Liesbet Collaert is a bilingual author, editor, translator, proofreader, freelance writer, and photographer from Belgium who has been writing and traveling her entire life. She specializes in sailing, cruising, and travel articles and has been published in all the major US, European, and Caribbean sailing magazines. Her (feature) stories and photos have appeared in Cruising World, Sail/Multihull Sailor, Blue Water Sailing, Multihulls Quarterly, Ocean Navigator, Eldridge Tide and Pilot Book, Islands, Latitude 38, Latitudes & Attitudes, Living Aboard (discontinued), SpinSheet, Yachting World, Sailing Today, All At Sea, Caribbean Compass, Zeilen, and Varen.

A nomad since 2003, Liesbet has been interviewed by IWAC (Interview with a Cruiser project), World Reviewer, Multihull Sailor, Modern Day Nomads, Ocean Navigator, The Wayward Home, The Professional Hobo, and Grey Globetrotters about her lifestyle and she contributed to extensive cruising surveys for All At Sea and Caribbean Compass.

On November 28th, 2020 (her 45th birthday), Liesbet released her first travel memoir, Plunge – One Woman’s Pursuit of a Life Less Ordinary, which encompasses a decade of her unique (sailing) lifestyle. You can find more information about her book here and check out her Roaming About blog here.

About my writing:

A passion for traveling combined with a love of writing results in the birth of travel articles. Add to that a sailboat as the means to explore and sailing stories emerge. Life on the water is different and unique. Visiting sights on shore, enjoying tropical locales, and embracing different cultures for eight years result in an indefinite amount of story material. In addition to that, years of house and pet sitting and vanlife adventures create an even bigger pool of experiences to share.

I am a teacher-turned-freelance-writer, born and raised in Belgium (and a recent American citizen as well), and have traveled my entire adult life. I write articles in Dutch and English for people curious about travel, adventure, an alternative lifestyle, frugal living, house sitting, sailing, cruising, and RVing.

After my husband, Mark, and I met, we explored Mexico and Central America in a truck camper for a year with his two rescue dogs. This was followed by an eight-year sailing adventure (2007-2015) in the Caribbean and South Pacific on Irie, a 35′ catamaran. We sold our sailboat in Tahiti and semi-settled in the US as house and pet sitters to focus on our freelance careers. In the summer of 2017, we bought a 19ft camper van, Zesty, and perused more of North America.

Anticipating the next big multiple-year adventure in South America, we changed gears from a campervan to a truck camper in 2021, but after using the fancy Cirrus camper for a year, Mark and I “swapped” it for an older beaten-up Lance version; a better fit for the challenging roads and forthcoming abuse. At the end of 2022, we shipped Thirsty Bella to Colombia and began a new chapter on a different continent.

What makes my writing different from other articles and blogs, is that I’m refreshingly honest about my experiences, instead of automatically turning every destination into a story fit for a glossy travel brochure. At the same time, I aim to inspire, evoke curiosity, and encourage an open mind. Check out my published work here.

Feel free to contact me about anything. I always reply to legitimate emails.