran 23 days, with five days of seasickness for Nádia, a mid-ocean swim in 4,000-meter-deep water, and a final approach in 5-meter swells and 40-knot winds.▶ 12:54 The family spent two to three months in Patagonian channels without seeing another vessel, and arrived in Japan via non-tourist southern islands, where telling locals they had sailed from Italy by boat opened doors that standard tourism never had.▶ 0:13 Starlink was unavailable for most of the voyage; the family relied on films stored on hard drives, books, and board games.▶ 8:56 Nádia describes Patagonia as transforming her both personally and as a photographer, shifting her work from social-documentary assignments toward an artistic, family-focused project.▶ 19:43 The voyage confirmed that arriving by sea at remote, non-tourist anchorages produces a fundamentally different cultural experience than conventional travel routes.
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