Doina Cornell

Having two travel-obsessed parents, by the age of fourteen Doina had covered thousands of miles over land and sea, most memorably spending seven years circumnavigating the world with her family on a 36 foot yacht.

Her memoir of this time, Child of the Sea, was published in 2012.

Since then she has been mostly land-based but continues to sail whenever possible, including to Antarctica with father Jimmy and brother Ivan. As part of the Blue Planet Odyssey she sailed to the Arctic and Tuvalu in the South Pacific to raise awareness of the risks of climate change to these parts of the world. In the summer of 2014 she sailed to the Arctic with Jimmy and her daughter Nera. In 2015 she joined the Blue Planet Odyssey onboard Australian yacht Drina with her son Dan and sailed to Samoa, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

She has worked on the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers), America 500, Europa 92, and the Millennium Odyssey. She researched the first World Cruising Handbook and edited two editions of the Canary Islands Cruising Guide. In 2000 she helped set up noonsite.com which she managed until 2008 when she left to train as a primary (elementary) school teacher. She worked with Jimmy on the second and third editions of World Cruising Destinations, published in 2017 and 2022.

From 2013-2018 Doina worked for Cornell Sailing Events coordinating the Odyssey events as well as the Science and Education programs, and she currently works for Cornell Sailing on the publishing and promotion of Cornell publications. 

She lives in Gloucestershire, UK, and is active in community politics, having been elected in 2012 to serve on the local District Council. From 2018-2022 she was leader of Stroud District Council.

Books by Doina Cornell

Find out more

• Read Doina Cornell’s interview by the Daily Express (UK):
  The Ocean Was my Childhood Home