A life on a sailing boat with Shibumi Floating Lab: Apepak is also on board!

You know when we say: I give up everything, change my life and go live on a boat? 

A phrase that we always say very easily, almost as if it were the easiest way to give a new twist and get out of your comfort zone. Change is, on the other hand, one of the most difficult, complex and courageous things to do.

But there are those who have had so much determination to do it that they choose to change together with the whole family. And this is how Sara and Stefano decided to leave Milan and live all year on a sailing boat with their 3 children.  

From that moment the Barberis family and the Pepper dog travel the world all year round by boat, in a sustainable way and respecting nature, divulging and sharing their experience through the SHIBUMI FLOATING LAB association.

Apepak also follows them on board in this adventure! In this interview Sara tells us about their project and how our products are fundamental for the natural preservation of food and to limit waste while living on a sailing boat.

Shibumi is a Floating LAB: a sailing boat in which you live all year with your three children and which in fact represents a real floating laboratory. Tell us a little about this experience and your project.

When we left we were looking for a way to keep our children in touch with their schools. We thought that remotely telling not only our travel experiences, but also everything related to the environment, pollution and sustainability, could be a way to involve our companions on the mainland as well.

So after a few months from our departure the association was born SHIBUMI FLOATING LAB a floating laboratory where environmental projects, scientific and environmental dissemination converge with institutions of Italian excellence such as INFN (National Institute of Nuclear Physics) and CNR (National Research Council).

For more than a year we have been entering Italian schools with Shibumi for school and we participate in company talks with Shibumi for companies, making interventions on sustainability and recounting the parallelism between life on land and life on board.

You don't just talk about sustainability, you put it into practice. What is your project and what are the values that support it?

Living at sea, we have constant confirmation of how much man is disfiguring the world that hosts us. The amount of waste we see at sea is truly alarming. In the city we don't realize it very much, but on a boat the impact that our life has on the environment has an immediate effect.

Talking to young and old about our experience and sharing on social networks the many tricks we have on board for a sustainable life, can be a way to contribute to a better world. That is why we are very careful with the products we use. After having tested them properly, we promote their use confident that our small actions can be a good example for many.

How did you explain and convey to your children the importance of sustainability?

Some good habits should not be explained, but practiced. That is why we must set a good example for the little ones.

For them, many actions are normal: they know for example that caring for the environment starts with smart spending (slogan invented by my son to promote a plastic free life); so at the supermarket we prefer loose vegetables to packaged ones, loose eggs to those in the plastic container ... and as a snack at school we don't bring packaged snacks, but a sandwich in the practical Apepak bag!

You have always been an Apepak user: how do our sailing boat products come in handy?

Apepak believed a lot in our project and right from the start and came aboard with his tarpaulins. This product was introduced to me by a friend: after testing its effectiveness for a few weeks I found it really brilliant and above all USEFUL, and I decided to share its use.

On the boat we only use one to preserve Parmesan, a food that we often use both grated on pasta and to eat in small pieces. We also have an Apepak for preserving the onion and one for the lemon. In addition, I often cut a lot of diced vegetables that I cook in several times and with different types of cooking, then I use Apepak Gigante to cover the bowl that contains them.

The use that gives us the most satisfaction and of which we are most proud is certainly the practical bag that children use to put the school snack: a sandwich, pieces of apple, biscuits.

Of course I always keep a spare package to give to those who come to visit us on board, people who still do not know that there are valid alternatives to transparent film and plastic containers!