What is it like to leave jobs, pack up the house, set sail and begin homeschooling? We’re one year in and I still don’t feel like I can fully answer this question yet! There is constant change – new challenges, experiences and people – If I’m honest, I feel like I am still settling in. How about any of you who have made the leap to cruising. How long did it take until you felt ‘adjusted?’ Or maybe you never do? Or maybe adjusting to cruising is adjusting to continuous change and experiences? I’d love to hear from you! That said, here are some reflections one year in…
We’re having amazing adventures and creating lasting memories together as a family.
Part of what I love about writing this blog is that it forces me to review and pare down our photos on a regular basis. As I do this every few weeks, I reflect on the incredible experiences we are sharing together. There are hundreds of photos to choose from every few weeks compared to the relatively few photos over the same time I would collect when we were at home (okay, aside when the children were first born!). While there are of course pros and cons to what we’re doing and this lifestyle, it still feels like a gift to be able to share this journey with our children and experience travel through their eyes and perspectives.
2. Homeschooling is a journey and we are still figuring things out.
While it may appear that we are on permanent vacation I can say that homeschool is a key factor that makes this lifestyle different from vacation. We were not homeschoolers before cruising. Once we began cruising, we enrolled the kids in a distance education program with a school in our province and an assigned teacher (the Desk Program). The school supplies us with a full curriculum that we have on board with varied materials and supplies. We were grateful for this support, particularly where internet has been limited and hard to access in the South Pacific. We finish schooling in about 3 hours per day; sometimes shorter, sometimes longer.
We begun to find our groove midway through the year and all have a better understanding of what our brand of homeschool looks and feels like on a daily basis. Some days everything goes beautifully. These are the easy days. It is wonderful to support the learning process and observe confidence blossom as tasks that were previously challenging become something more easily accomplished.
And of course there are hard days when there is struggle and we are all looking forward for the school part of the day to be over so we can move on to the fun things that await. The kids miss their friends, activities and the social aspect of school. And they find boat school more challenging than regular school. Perhaps that is because mom or dad is hovering over their shoulder!
I find the dual role of parent and educator/facilitator to be challenging. I am wondering if this dual role gets easier? Would love feedback from any of you out there! I enjoy being in touch with where the kids are at and being able to adapt to their learning styles. It doesn’t have to be one size fits all and we can move through some subjects quicker and take more time with others.
Since we are enrolled in a regular school, the kids receive report cards, and we conclude at the end of the year (June) along with land based school kids. We all felt a major accomplishment to get to the end of June. And the two months off has been a welcome break. I enjoy watching the kids fill their time with individual interests and keep learning without the formal structure. Nathan loves ‘sketch up’ right now and is filling most of his spare time designing his dream boats (yup, catamarans….I wonder where he gets that idea from ?!). Julia loves to bake and she has recently taken up computer programming using ‘scratch’.
I am curious to know how we will feel about homeschooling after year two. We are hoping that the combined learning experience of our travels and the schooling curriculum will hopefully result in a positive outcome.
3. The social side of cruising has been a high point.
The social side of cruising has been one of the best parts of our trip so far. We love meeting other cruisers and kidboats. The environment and camaraderie of cruising often means that we have a lot in common with the folks we meet and we have time to spend getting to know other families – often feeling like we’ve been friends for years after spending mere days (and sometimes weeks!) buddy boating and spending time together. It’s very hard to say good bye once we go on our separate ways, but the social ties we have made has been one of my favourite things. I think the kids would say that they always want to meet more kidboats. For the most part, I think we have been very fortunate on this score. Hiking, swimming, surfing, sailing, campfires and potlucks – these activities are all more fun to share with friends.
There are things we miss about living in a house.
The kids miss their outside yard space. Yes, our ‘front and backyard’ of ocean space is arguably larger now, but of course it is different. They also miss having their own room. Currently they share a cabin with bunk beds. I miss the freedom to jump in a vehicle and go wherever I need to go easily. And I miss having more of my own personal space to retreat to sometimes. And grocery shopping and all those things you may take for granted about house living (steady and stable internet!!) involve more logistics and time when cruising. It’s fine, just something I miss from time to time.
5. I miss work (okay, not all of it but definitely some parts!)
Yes, we are having amazing adventures and I love that we’ve been able to share this adventure with our young family. And I don’t think that when I’m old reflecting on life that I’ll regret taking this trip. But I liked my job and the people and I miss being part of the action, and the sense of fulfillment and identity that came along with my job. I’m a lawyer who later moved into an in-house legal role and then into leadership role with a team that I loved. I joke with Gavin that I have traded in my career for homeschooling and dishes. Of course there are good parts, and there are moments when I pinch myself that we are really doing this, but this is an aspect I am still adjusting to and lingers in the back of my mind.
6. We are very happy with our boat and we like sailing her!
Thank you to Gavin who put in so much time and energy in getting our boat ready. His thoroughness in doing an extensive refit before our departure has meant we have enjoyed sailing and cruising without having to deal with a lengthy list of multiple boat projects. This is not the same for a number of cruisers out here. Boats inherently require ongoing work and attention, even brand new ones. Gavin’s preparation and regular maintenance so far has held us in good stead.
We have enjoyed sailing Slingshot and we are impressed with her ocean crossing performance. The designers are experienced offshore sailors and it shows in many of the features that we appreciate while underway and living on her a daily basis. I don’t think we fully appreciated the sailing capabilities of Slingshot until we hit the trades and did our long Pacific passage. We love how she performs on a broad reach in breeze and swell with the weather side water ballast full – gentle motion and great pace. The power winches and good reefing set up make sailing this boat reasonable for two people – all part of Dashew’s design principles.
My other favourite thing about Slingshot is her fully separate compartments for the engine room and the forward gear locker – no diesel smell and no gear or sails in our living space. The safety features built into the boat gives me some extra comfort too – like the fact we have three watertight compartments and no through hulls in the center living compartment and the many extra layers of fiberglass in the bow and sides of the hull. Oh, and the 1000 watts of solar has kept up nicely with our energy demands. We love our frozen berries! Slingshot has safely carried us this far and we look forward to many more miles aboard.
7. We have so much more family time! Once school is finished, there is time every day for us to do something together as a family. Whether it is errands, projects, hiking, exploring, there is always something for us to be doing together. Before this trip, family time was squeezed between activities on the weekend and for me, a brief hour or two before bed on the weekdays when I was usually tired and so were the kids. I love hiking, swimming, snorkeling, running and sailing with the kids and I cherish the time that we are able to do this together. But I think my most favourite moment of every day is snuggling the kids in bed each morning while Gavin makes the coffee. We will read and chat and these moments will inevitably be the ones I miss the most when we return to land life. There are also challenging points about being around family so much of the time. We have had some low points as we all adjust to our new lifestyle together. But overall the highs and good times outnumber the hard days.
8. We’re all gaining more confidence in offshore passage making and cruising
One of my favourite moments of our Mexcio to Marquesas Pacific crossing, was watching the confidence blossoming in Julia about ocean passage making. Her proud proclamation that, “Mommy, I’m a shellback now!” and retorts of “Yes, but I’ve sailed in 44 knots” when I mention that we may be coming into some stronger breeze, make me smile. But it’s not just Julia who has developed more confidence. We all have. Of course we still have more to learn, and must continue to be prepared and on the lookout, but we have developed greater comfort with weather routing, understanding how to optimize Slingshot for comfort and performance, and our anchoring and passage making skills. We have a formidable respect for the ocean and the upcoming passage to New Zealand weighs on my mind. We still have a long way to go and more to learn, but for now our skills are improving.
9. Food and provisioning has been easier than expected.
One of the things I wondered about was how difficult it would be to provision and prepare food with long gaps between well stocked grocery stores. I’ve been pleasantly surprised on this score. The actual shopping and storage part is much more time consuming than at home. Large shops require finding transportation and then piling the food into our dinghy and then storing it on board. Much different than rolling down to the local supermarket in our SUV and then easily stowing everything in the house. But we’ve been able to store a surprisingly large amount of food. Our large freezer has been a huge plus. It has allowed us to stock up on frozen vegetables, meat and berries when we knew we were heading into areas with few fresh options (hello, Tuamotus). And we went seriously crazy shopping in Mexico. And everywhere we’ve been has the basics. So overall I would say that food provisioning has been easier than we thought it would be. And best of all we have time to cook and prepare good food.
10. We are looking forward to year two…
We have always said that we will check in after year one to see how everyone is liking cruising and evaluate whether to continue for another year. Well, year one has passed by in a flash and we are all happy to continue. It’s been a year of firsts and we look forward to more adventures together.
Postscript – Gavin, the kids and I discussed our reflections and this is what I compiled….Though after reading, Gavin did not agree with some of these! He wanted me to add that he does not miss driving, cell phones, internet or cars. Mainly, the conveniences of home that the rest of us miss. Hmmm. It will be interesting to see how or if these reflections change over the next year!
WOW! It is hard to believe that it has already been a year. Your work family misses you too Jenn.
Your crew’s epic adventure has been one that we can live through along with you with the amazing photos you have shared. We admire your family’s strength and endurance as you navigate the world and look forward to continuing along with you on your journey.
Lots of love, Wendy. <3
Thank you Wendy! I miss you and the team a lot! Wishing you all the best and I can’t wait to catch up again when we are back in town. XO J
What a great read Jennifer. You and your family are courageous. So refreshing.
Thank you Colleen!
Wow Jenn, thanks for sharing your amazing journey aboard Slingshot. I’ve felt inspired by every post! The adventure, excitement, new discoveries and challenges, the beauty of the ocean, and the places you’ve seen, have kept me hooked, waiting to see what’s next ⛵️
Looking forward to your 2nd year.
Smooth sailing, Kim
Awww, thanks so much Kim! So glad you are following along. Miss you!