Our story so far
Tris Sheen, formerly Heyring, was born in Nigeria, Africa, to a creative and adventurous, animal-loving couple. From the start, her path to adventure was set. Her life truly set sail when she met her soulmate, Dave Sheen – a fellow adventurer and skilled waterman. Together, they explored the oceans and islands with their young family, running a swim-with-Humpback-whales business. Their journey has been a wild ride, marked by extreme hardships, family loss, a tsunami, and the challenges and joys of remote living. Yet, through it all, their deep love for the environment and their adventurous spirit has remained unwavering.
Nature, wild places, and the animals within them are a shared passion for David and Tris. Together, they venture far, mostly by yacht.
Dave and I had been together for a few months one summer (how we met is another story!) Dave asked me to join him in his battered chocolate-coloured Land Cruiser to drive across Australia, from Cape Naturaliste in the south west to Brisbane on the east coast. Then we’d buy a small yacht and sail it back home to Cape Naturaliste.”
The journey was 2,862 nautical miles, with huge tides, crocodiles, and the wild windward side of Australia’s west coast.
“I said yup, as long as my dog could come. I’d never spent a night at sea and didn’t know how to sail a yacht, but Dave said, ‘You know how to windsurf, you’ll be fine.’ What I didn’t realise at the time was that he didn’t know how to sail either.
But when we got going, I couldn’t tell!”
They set off on a six-month voyage aboard a small steel yacht named Pilgrim. Tris continued to paint, photograph, and create along the way, as she always had. After returning to their hometown, Tris held another exhibition at the Yallingup Gallery in 1996, inspired by their travels. True to her nature, exploring wildly and documenting it was part of her process. Soon after, Tris and Dave purchased a 72ft schooner named Willie.
Dave and Tris got married and began working the Willie. The Willie is a well-known vessel on the west coast of Australia, designed after a historical pearling lugger. Tourist wise sailing at sunset along Cable Beach in Broome was a must-do experience, the business started doing well as David instigated a fuller work year operating in the southwest for summer and north west for winter. They were long hard days but provided great exploration time in-between the two work seasons. During one refit they replaced the sails – what a beautiful canvas to paint on! Tris created some vibrant artworks on those large areas of sails.
As their family grew, Tris and Dave brought their children on board as soon as possible. Kai was only two weeks old when he joined the annual whale-watching trips off Geographe Bay.
In 2005, Tris held another exhibition at Yallingup Water Gardens. Dior was 4 and Kai 6 at the time – juggling kids, art, and running a business sailing up and down the west coast of Australia was a challenge, but it was fun. Tris found a great mix of travel, adventure and a home base at each port to create while supporting the business and raising the kids.
Eventually, it was time for the family to come closer together. The business had become successful, but also demanding on their time, they sold it and set off on a new adventure just a few months later.
“We bought an old, fairly inexpensive catamaran, Albatross, in Fremantle – our first of several multihulls. We sailed north from Freo, chasing a storm. Almost a year and a half later, we sailed back into Australia at Cairns, on the opposite side of the country. During our journey, we lived and explored aboard Albatross, sailing through Papua New Guinea and the Solomons. I began homeschooling the kids, which was a lot of fun. I mostly taught art! We learned through storytelling, everyday life, and creativity, with the occasional lesson in letters and numbers.”
In 2007, inspired by this adventure, Tris held a major exhibition called Island Dreaming. The show featured both photographic and original artworks, many of which were painted on the sails of the Willie, the pearl lugger.
The next exhibition, Shared Ocean, came three years later, in 2010, at the Yallingup Water Garden Gallery. It featured a refined collection of paintings inspired by their adventure aboard their second catamaran, DaMojo. This journey had began quite unexpectedly when they purchased DaMojo in New York! The Sheens then sailed across the Pacific to New Zealand, discovering Tonga along the way. There, they found a swim with humpback whales business for sale. After selling DaMojo, they bought a new catamaran, Wildlife, and began their new venture of swimming with whales while living aboard Wildlife.
"Now, nearly up to the present, my kids grew up surrounded by the islands and ocean of Tonga. Over 8 years they built a completely off-grid family home on a remote island, accessible only by sailboat. Sadly, during a visit to our hometown in Australia, we experienced a devastating accident and lost the golden boy of our family, Kai. It’s something we’ve been learning to live with every day since and we are well aware forever more, after surviving the past years, I feel a deep sense of urgency to make the most of our lives."
Tris, Dave, and Dior continued to run their whale swim business while living on the island. During the pandemic, Tris and Dave felt it was one of the best periods since the accident. Despite the immense challenges, they were able to focus on their own life, with no tourism, days were filled with: growing vegetables, fishing, surfing, swimming with whales, caring for their animals – including horses – and creating art once again. The close dependency on their hand built existence was healing, the animals a source of purpose to a life that had been thrown into question.
"In the final months of the pandemic, we managed to get the necessary permits to sail from Tonga to New Zealand,and then fly to Australia to visit family. It was a stressful journey. Three weeks after leaving our beloved island, friends, and animals, the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted, triggering a massive tsunami.
We received the heartbreaking news that our family home was destroyed – along with the land it stood on. Wiped away by a 22-meter-high wall of water. We focused on being thankful that our friends, dogs, and horses were safe."
"Now, we have a property in Yallingup, Australia, 2 kilometres from the sea, and it feels wonderful. I have an art studio again, and David has his shed, which is slowly filling up with surfboards. I also have a beautiful horse, chickens, a veggie patch, and a newly adopted puppy. We continue to run Whale Discoveries, a successful live-aboard swimming-with-humpback-whales business in Tonga on SY Wildlife. Now, I finally have time to create again and make something meaningful from all that has happened. That’s the inspiration behind this website – to unite people and honour family. Our logo is derived from one of my son’s drawings. I truly hope you find something here that intrigues, inspires, or motivates you."
A complete account of the Sheens' adventures will soon be available in a photographic book. In the meantime, you can follow along with past and upcoming journeys through our social media links.
Thank you for reading!
Please email me to express your interest for our upcoming book or get in touch via our socials below.