{"id":44481,"date":"2026-07-05T03:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T03:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/44481\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T03:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T03:33:08","slug":"father-daughter-sail-newcastle-to-norway-returning-yacht-to-its-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/44481\/","title":{"rendered":"Father, daughter sail Newcastle to Norway returning yacht to its roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is following in your father’s footsteps, but what about sailing in his wake?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rob Donald, 59, and his daughter Freya are sailing an 89-year-old, 9.8-metre wooden yacht from Newcastle to Norway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Donald is an avid sailor and has captained boats for more than 30 years, but said making this epic voyage with his 19-year-old daughter presented a whole new challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“People said we wouldn’t last a week together,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Return to roots\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pair set sail from Lake Macquarie in March, 2025 and have since logged 18,000 nautical miles (30,000 kilometres).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rob Donald bought Misha 37 years ago in Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Supplied: Rob Donald)<\/p>\n

Mr Donald’s wife Hanne is from Norway and the family lived there for several years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it was in France in 1988 where he found the other love of his life, a small wooden yacht he later named Misha.<\/p>\n

He sailed the yacht back to Australia, and has since taken it on a few voyages to the Great Barrier Reef.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Rob Donald completing some running repairs on Misha in 1993. (Supplied: Rob Donald)<\/p>\n

But it was always Mr Donald’s goal to sail Misha back to the Netherlands, where she was built, and then on to Norway.<\/p>\n

“To get back to where Misha was built, that’s a real milestone, so the [sailing yard] is excited,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Donald said it took months of planning to make the epic adventure a reality, modernising the boat to withstand rough seas, installing an autopilot and building a new mast complete with new sails.<\/p>\n

However, his original plan to have his wife to join him on the trip proved the first snag.<\/p>\n

“[She said]: ‘You’re dreaming,'” he laughed.<\/p>\n

But my daughter said: ‘Dad, I’ll go with you.'”<\/p>\n

\"Daughter<\/p>\n

The pair set sail from Lake Macquarie, NSW in March 2025.\u00a0 (Supplied: Rob Donald)<\/p>\n

For Freya it was an easy decision, even if the sleeping arrangement on the small vessel leaves a little to be desired.<\/p>\n

“I have always loved the boat, I wanted to prove him wrong that I could last more than a week,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I sleep on the double bunk when we are anchored but when we are at sea, sometimes it leaks.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Expect the unexpected\u00a0<\/p>\n

They say calm seas rarely make a skilled sailor, and it was when the father-daughter duo hit the open ocean that their biggest hurdle emerged.<\/p>\n

Doctors told Mr Donald he had high levels of prostate-specific antigen before he left, which prompted him to get re-tested in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

“I found out I had pretty aggressive prostate cancer; I got infected and ended up in intensive care,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t a great experience.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Daughter,<\/p>\n

Rob Donald says he was one of the first people in NSW to have a single port robotic to remove his prostate. (Supplied: Rob Donald)<\/p>\n

Mr Donald flew back to Australia in December last year for surgery, and three weeks later was back in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

“I’m fit as a fiddle 1783222386,” he said.<\/p>\n

From Cape Town, they sailed to Namibia and eventually to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, an isolated volcanic island notorious for sharks.<\/p>\n

“We had a rudder problem, so I had to get in the water to go under the vessel to check the rudder,” Mr Donald said<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

Freya enjoyed her 19th birthday at sea. (Supplied: Rob Donald)<\/p>\n

“I didn’t see any sharks, but when we left we caught a yellow fin tuna and a massive tiger shark came and took half.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Freya said one of her cherished memories from the trip was their visit to Madasgascar.<\/p>\n

“I was with the lemurs and being on that quiet island with lovely people \u2026 that was very fun and beautiful.”<\/p>\n

The final voyage\u00a0\"Sunset<\/p>\n

Rob Donald says he is likely to bid bon voyage to Misha at the end of this journey.\u00a0 (Supplied: Rob Donald)<\/p>\n

With their epic 15-month journey drawing to a close, the Donalds are beginning to prepare for what is next.\u00a0
\u00a0
Mr Donald said he intended to stay in Norway for a while, while Freya looks to begin her own career.<\/p>\n

“I want to get a job on a boat and hopefully become a captain one day,” she said.<\/p>\n

As for the future of Misha, a tough decision still needs to be made.<\/p>\n

“I’ve offered the boat to my kids, to see if they want to continue the legacy,” Mr Donald said.<\/p>\n

“It’s still in great condition, but I’m sort of ready to walk inland with my anchor until someone stops me to say, what is that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is following in your father’s footsteps, but what about sailing in his wake?\u00a0 Rob Donald, 59, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,305,34089,3063,34088,2527,34085,34086,34087,3082,105,3083],"class_list":["post-44481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-boat","tag-daughter","tag-father","tag-freya-donald","tag-lake-macquarie","tag-norway","tag-prostate-cancer","tag-rob-donald","tag-sail","tag-world","tag-yacht"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}