Nomad life
- Laura Schippers
- Jun 29
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 16
12 October 2025, Bergen, NO
What a wonderful summer we've had! After a spring spent sailing with the three of us, exploring Helgoland, the Kiel Canal, Kiel, the Danish Islands, and Gothenburg, visual artist Nele Brökelmann embarks at Stora Förö. We meander through the Archipelago of Gothenburg by kayak and with a bit oversized Atlas for this area. We cross the Kattegat in complete calm weather, round the cape of Skagen, and then cross over to Norway. At the start of her journey, Nele intents to be receptive to the upcoming travel experience. Not to pursue a goal to much, but to learn to trust that this experience will find its way into her work somehow. She observes and documents the surroundings from the perspective of the traveling Atlas. During her stay we search for potentially interesting places and circumstances for Nele's work. After a short week, we say goodbye to Nele in Kristiansand. We continue our journey quickly, so we could hop to Stavanger nicely in between low pressure areas. In Stavanger, we found an anchorage in a bay near Hundvåg. A few days later, we asked someone at a private quay, which had been empty until then, if we could fill our water tank there. It was all fine and we were offered to use the private quay for a while for free. Normally, the traditional sailing ship Nortun AE87 is moored here, but they're on a voyage to the far north. It's perfect, because it allows us to easily stock up on supplies for the upcoming voyages in August.
On August 1, designer/artist Maurik Stomps and filmmaker Lavinia Xausa embarking for a journey to the deep Jøsenfjord, our workfield for the coming week. Here, we'll lower six steel cubes to a depth of 500 meters. The objects implode at this depth and be shaped by the immense pressure. In this personal project, Maurik explores: 'pressure', his fear of the unknown and how these aspects relates to each other by means of his family history. And from August 9, Jaseff Raziel Yauri Miranda traveled with us from Stavanger to Bergen. For us, our final destination for this year. For Raziel, it marked the beginning of a new project: The Water Archive
Do you like to read more about our travel experiences with these artists and their projects? Please see blog post series: Fragment of a journey with
Once in Bergen, a new phase begins. We eagerly begin searching for a winterberth. And we finally find a place at Gjestehavn Marineholmen. We are thrilled and relieved that we can stay here until the end of March 2026. This offers perspective on all kinds of areas: work, school, social contacts, networking, art events/projects, and time for reflection. It's important that we once in awhile ground ourselves in a place for some time. So that Lieve can connect with other children in a more lasting way. On Monday afternoons, she goes to a Dutch school De IJsvogel in Bergen, where she receives lessons in Dutch language and culture. But the best part for her is to be with other (half) Dutch children. And Lieve recently started attending a Norwegian primary school nearby. It's wonderful to see how much she enjoys going there, even though she doesn't speak the language yet. A plus here is that the teachers and most of the children speak English well. For Stijn and me, it's also important to have some more time for ourselves. So that we could focus more on developing further the Atlas initiatief / art practice and doing maintenance and making improvements to the ship again, including the kite system. Which, by the way, is still not working, because we didn't have enough time to work on it last spring and summer. Or rather I should say, we chose enjoying life over the kite system ;)
Bergen is a vibrant student city, surrounded by beautiful nature, and not unimportant, the arts is so lively here! It's bursting of art initiatives, studios, public artworks, galleries, and museums. Thanks to visual artist Charlotte Besuijen (I met her during my study Bachelor of Fine Arts at AKV St. Joost in Breda. A few years ago she moved to Bergen) for spreading the word of our arrival in Bergen amongst other artists. She also connects us with others, initiatives, and places of our interest. This allows us to network effectively, which is fantastic! During B-open, where Bergen's studios and art initiatives open their doors, we've been offered a spot at DUI (Den Uferdige Institusjonen) to introduce ourselves to the Bergen art scene. We showed a video, created for this occasion, by Maurik Stomps. The video is a combination of his work Diepdruk, which he's currently developing, with footage of the Atlas in the Jøsenfjord. It gives visitors a nice image of how a project aboard Atlas could look like. We'll meet all lot of interesting people, which could lead to all kinds of collaborations and projects for the coming winter and spring.
Below a few pictures from 2024, England
24 June 2025, Näset, SE
Since April 21 we are travelling again with the Atlas. After a beautiful trip along Helgoland, Kiel Canal and the Danish islands we arrived in Sweden. We notice that we are much more relaxed compared to the trip we've made last year along England and France. Sailing is not that exciting anymore and it's getting even easier, for example because we'd installed a GPS compass on the wheelhouse recently, so our autopilot finally works now.
We are already more used to the traveling life and all the facets that comes with it. The Baltic Sea is calm and we can anchor quietly on many spots. Actually, just by now we realized how intense the trip was that we made last year. At first there was a mixture of adrenaline consisting of: tensions around the departure, saying goodbye, whether everything works and continues to work in terms of essential technical installations and of course the incredible feeling of freedom of actually traveling with the Atlas. Then the phase of intense joy was there, exploring and learning how to live in a nomadic way and the question of how to make it sustainable. Then, autumn arrived, the waves and the weather increasingly began to affect our daily lives. We were pushed into a corner more and more, on financial and emotional level. Until we had a hunch at the end of November and we saw our chance to sail back to Den Helder in between two storms. This turned out to be the right decision. Taking a breath in a port where we feel welcome and where we could stay for a few months. It did us good to be among family and friends again. And opportunities for work occurred almost naturally. We managed to get the situation under control again. It was nice to reflect on the journey from this position and to make new travel plans. It went against our feelings to go back towards the south again and we decided to sail further up North.
Family picture, at the start of our life onboard, April 2023, Breda
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