The best time is now
The beginning
Kate and Jim were living in London when a 'crazy pipe dream' turned into an obsession... how to live on a sailboat full-time and travel the world. Fed up with traversing airports every week for work and frightened by the prospect of a never-ending mundane routine for life, they decided to change everything.
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After over a year of preparation including in-depth research, practical and theoretical training courses, test sails, a bareboat charter holiday and boat shows, they sold almost everything. They bought Polaris, a second-hand Catana 47 sailing catamaran and set off on the sabbatical of a lifetime -to sail around the world in three years.
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One thing was clear early on though. They had fallen in love with the lifestyle; being as close to nature as possible, moving their home wherever they went, accessing places so remote and unspoiled, that they never wanted to leave. Encountering cultures, wildlife and landscapes their outlook had changed forever. They made friends with resourceful, fun and open-minded world sailors along the way. Three years would never be enough.
Six years later- and that sabbatical has morphed into an all-consuming, more fulfilling way of life with no end in sight. Remote work helps keep them afloat and their work-life balance is seriously well-proportioned.
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The passage so far
Starting in France in 2018 at the Catana boatyard, their journey has taken them east through the Mediterranean as far as Greece, back west to the Canaries, Cape Verdes and across the Atlantic Ocean. They sailed up and down the eastern Caribbean getting 'stuck' in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for a year during Covid 2020. Fully vaccinated they continued through the Dutch Antilles and on to Colombia, the San Blas islands and Panama. They transited the almighty Panama Canal in March 2022 when the gates of the final lock creaked open to reveal the Pacific Ocean, an unforgettable moment in the life of any sailor.
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An uneventful passage to the Galapagos islands was followed by the longest passage of their lives to French Polynesia. After one magnificent year there, half of which was spent in some of the most isolated, pristine coral atolls in the world, they made the difficult decision to press on and explore some more of Polynesia and the South Pacific. They reached Samoa after a tricky passage with all sorts of weather followed by Tonga and then Fiji.
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Perhaps the most challenging legs of their journey so far took them to Vanuatu -on what Kate still describes as the worst passage she can remember, then onward to New Caledonia in a bid to outrun a category five cyclone. They crossed the entire Pacific Ocean when they arrived at Bundaberg, Australia in October 2023.
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For the next eleven months they sailed the East coast of Australia; as far south as Sydney, as far east as the remote Lord Howe Island and Middleton Reef and then all the way to Far North Queensland followed by the Northern Territory to their final Australian port of call, Darwin.
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Almost 30,000 nautical miles into their circumnavigation, Kate and Jim are currently in Lombok, Indonesia. They plan to spend up to a year in Southeast Asia before beginning to cross the Indian ocean.
Realities
When they're not sailing, they enjoy the destination where they seek out kite spots, hikes and the underwater world. The sailing is usually the easiest part: one of the biggest aspects of this lifestyle is keeping the boat and all its systems ship shape so that it can continue to be a safe, sea-worthy vessel and full-time home equipped for independent, off-grid living. The maintenance of these systems is a full-time job in itself.
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​Life onboard can be much cheaper than living in a city. However, there are sometimes unavoidable costs which they try to mitigate as much as possible by learning to make fixes themselves rather than pay others to do so. Being the in-house engineer, plumber, electrician, rigger and I.T support is crucial to keeping costs down and ensuring independence, especially in remote places.
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In addition, sourcing spare parts, fuel, cooking gas and at times, even basic food and other provisions can be impossible, complicated or at the very least a tiring and lengthy process. Many say that sailors keep fit just by doing these things which often involve long hikes in hot weather with heavy bags.
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Weather is another important reality -Careful sailors are beholden to the weather and much of their global route planning works around cyclone and hurricane seasons to keep them as far from harm's way as possible. Every morning and evening Kate and Jim check the weather to decide where to go or not as the case may be. Part of this lifestyle involves disappointment when plans change and therefore, keeping an open mind and being ready to shift plans 180 degrees overnight is essential.
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