Rita Assuncao
Veterinary Surgeon, MSc, MRCVS
I’m Rita, a veterinary surgeon, sailor and lifelong animal advocate currently living aboard my 35‑foot monohull, SY Swizzle, in Southeast Asia. After a decade in small‑animal practice and emergency work around the world, I bought my boat in 2021 and began combining clinical experience with life at sea to help guardians travel more safely with their pets. The Sailing Pets is where my professional training and liveaboard lifestyle meet.
Work Experience
Veterinary Surgeon (MSc, MRCVS) with over 10 years’ experience in small‑animal and mixed practice, soft‑tissue surgery and emergency/critical care.
Clinical work in multiple countries, including the UK, Portugal, Bermuda, the Caribbean and Fiji, giving me a practical understanding of different climates, cultures and veterinary systems.
Outreach and shelter medicine experience with charities such as Animals Fiji, focusing on welfare in low‑resource settings.
Remote consultant vet for digital platforms, providing evidence‑based guidance online while respecting local vet–client–patient relationships.
PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor and full‑time liveaboard sailor since 2021, currently cruising Southeast Asia with my three rescued pets.
Fluent in several languages (Portuguese, English and Spanish, with aditional Italian and French), making it easier to support an international community of pet‑owning sailors.
SY Swizzle
Hallberg-Rassy Rasmus 35
Swizzle is a 1974 Hallberg‑Rassy Rasmus 35, a classic Swedish bluewater cruiser designed for comfortable, safe passagemaking. Built in Sweden and later finding her way to Hong Kong in 2006, she eventually became mine in Singapore before we began exploring the coasts of Thailand and Malaysia together. Since 2021 she’s been my floating home and clinic‑on‑call, carrying three rescued pets and a growing library of vet books between anchorages.
Her name comes from the colourful “swizzle sticks” used to stir cocktails and from the famous rum cocktail of Bermuda, the island where I was living when this dream started to become real. Swizzle is sturdy, a little salty around the edges and built for long journeys—just like the community we’re creating for pets at sea.
Fifa
The Admiral of the Swizzle
In 2017, while working on a remote Fijian island for Animals Fiji, I nearly ran over a tiny, bald puppy covered in fleas. Half the size of her littermates and unwanted by villagers, Fifa became my faithful companion after a global crowdfunding effort brought her to Portugal. Since then, she’s crossed oceans with me through Portugal, England, St Maarten, Aruba, Bermuda, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines — donating blood, fostering kittens, surviving two knee surgeries, and winning hearts everywhere. Naughty with dogs but devoted to humans, she’d follow me to the end of the universe.
Binks (aka Jar Jar Binks)
The faithful deckhand
This small, sad green-eyed puppy was left behind at a Caribbean shelter due to skin issues, while his sister found a home. Never having felt grass or sand, confined to a cage his whole short life, I took him for a weekend to experience freedom—he never left. Older and abuse-scarred, Binks slowly trusted again, stole even Fifa’s heart (though she remains the boss), and joined our family through St Maarten, Aruba, Portugal, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. He loves cuddles, paw-holds, neck scratches, guards fiercely, then sleeps through every voyage — making our lives brighter and sillier.
Mazu
The goddess of the seas
The youngest crew member, dumped at a shelter nearly three years ago as a skinny, flea-infested kitten. Now a fearless blue-eyed white panther, Mazu sleeps in sail bags, hunts cockroaches, squid, birds and lizards as "presents" for the Swizzle, and naps paws-up by day to prowl all night. She brings extra fun (and wakefulness) to our lives — we love her exactly as she is. She steals every sailors heart she meets as the friendliest and more curious crew member.
