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An Interview with Sergio Davì

 

4th December 2020

 

My first contact with the sea came when I was just six months old! I slipped overboard from my family’s boat, but luckily, was quickly rescued by my father. He soon realised that I found this experience quite amusing as I already had my mouth closed ready for the next dive!

My first memory of the sea is on board my father’s Cigala & Bertinetti. I used to anchor, with a small handcrafted anchor, just 5 meters away from the shore so I could look at my house from a different perspective.

 

I found my passion for the sea very early on in life, and by the age of 6, I was already regularly helping out with tasks on our family boat. As an adult, I continued to cultivate this passion for the sea during my twenties, and that is when I decided to make it my profession. I’ve now been sailing the seas as a skipper of motorboats for more than 25 years. For the past 10 years, I have turned my attention to extreme adventures, and I hope there will be plenty more years of adventures to come where I can pursue my goals and dreams!

 

My passion for the sea drives me every day. I have managed to achieve many of my goals and ambitions, but there is always more, and I will continue to follow my dreams and try as hard as I can to achieve them. Passion is everything, it’s the only thing that can motivate you to reach incredible targets. Passion is the feeling that keeps me dreaming and planning new adventures, even before I’ve concluded the previous one. I usually dream up my adventures, then I visualise them, and in the end, I put them into practice. Everything, for me, starts with dreams.

 

In 1985 at 17 years old, I had my first RIB boat, just 3.75 meters long with a 15hp engine. It was love at first sight! I could literally explore and find places on board my own vehicle, and it soon became my job. I took tourists to the islands or gave them sightseeing tours and so it goes… I’ve been sailing for a lifetime, and it never seems enough to me.

In 2008, while I was accompanying a group of people to the Aeolian Islands, a Dutchman asked me if I could get to Amsterdam by RIB from Sicily. I clearly said yes, and so I began to assemble the inflatable boat that would have been suitable for the adventure. In 2010 I set off and arrived in Amsterdam in 40 days later on board a 10-meter boat. It was a real baptism of fire, temperatures of -7 degrees and impressive snowfalls. I have great memories of that first adventure. From that experience, I began to devote myself to all the adventures that have come over the years.

• 2012 Palermo-North Cape

 

• 2015 Atlantic Ocean crossing, the first attempt. Unsuccessful due to fire onboard.

 

• 2017 Landed in Brazil sponsored by Simrad.

 

• 2019 Palermo-New York, via Iceland and Greenland.

Even though I’m full of ideas for future projects, I do not willingly share them. They always remain intimate and personal, challenges and goals that need a lot of energy to be achieved. I am now very focused on the next adventure, O2O and arriving in Los Angeles the following year.

 

Translated from Italian phone interview of 4 Dec

Sergio Daví & Ocean To Ocean

 

Rib Adventure

Sergio Davì

Rib Adventurer