sailboat family around the world

A Family of Four Sails Around the World: Their Story

Embarking on a sailing adventure with your family can be a life-changing experience, as the Johnsons discovered when they left their conventional life behind to sail around the world.

Sailing around the world is a dream for many, but for one family of four, it became a reality. In this article, we’ll share the inspiring story of the Johnson family, who left their conventional life behind to embark on a sailing adventure that would take them across the globe. We’ll explore their motivations, the challenges they faced, and the incredible experiences they had along the way. If you’re considering a similar journey with your own family, we hope this story will provide valuable insights and inspiration.

The Decision to Set Sail

The Johnson family, consisting of parents Mark and Sarah, and their two children, Emily (12) and Jack (10), lived a comfortable life in a suburban neighborhood. Mark worked as an engineer, while Sarah was a stay-at-home mom. They had a nice house, good friends, and a stable routine. However, they couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to life than their current existence.

Mark and Sarah had always been drawn to the idea of sailing. They had taken a few sailing vacations in the past and loved the freedom and adventure that came with it. As their children grew older, they began to seriously consider the possibility of leaving their conventional life behind and setting sail as a family.

After much discussion and research, they decided to take the plunge. They sold their house, cars, and most of their belongings, and purchased a 45-foot catamaran. They spent several months preparing the boat and themselves for the journey ahead, taking sailing courses, learning about navigation and safety, and planning their route.

The Route and Timeline

The Johnsons planned a route that would take them around the world over the course of three years. They would start in the Caribbean, sail through the Panama Canal, and then head across the Pacific to the islands of French Polynesia. From there, they would continue to Fiji, Australia, and Indonesia, before crossing the Indian Ocean to the Seychelles and Madagascar. They would then round the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, and sail up the Atlantic to the Azores, before finally returning to the Caribbean.

This ambitious route would take them to some of the most remote and beautiful places on Earth, and they were excited to share these experiences with their children.

The Challenges of Life at Sea

While the Johnsons were well-prepared for their journey, they still faced numerous challenges along the way. One of the biggest adjustments was learning to live in a small, confined space. The catamaran, while spacious for a boat, was still a far cry from the comforts of their suburban home. They had to learn to live with less and adapt to the constant motion of the boat.

Weather was another significant challenge. They encountered storms, high winds, and rough seas, which tested their sailing skills and their resolve. They also had to learn to deal with the isolation that comes with being at sea for weeks at a time, with no contact with the outside world.

Despite these challenges, the Johnsons found that life at sea brought them closer together as a family. They spent quality time together, working as a team to navigate and maintain the boat, and enjoying the simple pleasures of life on the water.

The Highlights of Their Journey

The Johnsons’ sailing adventure took them to some truly incredible places. Here are just a few of the highlights from their journey:

Swimming with Sharks in French Polynesia

While anchored in a remote atoll in French Polynesia, the Johnsons had the opportunity to swim with blacktip reef sharks. They were initially apprehensive, but soon discovered that the sharks were more curious than aggressive. This unforgettable experience allowed them to appreciate the beauty and diversity of marine life up close.

Exploring the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef was a major highlight of their time in Australia. They spent several weeks snorkeling and diving in the crystal-clear waters, marveling at the vibrant coral and abundant marine life. They also had the chance to witness the annual coral spawning event, a rare and spectacular sight.

Witnessing the Migration of Humpback Whales

While sailing near Madagascar, the Johnsons were fortunate enough to witness the annual migration of humpback whales. They spent several days following a pod of these majestic creatures, watching in awe as they breached, spy-hopped, and tail-slapped the water.

Experiencing Diverse Cultures

One of the most rewarding aspects of their journey was the opportunity to experience the diverse cultures of the places they visited. They were welcomed by local communities, who shared their customs, food, and stories. The Johnsons found that these interactions enriched their understanding of the world and broadened their perspectives.

The Impact on Their Children

Mark and Sarah were initially concerned about the impact that their sailing adventure would have on their children’s education and social development. However, they soon discovered that the experiences they were having were far more valuable than anything they could learn in a classroom.

Emily and Jack were homeschooled during their journey, following a curriculum that incorporated their experiences and the places they visited. They learned about history, geography, and science through hands-on experiences, and developed a deep appreciation for the natural world.

Socially, the children thrived. They made friends with other sailing families and local children, learning to communicate across language barriers and cultural differences. They also gained a sense of independence and responsibility, as they were actively involved in the day-to-day tasks of sailing and maintaining the boat.

Returning Home and the Future

After three years of sailing, the Johnsons returned to their home country, forever changed by their experiences. They found that they no longer desired the conventional life they had left behind, and instead chose to settle in a small coastal town, where they could continue to embrace the freedom and adventure of the sea.

Mark and Sarah now run a sailing school, sharing their passion and knowledge with others who dream of setting sail. Emily and Jack have adjusted well to life back on land, but the memories and lessons from their journey will stay with them for a lifetime.

The Johnson family’s story is a testament to the power of following your dreams and embracing the unknown. Their sailing adventure brought them closer together as a family, allowed them to experience the beauty and diversity of our planet, and taught them invaluable life lessons. If you’re considering a similar journey with your own family, we hope this story has provided inspiration and encouragement to take the leap and set sail.

More From Forbes

These 5 families are sailing around the world for the ultimate homeschooling experience.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

The Expedition Family

When the pandemic hit the world, it was difficult to imagine there would be people actually stranded in the middle of nowhere without any options. While many superyachts were headed towards island escapes like the Maldives and the South Pacific, over 300 families were on board their sailing vessels in the midst of circumnavigating the globe.

Several destinations have relaxed entries but with strict protocols, like Fiji that just announced a Blue Lane Initiative for yachts, with 72 vessels, including six superyachts, having recently arrived into Port Denarau Marina. Many more yachts are currently stuck in limbo throughout the South Pacific as cyclone season approaches in November, most barred from returning to New Zealand because of COVID-19 restrictions. The usual safe havens are now closed and only considering boats for humanitarian reasons, but cyclone refuge does not apply.

I reached out to several of the sailing families, many with small children, to see how their experience has been sailing the world and how they are adapting to the pandemic, homeschooling, and the possibility of being stranded in a foreign country. Most of these families are documenting their adventures via YouTube, where you can follow along.

THE EXPEDITION FAMILY (Chapman Family)

Best Travel Insurance Companies

Best covid travel insurance plans.

Aboard the 47 foot S/V SIREN sloop is the Chapman family; Trevor (36), Caci (35), Jace (13), Cali Sephora (10), Kensington Dior (8), Crew (5) and Chanel (3).

“We spent two months in the Channel Islands of Southern California as a result of COVID related sea-travel restrictions. The very week that restrictions lifted in Mexico, we sailed south into the Sea of Cortez (during hurricane season — we worked with a professional racing weather company to help us dodge the hurricane systems on the way down).

We will sail further south along Central America in the winter, visiting the blue holes and the jungles on the way down to the Galapagos. From there, we sail west into the South Pacific. We will island hop as our ancient Polynesian argonauts did. The atolls and islands harbor life that is unique only to those places. Nuclear testing, warming climates, rising waters, and plastic oceans are bleaching the coral and killing the life. We want our kids to experience the beauty before it disappears and bring awareness to these last remote areas. We believe that when awareness occurs, change can happen. We hope to do our small part to save the planet. As they say, its not our trash but it is our home. 

As we approach the MOST remote land masses on earth — the Pitcairn Islands — we will anchor our sailboat on its shores then visit earth’s most remote island, which is ironically the most plastic dense landmass on earth. This island therefore is both an ominous warning and ray of hope. From there we continue to the Philippines, then Indonesia, and towards the highest trafficked sea route on earth — the Malacca straits.

Our sailing expedition will continue around Africa and then north into the Mediterranean — where western seafaring started. As we spend a season in the Med, we will visit some of the most important ancient locations responsible for Western civilization on earth. As the storm season approaches, we head north and round the Atlantic as our Scandinavian predecessors did.

Rounding back around and down to the Caribbean for beautiful blue and finally through the Panama Canal, back to the Sea of Cortez and up to California, we will have completed a ten year journey where we filmed, explored, documented, lived, and shared the last places of wild on planet earth.”

Jace Chapman keeping night watch

The Pandemic

“It really messed up our route. We wanted to sail to the Sea of Cortez in April, when it was safe to go weather wise. If we were to sail there, we would be quarantined to our boat, unable to even go to shore in some ports. In other ports, we would be under military watch to ensure we didn't even enter the water, and would have to hire locals to go grocery shopping and then bring the groceries to the boat because we could not leave it. Due to this, we had to stay in Southern California and missed the window to go to Mexico. When the beaches of La Paz opened up, although it was hurricane season, we immediately sailed down. 

To make it safely during the hurricane season, we had to employ a sailboat racing company, Commanders Weather, to watch the weather and create a weather window for us to safely sail down. We had to hide out in Turtle Bay, halfway down the Pacific Coast of Baja Hurricane for five days as Genevieve swirled below us. Once she blew out, we quickly sailed to Cabo then up into the Sea of Cortez as fast as we could to not be affected by Hurricane Julio. The hurricanes really limited what we could see because we had to sail as fast as we could to safety. 

COVID-19 has inhibited the places we can sail, with many countries in the Pacific still closed to sailors. When we sail to some places, we will be forced to do a two week quarantine and then have a health inspection, having the COVID swabs in our noses before we can freely explore.”

Homeschooling on board

Homeschooling

“We employ both the Lumos and Argo Prep curriculums for math and english and then Caci has created her own curriculum for science, history, and art. She teaches the children the history of the places we are anchored or where we are sailing to. We study the ocean and the effects of climate change on the ocean life, etc. We want schooling to be about the things they are experiencing. While we are in La Paz we are learning about whale sharks, blue whales, sea lions, and other life that is found here in La Paz. We are studying the important artists from Mexico and their influence to both Mexico and the world.

It is definitely harder than sending them off to school each morning, but we are loving having control over what they learn and tailoring their schooling to things that are important to their lives right now. When they were in public school, it seemed we spent a lot of our time helping them unlearn the things they learned at school— the types of things that reduced their self confidence or caused them to think that their shoes or how many TikTok followers was the most important things in life.”

Trautman family aboard SV Delos

SAILING SV DELOS (Trautman Family)

Aboard the 53 foot S/V Delos sailboat is the Trautman Family; Brian (44), Karin, Sierra (12 months), and a rotating crew.

After 11 years at sea, the Delos crew have sailed 75,000 nautical miles and visited 45 countries. They have almost completed their circumnavigation, and the only thing left is reaching the west coast of USA where it all begun 11 years ago. They have sailed with over 50 other crew members, however now they have the most precious crew member of all, their one year old daughter Sierra. 

Until last month, Sierra had never seen another child. She had spent the majority of her short life anchored off an uninhabited island in the Bahamas. 

All hands on deck aboard the SV Delos

“Due to the virus, we have had very little contact with other ‘kid boats’ as they are commonly known out here. That meant that we were solely responsible for the entertainment and socialization of our daughter. Luckily, at only one year old, she loves nothing more than being with her parents each and every day.

Now that we are back in the US, we have met other children aboard and Sierra has had her first play date. However we spend most of our time socially distancing, hiking the beautiful trails of Maine. As sailors, socially distancing is not foreign to us, I guess you can say we’ve been doing it for the last ten years.” 

Reading is fundamental aboard Delos

“As our daughter is still young, we are just concentrating on showing her the wonders of nature, and we’re following her lead. I’m sure that’s the approach we will continue to take for some time.”

Gifford Family aboard Totem

SAILING TOTEM (Gifford Family)

Aboard the 47′ sloop TOTEM is the Gifford Family ; Jamie (54), Behan (50), son Niall (21, now ashore attending college), daughters Mairen (18) and Siobhan (16).

“We departed Puget Sound in the summer of 2008 with our children aged 4, 6 and 9 aboard. At the time, we intended to take a 2 to 5 year sabbatical. 13 years later, we're still voyaging! Initially we went south to Mexico, and were there over a year in Mexico before sailing to the South Pacific. Two years in, our money was running out because we hadn't been able to sell our house in the real estate crash; I interviewed via Skype from Tahiti and found a job in Australia. We sailed the other 2/3 of the way across the Pacific to "Oz" and I worked there for about a year and a half; we departed Australia in 2012 and continued a slow, westward circumnavigation.

Our route carried us first up to Papua New Guinea, a place that captured our hearts; we sailed through Southeast Asia for a couple of years; took a northern route across the Indian Ocean until reaching Africa, then went down around South Africa instead of tempting pirates on the Red Sea route; we came up the Atlantic from South Africa to New England in the first six months of 2016. After US east coast and Caribbean cruising, in 2018 we transited the Panama Canal and headed north, crossing our outbound track to mark a closed-loop circumnavigation in April 2018. A few months later, our son left for college.

Circumnavigation was never a goal until it was clear that we needed to get it done before he departed, because otherwise we might not have accomplished it as a family; this was acceptable to no one. Since then we've been sailing the Pacific side of Mexico, and had intended to depart for the South Pacific again this April before COVID changed plans.

Working in Australia was a major inflection point. Our kids realized that "normal school" paled in comparison to their lives as boat kids. This is huge: otherwise, they'd likely have determined as teens that they must be missing out and wanted to return for high school. That, and finances, were the major bounds on our maximum estimate at a five year voyaging life.

Jamie and I realized we weren't comfortable being part of mainstream priorities any longer, and my old dream job - which I stepped into in Sydney - wasn't fun any more. With thin savings, we determined we needed to find ways to support ourselves financially while remaining nomadic voyagers; we aren't living on any deep savings or inheritance.

We've grown several trickle streams of income and while we are "low income" by US standards (not to mention, my biz school classmates and former management consulting colleagues, or Jamie's fellow entrepreneurs in Seattle) - we feel wealthy beyond measure for the time we have been able to spend as a family, exploring the world. I will never again choose money over living well, or confuse one for the other.”

Kids preparing for a squall

“We are coping quite well: it turns out that the way we've been living does an excellent job of preparing us for living in dramatically different world circumstances.

In the beginning of March, when the COVID scale was unclear, we provisioned the boat with six months of food staples. We would have done this for sailing to the South Pacific (as we intended in April), or for protecting ourselves should COVID interrupt supply chains / distribution. By mid-March, it was clear that we should not go to the South Pacific; even before French Polynesia's border closed, there was too much unknown to do it safely (for us, for the islanders we'd meet, for the uncertain future).

With the ability to be quite self-sufficient aboard, in April we sailed from our winter base near Puerto Vallarta up into the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California). This was important for safety during the looming hurricane season, but also offered remote and uninhabited islands where we could isolate ourselves.

We have remained in the Sea of Cortez as COVID played out, prioritizing staying in range of communities for communication and supplies. There aren't a lot of cell towers in Baja! And the town of 18,000 is among the larger communities in the peninsula; we were able to get weekly deliveries from a farmer, and make contacts on shore to help us with other shoreside-supply-needs at times when those were not possible (only locals allowed) or not desirable (we are very wary of covid risk in Mexico).

We've kept company with a group of four other "bubble" boats - other families making similar choices. The socializing with them has been good for mental health! This way of life is the ultimate pandemic prep. It's made coping much easier for us.”

Looking ahead it seems unlikely that the South Pacific is an option for 2021. Although some destinations are open (French Polynesia and Fiji), there are no safe harbors for hurricane season. To set off to the west (and south) is one challenge; to return to North America against all prevailing conditions is another, and one we are not interested in undertaking. So... it seems likely we will remain in Mexico until there is some mix of health intelligence/management (vaccine?!) that makes it possible for these vulnerable island nations to re-open to one degree or another for arrivals by boat.”

Gifford family homeschooling aboard Totem

“We've done this since 2008, so it's no big deal, except that it's always a big deal in the sense that doing it well it is a strong factor for the future self-determination (and thus happiness) of our children... the goal of every parent. Homeschooling is going pretty well; our daughters have had less of our time lately, as our work coaching people on how to go cruising has truly exploded (a silver lining to COVID; our escape pod looks good to many). But self-direction is a fundamental skill that our life has set them up to realize.

We don't follow a single source for curriculum. That is, we pull material from different sources vs having an overseeing program or correspondence school. Looking up at the whiteboard in our main cabin, it lists current subjects: math, economics, dystopian literature (so many things to talk about lately!), a social studies course in social justice (again, playing from current events), Spanish language, and SAT vocabulary work.

While this looks fairly conventional, our goal is to have this largely directed by the interests of our kids: what do they want to learn? What piques their intellectual curiosity? Then, how can we help supply materials and support learning? At the end of the day, their transcript they need for college applications looks both similar (broken out by year and subject) to that of their mainstream peers, while being a very very different kind of learning (if you asked them what grade they are in, they'd probably think about what answer you wanted to hear before replying; in everyday learning, we dont' find that particularly relevant).”

Whitaker Family aboard Zatara

SAILING ZATARA (Whitaker Family)

Aboard the 59 foot Privilege 585 catamaran named ZATARA is; Keith Whitaker (50), Renee (46), Anna (19), Jack (17), Finn (14), Kate (13).

“In summer of 2016, we sold our home in our quiet suburban Texas neighborhood, said goodbye to friends and family, liquidated most of our assets, and bought a sailboat to circumnavigate the globe. The kids were really excited about that in the beginning and then 90 days later we were thinking what did we do?

Without any prior sailing knowledge, we sailed all the way to Australia the first season on a monohull, and by the time we got to the Panama Canal we decided we wanted a catamaran. We bought this boat in Greece and sailed back across the Atlantic and now cross the Pacific. If COVID hadn’t hit we were planning on going from New Zealand to Tonga, then to New Caledonia, the Solomons, Papua New Guinea and then Australia for cyclone season.

We are currently in Fiji where they opened their borders up and started a program called the Blue Lanes Initiative for yachts as long as you are willing to go through their 14 day quarantine which includes the sea travel time to get there. But the problem with us staying here is we don't have insurance here in Fiji during cyclone season in November.

New Zealand and Australia have closed their borders so we are enjoying Fiji until we can. COVID in Fiji is like it doesn’t even exist. Nobody has masks on and there are not mandatory rules. They have been treating us really well in Fiji and of course their economy is so depressed now because of tourism and they are excited to have the business. Eventually we will make it back around to the Bahamas over the next three years.

Jack and his dad Keith mapping out their course

“In February, we had just gotten finished with the Miami International Boat Show, and we drove to Texas. We just heard that China had some virus that we're all glad it's just in China, you know? And so we flew from Texas to L.A. and then to New Zealand. And as soon as we got to New Zealand, the whole world had shut down. The virus was back in the States and we had just gotten our boat into the water. Within a couple of days of being in New Zealand, we were on lockdown.

Since COVID hit, we have not been able to explore the South Pacific this year like we’d planned. We have to take it one month at a time as countries slowly open their borders to cruisers and tourists. However, since we have been living in such a confined space with limited resources for so long, the pandemic has not really affected us personally; except to prevent us from traveling where we want. Our regular lives of homeschooling, remote island exploration, and quiet moments on the boat have enabled us to basically avoid the pandemic adjustments and chaos that exists in most parts of the world right now.

As far as where we are going next, I'm going to put out feelers to Micronesia, the Royal Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands, all of those places are out of cyclone season for the South Pacific.”

Whitaker Family homeschooling

“I love homeschooling! We have mostly offline curriculum, in addition to books and other references on the boat,” says Renee. “School takes us about an hour or two per day; the rest of the day is filled with boat work, chores, swimming or snorkeling, wakeboarding or kiteboarding, quiet walks on the beach, family movies and meals together, and often enjoying time with other boat families. I have two more school-aged kids (Finn and Kate), so they’re stuck with us for several more years. But Jack has “graduated,” and unlike Anna, he does not want to go to college, so he is staying on the boat until a different opportunity presents itself to him. Anna has just started her freshmen year of college in Texas and is really enjoying the stability and social opportunities that land life gives her.

Boat life is not for everyone, but it’s enabled us to provide our kids with an alternative lifestyle and a different worldview than they would get by living in the city and going to school. After they’re done with home school / High School, they are free to take whatever path they choose. As long as they can afford it!”

The Meretniema Family from Finland

SAIL FOR GOOD (Meretniemi Family)

Aboard the Swan 57 sloop S/V PANACEA is the Helsinki, Finland family of Tuomo Meretniemi (49), Riikka (47) and children Aarre (12), Kerttu (9), Martta (7).

“We have been sailing for over four years now as we started our voyage in Mediterranean in June 2016. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean in 2017 we spent 10 months in Caribbean, Colombia and Panama. Crossing the Pacific ocean took two years since we decided to stay an extra year in French Polynesia. Best decision ever! The most memorable place we visited was Penrhyn (Tongareva) atoll in Cook Islands. It´s really in the middle of nowhere and the people are far beyond friendly.”

Mom the wheel on the S/V Panacea

“We were so lucky to be in New Zealand when COVID-19 hit the world. We feel very safe here, but of course our sailing plans have changed due to the border closures. As it is not possible to continue free cruising as we know it, we have decided to pause our adventure for a while and fly back home. Panacea will be waiting for our return whenever that time will arrive.”

Members of Meretniemi family of Finland are seen on their boat in Turkey

“Schooling three children on a boat can be chaotic at times. All in all we are very happy with our decision to boatschool our children while we travel. Academically they are well ahead of their peers and they have learned so much extra about cultures, people, history, nature and geography. Now there will be quite a culture shock as they will be attending normal school in Finland.”

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

What life is like for a family of 4 traveling the world on a 50-foot sailboat

• Sailing enthusiasts Domonkos and Anna Bosze decided to turn their hobby into their lifestyle.
• They sold everything and moved onto a 50-foot sailboat with their two daughters, ages 6 and 8.
• They have been sailing around the globe since June 2020.

What started out as a hobby for Domonkos and Anna Bosze is now their lifestyle.

The Hungarian couple got into sailing 12 years ago after seeing people sail by while they were on vacation in Croatia on a ferry between islands. 

They fell in love with the sport, and began renting boats to sail whenever they could.

Still, they were mostly hobbyists, and didn't commit to buying their own boat — the 50-foot "Teatime" — until four years ago.

The two had always dreamt of sailing around the world with their daughters, Boróka, 8, and Katalin, 6, and decided to make it happen in November 2019.

They sold everything, docked their boat in Croatia, and moved onto it full-time , beginning to make repairs and outfit it for long-term travel, literally testing the waters to see what it would be like to spend so much time in close quarters.

When the pandemic hit only a few months later, they decided to go through with their trip anyway. 

The Bosze family left Croatia in June 2020, and has been sailing since

While they had planned to leave in April 2020, lockdowns made them push the trip to late June, which is when they left Croatia, sailing around Italy, Spain, and Gibraltar, before hitting Cape Verde and crossing the Atlantic.

They spent Christmas around Martinique, St. Barths, and Guadeloupe, and are currently spending time on the Caribbean island of St. Martin. Their plan is to head to the US Virgin Islands next, before crossing the Panama Canal to continue on to French Polynesia.

The beauty of their trip, however, is that they're in no rush, and are happy to let pandemic restrictions and weather dictate their route. They monitor coronavirus rules closely, taking COVID-19 tests as required to enter a new country, or quarantine if needed.

Domonkos told Insider that arriving in the French Caribbean, which required a 14-day quarantine at the time, was easy, because their days at sea were counted as quarantine. Since their ocean crossing from Cape Verde took 16 days, they were good to go upon arrival.

They plan on sailing for 4 or 5 more years

Related stories

The couple wants to make sure their kids are around others their age by the time they're 12 or 13. Since their eldest is 8 now, they figure they have another four to five years of sailing the world ahead of them.

Currently, the girls are homeschooled by Anna in the mornings, who closely follows what their classmates are doing back home. When the internet allows, they'll check in with their teachers over Skype or Zoom. Domonkos also said that if they're in one place long enough and COVID restrictions allow for it, they'll enroll the girls in a local school for a bit.

"They get to learn more about the local language, about the culture, and meet people," Domonkos said.

Domonkos is an IT software developer and works remotely from the boat. While internet access can be a challenge sometimes, like when they're on the open sea, he makes it work, using his satellite phone to call into meetings if need be.

While no two days are alike, Bosze said that typically the whole family works and studies in the morning, and spends afternoons exploring their new location. They make it a point to teach the kids about local flora, fauna, and culture, trying to create lesson plans that relate to where they are.

While doing ocean crossings, however, Domonkos said that either he or Anna needs to be at the steering wheel at all times, which throws a wrench into the routine.

Thanks to solar panels and a desalinating water maker, they're pretty self-reliant

To date, the family's longest ocean crossing was 16 days at sea, from Cape Verde to Martinique.

Domonkos said they usually have enough dry goods on board, such as rice and pasta, to last them a month, but that they also eat a lot of fresh fish that they catch themselves.

They also have a desalinating water maker that makes ocean water potable, and solar panels to provide their generator with energy, meaning that they're pretty self-sufficient.

Their sailboat is 50 feet long and has three cabins, each with its own bathroom. As long as there aren't any guests onboard, each of their daughters gets her own room. Each bathroom has a toilet and shower, there's a living and dining room area, and a small kitchen with a stovetop, microwave, coffee machine, a small fridge, and even a dishwasher and washing machine.

"It's small but quite comfortable," Domonkos said, adding that less is more furniture-wise when there are big waves to contend with.

Living in such close quarters has made their family stronger than ever

While Domonkos admits that it can get a little tight between the four of them, he loves life at sea, saying that family problems and gripes get resolved faster than before because they have to be.

He said that back home, he'd be so tired after work he just wanted a little alone time to watch TV and unwind, but now he's more present with his kids. 

"I can watch them growing up, and really live together," he said. "We spend much more time together."

Domonkos said that one fixed family tradition they had back home was having afternoon tea, which is why they named their boat "Teatime."

"This is just a longer teatime," he said of their adventure.

• Main content

I Was 6 When My Father Decided We'd Sail Around The World. I Would Be Trapped On That Boat For Nearly A Decade.

Guest Writer

It has taken me decades to be ready to tell this story. Until I reached the safety of adulthood and created my own family, I wasn’t able to confront my parents’ story about my past. In their telling, I was “privileged.” After all, I grew up on a beautiful boat called Wavewalker , sailing around the world.

Of course I knew their story wasn’t true. Although I had grown up on Wavewalker from the age of 7 for almost a decade, I was trapped there — unable to go to school or have friends. While my brother was allowed to help out on deck, I was expected to cook and clean down below for hours each day.

My normal life in England ended when I was 6 years old and my father announced that we were going to sail around the world. He wanted to recreate Captain Cook’s third voyage, which would take three years. This was a long time — but we would be back, he promised, before I was 10. That meant that even though I was leaving my best friend Sarah, my beloved water spaniel Rusty, and my dollhouse behind, they would all be waiting for me when we returned.

Except that wasn’t what happened. We set sail from England a year after that announcement, and it was a decade before I returned alone at the age of 17. Most of the time in between I lived on Wavewalker and was unable to go to school. We often ran out of fresh food — and sometimes almost ran out of water ― on longer voyages. When that happened, we relied on canned and dried food, and my father allowed us each a cup of water a day for drinking and washing.

One of the challenges of my childhood, I grew to understand, was that my parents’ narrative looked true — we seemed to be living a privileged life by being able to sail to gorgeous places like Vanuatu and Fiji in the South Pacific. But the reality was very different.

For a start, I learned early on our voyage how dangerous the ocean could be. A few months after we left England, we were hit by an enormous wave when my father attempted to cross the Southern Indian Ocean accompanied only by two novice crew members, my mother (who didn’t like sailing) and his two small children. I fractured my skull and broke my nose in that accident and had to endure multiple head operations without anesthesia on the small atoll that we eventually found in the middle of the ocean.

But my life on Wavewalker wasn’t just physically dangerous. Living on a boat for a decade meant that I could rarely have friendships, I had little or no access to medical care and I couldn’t attend school.

As I turned into a teenager, I had no private space. Instead I had to share the one working toilet we had on board with my family and up to eight or nine crew, and to share a cabin with adult crew members.

As the years went on, it became clear that my parents had no intention of fulfilling their promise to return home. I had no way of leaving the boat — I had no passport or money. But more than that, I had nowhere to go.

We’d set sail when I was a small child, and after that I never saw any of my relatives again. Apart from my parents, I had no other adults in my life apart from the crew members who came and went. The only people I saw in authority were the customs and immigration officials who boarded our boat when we arrived in each new country, and they never expressed any interest in the welfare of the two children they found there.

While Wavewalker represented freedom for my parents — they could pull up the anchor and sail away whenever they wanted — it was a prison for me.

I eventually realized that the only way I would ever escape Wavewalker was if I found a way to educate myself. I tried to convince my parents to let me go to school, and six years after setting sail, they finally agreed to allow me to enroll in an Australian correspondence school. I was 13 years old.

While it was clear to me that my only possible escape was through education, studying by correspondence on a boat was very difficult. By this time my father had turned our boat into a sort of “floating hotel” to pay for our endless voyage, and my parents wanted me to work rather than spending my days with my nose in my books.

There were also more practical issues. I had no postal address and I had no space in which to study apart from the one small table in our main cabin. Sometimes I would hide myself inside a sail at the front of the boat to study, knowing no one would come looking for me there. I had to fight my father for paper, which was an expensive commodity in the South Pacific. Whenever we reached a major port, I sent off the lessons I’d completed and asked the school to send them back to the post office at our next port of call, but if my father decided to change course, my lessons went astray.

I found the correspondence lessons very challenging, partially because I had missed a lot of education and because it was very difficult to learn remotely without being able to talk to a teacher. I knew, however, that I had no choice ― it was my only way out.

After three years of studying by correspondence while at sea, when I was 16 and my brother was 15, my parents decided to put my brother into a school in New Zealand. (As my father once explained it to me, my education was less important since I would never have to support a family.)

When my parents sailed away, I was left behind to look after my brother, doing the shopping, cooking and cleaning while he went to school each day and I tried to keep studying by correspondence. For nine months, we lived alone in a small hut beside a lake in a country in which I only knew one adult (who lived several hours away). My father left a small amount of money in a bank account that I could only access by forging his signature.

I kept working through my correspondence lessons, posting them off each week. I also wrote to every university I’d ever heard of, asking them if they would let me apply to be a student. Most wrote back saying that they would not consider me.

The local universities wouldn’t consider me because I was an English citizen, and the English ones wouldn’t consider me because they thought my qualifications were too hard to assess. But eventually Oxford University wrote back and ― after I sent them two essays – offered to interview me if I could find some way to get myself back to England. So I used money I’d earned picking kiwis, together with a small contribution from my father, to buy a one-way plane ticket, betting everything on that meeting.

Amazingly, Oxford gave me a place, and I went to university the following year. By that time, however, my relationship with my parents was tenuous. I really struggled that first year at university — not only because I had almost no money and survived mainly on cans of tomatoes and dried pasta, but also because I found it hard to fit in socially after so many years of isolation.

The good news is that after that tough first year, I started to make friends, and with access at last to libraries and laboratories, I thrived academically. After finishing my degree, I went on to do a Ph.D. at Cambridge University and then joined the U.K. government, working in the Treasury. It was there that I met my wonderful husband, Jeremy. When I became a parent myself — Jeremy and I had three lovely children ― I was determined to treat my children very differently. I make it clear to them that my love will always be unconditional, and that I will always be there for them if they need me.

When my parents eventually returned to the U.K., I tried several times to talk to them about the past, but they always reacted defensively, stating that it had “all worked out fine in the end.”

I knew I would probably lose the remaining relationship I had with them when I told the true story about my childhood. However, I never doubted that I would write about my time on Wavewalker. When my children reached the same age I was when I was struggling with my loneliness and lack of access to education, I at last saw my childhood through a mother’s eyes. I knew that I no longer had an obligation to maintain my parents’ narrative: My childhood was certainly unusual, but it was never privileged.

Author’s Note: This essay is an account of my childhood as I experienced it, and based on extensive diaries and other documents from the time. Others who were present may have experienced it differently. But this is my story.

Do you have a compelling personal story you’d like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we’re looking for here and send us a pitch .

Support HuffPost

Our 2024 coverage needs you, your loyalty means the world to us.

At HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely accessible to everyone.

Whether you come to HuffPost for updates on the 2024 presidential race, hard-hitting investigations into critical issues facing our country today, or trending stories that make you laugh, we appreciate you. The truth is, news costs money to produce, and we are proud that we have never put our stories behind an expensive paywall.

Would you join us to help keep our stories free for all? Your contribution of as little as $2 will go a long way.

Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.

As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.

Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.

Contribute as little as $2 to keep our news free for all.

Dear HuffPost Reader

Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. If circumstances have changed since you last contributed, we hope you’ll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.

Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.

Popular in the Community

From our partner, more in huffpost personal.

• Latest News
• Investigative
• Entertainment
• Human Interest
• Inspirational
• Local Listings
• Meet the Team
• Today on Inside Edition
• Inside Health
• Inside Edition InDepth
• Facebook Inside Edition
• Twitter Inside Edition
• Instagram Inside Edition
• YouTube Inside Edition

Meet the Family Who Has Been Sailing the World for 10 Years

Seafaring family of 5 successfully sails around the globe, military tanks, cows and others things involved in car chases, company launches bark air, a high-end travel option for dogs, inside deals: power bank, earbuds and speaker case, water flosser, taylor swift releases surprise 2nd ‘the tortured poets department’ album, bodycam video shows cops meeting man who shot uber driver, a look back at mandisa’s 2006 appearance on ‘american idol’, ‘eye drop murderer’ gets life sentence, nypd arrest over 100 at columbia university pro-palestine rally, man sets himself on fire outside trump hush money trial, could this be the biggest wave ever surfed, ‘american idol’ alum and grammy winner mandisa dead at 47, family wants to find hero who pulled teenager from horrific crash, you could own a piece of beer can island for $1,000, couple charged $143k for phone bill after switzerland trip, 2 dads barely escape death as tree crashes in backyard, reporter apologizes after awkward moment with caitlin clark, heart-stopping video shows married storm chasers driving through iowa tornado, brave shoppers confront alleged peeping tom inside target, bride-to-be gets advice from plane passengers, trump juror asked judge to remove her from hush money trial, the giffords do not plan on stopping anytime soon..

Behan and Jamie Gifford have spent the last 10 years sailing around the world with their three children, and they have no plans of stopping. 

The couple and their children, ages 4, 6, and 9 at the time, first set sail on Aug. 21, 2008 from Puget Sound, Washington. 

Since then, the family has traveled to 48 countries, racking up 58,000 miles and spending about $300,000.

Behan Gifford said they lived the "perfect" life before taking on their journey.

“We had high-paying jobs, dual income,” she told SWNS. “It was so perfect and white picket fence it was almost painful. It makes your teeth hurt.”

Behan worked at a digital ad agency and Jamie sold medical equipment. 

Within two weeks in 2002, the couple gave birth to their second child and mourned the loss of Jamie’s mother.

“It was hard to see those milestones of life happening together,” Behan told SWNS.

Jamie’s mother had a desire to travel, but died within weeks, causing the Giffords to re-think their own plans.

“It forced us to think about our priorities and what we wanted, and when Jamie and I met this was something we were always going to do,” Behan said.

Behan said both her and Jamie quit their jobs and pulled their children from school.

Years later in 2008, the family took off in their boat, "Totem," and did not look back.

Their three children, Niall, now 19, Mairen, 16, and Siobhan, 14, have been "boat-schooled" since setting sail.

“The kids don’t have mobile phones so there’s no Snapchat or Instagram and they’re ‘not dialed in to popular culture,' but they spend time relaxing or exploring," Behan told SWNS.

Behan explained how daily tasks are different and take longer than they would if they were on land .

They do laundry without a washing machine and instead of buying a lot of groceries and loading the minivan, they buy what they can carry back from markets.

"It’s such a crazy, different way of life from the outside," Behan said. "On one hand, we have given up so much to do this but we have zero regrets."

The Giffords have been funding their trip with their savings, as well as money they have raised over the course of 18 months while living on their boat and working jobs in Australia, SWNS reported.

The couple also freelances and rents their home in Washington for extra money.

Overall, the family of five has saved more money traveling overseas as opposed to staying on land. Although they’ve spent about $300,000, SWNS reports the average cost of living with a family of five in Seattle, Washington, is $122,000 per year.

The Giffords are in the U.S. for the summer season, but will be back aboard the Totem by October, when they will sail to Mexico for a year and a half with Mairen and Siobhan. Niall, however, will be attending college in Portland, where he will study French and economics. 

The family keeps a blog, SailingTotem.com , to give a glimpse into their life at sea. They don't plan on stopping their voyage anytime soon.

"We barely saw each other before and now our family is very tight." Behan said. "We have had the most wonderful opportunity to experience the world with our kids."

The Giffords' Voyage, by the Numbers:

Year trip was planned: 2002

Year Giffords set sail: 2008

Years Traveled: 10

Countries: 48

Miles: About 58,000

Cost: About $300,000

Ages of Children in 2008: 9, 6, 4

Ages of Children now: 19, 16, 14

RELATED STORIES

Trending on Inside Edition

How a Local Sheriff Allegedly Stole Millions of Taxpayer Funds for Cars, Designer Clothes and a Private Plane

How to Tell if Your Solar Eclipse Glasses Might Be Counterfeit and Tips on How to View the Eclipse Safely

Deputies Still Unsure of Identity of Woman Found Bound and Unresponsive on South Carolina Riverbank

Indiana Sheriff Accused of Stealing Millions in Taxpayer Funds Allegedly Spent $50K on Cigars: Investigators

‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ Singer Bonnie Tyler Still Loves Her 1983 Hit, Will Sing It During Solar Eclipse

Cruising Meraki

Family Sailing the World

Join our family as we sail around the world. explore the world through our eyes on our sailboat adventure of a lifetime let us take you with us on this journey to the next destination. if you love adventure and want to see more, subscribe now.

Join our Patreon Community

There's a number of ways to support our videos. you can like, subscribe, comment and share our videos for free on youtube. or join our patreon community, visit our channel.

Watch From the Beginning

Landlubbers to sailors, buying a budget bluewater sailboat for 40k, meet our boat "meraki", day one: sailing around the world, come along for the ride, cruisingmeraki.

• BOOT PORTAL /
• Media & News /
• boot.radar /
• Latest News /
• boot report /

When the wind beckons - a family sails around the world

Interview with loehr family.

Julia and Christian Loehr and their three children are doing what many people dream of: simply taking off to sail around the world. This family has been sailing their catamaran since August 2021 - once around the world along the "barefoot route". From the Mediterranean across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and from there on to the Pacific. We talked to Julia Loehr about their blue water adventure, her experiences, challenges and life on board as a family.

boot: A circumnavigation of the globe with a family is not exactly an everyday occurrence. How did the idea come about?

Julia:  „My husband Christian and I have been sailing since we were children and also met through sailing. Together we sailed 550 nautical miles across the North Sea in wind force eight in the 2009 Helgoland-Edinburgh offshore regatta.

I myself have travelled around the world a lot in my life and also lived abroad for many years. Christian devoured the books by Burghard Pieske and Wolfgang Hausner when he was young and has dreamed of sailing around the world himself ever since. I was very quickly infected by his sailing travel bug!

In 2015, we had our first catamaran and sailed it as often as we could with our small children on the Baltic Sea. Matilda, our youngest, was eight months old on the first trip. We told the children about our circumnavigation from an early age. At home, the children liked to play 'sailing around the world' with the sofa as a sailing boat and the armchair as a dinghy...“

boot: So the children were quasi born with sailing in their genes. How did you finally prepare for the trip?

Julia:  „It really began to materialise when we ordered our boat at the boot 2020 trade fair. We then both quit our jobs. We really wanted to feel free. You can only do that by giving up your safety net.

We rented out our flat furnished. Especially for the children, it was important to know that they could return 'home' at some point. 

 Actually, we also wanted to take some courses beforehand. Then COVID-19 came along and all the preparatory courses fell through. Neither first aid at sea nor an engine course were possible. Fortunately, we had already taken part in the blue water weekend seminar at the boot in 2019. Then at the beginning of 2021, we took a two-day online piracy prevention seminar run by the German police.“

boot: The right boat certainly plays a big role in the preparation. Actually, you already had a sailing yacht, also a catamaran. How and why did you finally decide on a new boat?

Julia: „Originally we thought we’d do our circumnavigation on the Schionning Arrow 1200, our 'Wild Thing'. But then we realised that the boat would be too small for us all for such a trip and maybe not stable enough. So we looked around at other catamarans and then decided on an Outremer 45. It’s a very sporty vessel and has both a steering wheel and tiller steering on both hulls. It's really fun!“

boot: Now you’re travelling with your whole family. What other features of your boat were important to you?

Julia:  „We definitely wanted another catamaran. It rolls less at anchor, the boat movements and heeling are much more pleasant than with a monohull - especially on the courses with aft winds that are prevalent on the barefoot route. Our boat has a children's hull and a parents' hull!

However, as we are sporty sailors, only a performance catamaran would do. The Outremer 45 convinced us right from the start. Extremely stable, with all the advantages of a boat optimised for good cruising speeds. In the right conditions, we can calculate between 180 and 200 nm. On the one hand, this is fun (our maximum speed was an unbelievable 19 knots) and on the other hand it gives us more safety, as we can avoid bad weather if necessary . “

boot: If there are children on board, the issue of safety is certainly very important to you.

Julia:  „Yes, very much so! Basically, we believe we can guarantee better safety on a new high-quality boat than on a much older one. We get excellent support from the shipyards if there are problems, even here in the Caribbean. We do the usual regular checks, of course. We also have extensive safety equipment and technology on board, for example a completely independent emergency autopilot, satellite telephone or AIS transponder. We also focus on safety when it comes to procedures, for example at night we only sail on deck with a lifejacket and pegged down. As a matter of principle, we never carry out sailing manoeuvres alone at night - we wake each other up first.

 Last but not least, we have a very extensive first aid kit on board for medical emergencies at sea. Christian is a dentist with solid medical knowledge and can stitch wounds or give injections. In addition, I attended a two-day ‘Medical at Sea’ course.“

boot: What was your route so far?

Julia:  „We set off on our Wild Thing² in La Grande Motte in August 2021. We cruised in the Mediterranean, including Corsica, Sardinia, Barcelona and Menorca, and then returned to La Grande Motte for a shipyard check.

The circumnavigation didn’t begin until the beginning of November. In Gibraltar we had to wait 19 days for the right weather window for the 4-day sail to Lanzarote. We spent Christmas on La Gomera and set off for our Atlantic crossing on 27.12.2021 - just us and the kids. On day five of the Atlantic crossing, our gennaker broke, so it took us a total of 19 days to reach Union Island (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines). Originally we wanted to sail with the participants of the 'Grand Large Yachting World Odyssey' towards Los Roques and Panama, but then we decided to explore the Caribbean a bit more. So we slowed down and sailed for another four months in the Antilles: Martinique, Guadeloupe, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Barts, British Virgin Islands, sometimes going back and forth to take part in various regattas!“

boot: Especially for the children, such a journey must be very exciting. But practical things like compulsory schooling and keeping the children occupied on long trips also play a role. How do you manage all that?

Julia:  „Of course we want our children to be able to return to their grades when we return to Germany. That’s why it’s essential to do on-board schooling. In addition, our three children are very close and keep themselves and each other wonderfully occupied. We have a lot of toys, board games and books with us. Sometimes the Jenga bricks come out, then the cars, Lego, Playmobil, then we paint, play Monopoly, UNO, chess or backgammon. The children also like to listen to audio books a lot. We also have a small beamer on board, which we use for unforgettable cinema evenings - and the kids like to invite the children from other boats to join them.“

boot: What is school on board like?

Julia: „We don't have fixed weekly schedules, we just work through the textbooks. On a sailing boa t, it’s simply not possible to keep strict times for on-board schooling. If we have swells on the way, we can't teach or let the children do assignments. That would make you feel seasick very quickly. But on such days we can still do mental arithmetic, practise English or have them listen to English and audio textbooks. During our 19-day Atlantic crossing, we did quite a few lessons every day except for the five days with rough seas. This gave the children a structured routine and passed the time more quickly.“

boot: Were there many challenges with the schooling?

Julia:  „We all had to get used to life on board. We’re only two adults and have to teach three children. So we can't teach all three one-to-one at the same time. This means we always have to give at least one child tasks to work on alone.

On the other hand, individual lessons are extremely effective. We notice right away whether the child has understood the material and we can continue. We also integrate topics into the lessons that the children wouldn’t learn at home, for example, the great seafarers like Christopher Columbus, who discovered many Caribbean islands, or flying fish, whales, sea turtles and other marine animals, satellites, volcanoes, slavery in the Caribbean, cocoa and sugar cane. We’re discovering the world together!

A few years ago, of all the things you could worry about when sailing around the world, I was most concerned about the issue of schooling on board. Now, since the corona period with people doing home office and kids stuck at home who had to be schooled, looked after and cooked for at the same time, I see things differently. We have time for our children and can devote ourselves fully to teaching - if we don't happen to be changing tack on the high seas!“

boot: You’re currently in Martinique. What are your next plans?

Julia:  „We're sailing the barefoot route, so the way is roughly sketched out. This far, we’ve already sailed 8500 nautical miles on the Wild Thing². From Martinique we will sail again to the Grenadines and from there to Bonaire. Then we’ll sail on to Cartagena in late autumn. From here we want to explore Colombia and maybe Costa Rica. Then to the San Blas Islands, through the Panama Canal into the Pacific, Galapagos, South Seas, New Zealand, Australia, the Indian Ocean to South Africa, Brazil and from there via the Caribbean to the Bahamas and the USA. Then it's back to Europe; perhaps via Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway or otherwise the traditional route via the Azores. But we’re flexible - if it turns out differently, that's fine too. It should be fun for all of us, we don't have to 'pull off' a fixed plan.“

boot: After so many nautical miles you must have experienced quite a lot - what were some highlights so far?

Julia:  „There have been many! We like to sail at night with a beautiful starry sky. Often you see fluorescent plankton glittering in the water. It's an incredible natural spectacle. Whales are also among the highlights, of course. On the Atlantic crossing, a whole horde passed us by. Another time, in the east of St. Martin a whale surfaced very close to our boat. Gripping!

But also simply having time for watersports, e.g. windsurfing, or a cosy campfire on the beach are unforgettable moments.

On our trip we also met and became fond of many nice people whith whom we experienced unforgettable moments.“

boot: Have you already identified a favourite destination?

Julia:  „To name a single destination would probably not do justice to the many great places on our trip, and is very difficult.

In Europe, for example, we were very taken with Corsica and also La Gomera in the Canary Islands.

The Caribbean surprised us in a positive way. You so often hear and read that it’s 'overcrowded, unfriendly, unsafe, expensive'. We cannot confirm this. There are lots of beautiful islands and places in the Caribbean. The turquoise waters and sandy beaches in the Grenadines, the BVIs with the Baths, Sandy Pit on Jost Van Dyke, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Barths, the rainforest and waterfalls on Guadeloupe.... The people are very friendly and helpful. We find it simply wonderful and are glad that we took a few months to enjoy the great sailing spots in the Caribbean.“

boot: If others now also feel like embarking on such an adventure, what tips can you give them from your experiences?

Julia:  „When you’re at home in your everyday life, there are always more reasons to stay than to give it all up and set sail. But when the wind beckons, you should cast off your lines and sail off into your adventure. And being able to experience this with our children makes it even more precious. We spend a very intense time full of impressions and grow even closer as a family. The memories of this special time will stay with us forever. 

Perhaps as a tip: People often tend to be a bit perfectionist. But you are never perfectly prepared! But that shouldn't stop you from realising your dream. You can still do it! So have the courage to let go and be free [laughs]!“

Dear Julia, thank you very much for the interview!

The Loehr family shares stories about their trip on Instagram @wildthing.familyworldcruise and online: 

boot themed areas

This page requires JavaScript

To use the full function of this web site, JavaScript needs to be enabled in your browser.

This is how you enable JavaScript in your browser settings: Read instruction

Life in Italy, Italian Language, Italian Culture, Italy News, Tourism News, Italian Food

Around the world in a sailboat: the story of Niccolò Banfi

At 23 years old, with courage to spare and a strong pull toward the ocean, Niccolò Banfi emerged from the latest edition of the Ocean Globe Race . Founded in 1973 and held every three years, this competition pits sailboats worldwide against each other in 9 or 10 extremely perilous stages.

Sailor Niccolò Banfi aboard the Translated 9

A 65-foot sailboat and a crew of 16 people were Italian sailor Niccolò Banfi’s companions for over 5 months, covering 27 thousand nautical miles (approximately 50,000 km).

The rules for the Ocean Globe Race stipulate that the crew must consist of 70% non-professionals . After a lengthy selection process that saw over 1400 participants compete, they chose Niccolò Banfi. It’s no coincidence that this is one of the most adventurous challenges in the world.

Vintage Around-the-World Journey, Without Technology

The intrepid adventurers navigate and maintain the correct course without GPS or advanced equipment. Just like ancient sailors who read the stars, use a sextant, and rely on triangulation points to avoid getting lost in the ocean’s vastness. It’s a harsh experience that demands a deep connection with nature, much like Niccolò’s. But the boy grew up on an iron barrel; his father, known as Baffo , is an experienced navigator, a pioneer of the competition, and has taught him the basics of navigation since he was very young.

 “I Would Like to Become a Professional Sailor”

Niccolò didn’t come out of the experience scared; quite the opposite. The challenge left its mark, and the 23-year-old realized he wanted to become a professional sailor. Not even the most dangerous pitfalls presented by the ocean were able to intimidate him.

The young man recounts a night when he found himself at the helm at Cape Horn, near Chile. There was a storm with winds of 40-50 knots, and the waves reached 14 meters in height. The boat was uncontrollable ; after a gust of 65 knots, the boat spun 180° and then tipped 90°, with the mast in the water. The entire crew found themselves at the mercy of the storm and the will of the waves, but fortunately, everything turned out for the best.

The Transatlantic 9, however, did not finish the race due to a breakdown; only misfortune could stop it. But the young sailor is still satisfied because he has realized that he wants to sail for the simple pleasure of it , like a sailor, like a fearless adventurer who is not afraid of fate.

Niccolò has recounted his experiences with emotion, from adventures near Cape Horn to the allure of albatrosses gliding without ever flapping their wings, to the beauty of high waves and strong winds in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. These experiences have deeply marked Niccolò, who now looks to the future with renewed determination and an even stronger passion for sailing.

Recent Posts & News

Absolute Domination of Italy at the XXXI Pizza World Championship

New smoking bans in Italy: cigarettes halted

The First Italian High Fashion Show

Titanic Shipwreck: On the Trail of Italians on Board

How to Find Your Italian Ancestors – A Step-by-Step Guide

News , sport.

What’s a Hodad? And Other 60s Slang We Should Bring Back

The Flipping Nomad Does It Again With a One of a Kind RV

Woman Slapped with Lifetime Ban From Carnival Cruises

RVer Finds Python in His Storage and Brings It In His RV

• You Me and the RV
• Technomadia
• RV Odd Couple
• Nomadic Fanatic
• Less Junk More Journey
• Keep Your Daydream
• I'm Not Lost I'm RVing
• Getaway Couple
• Flipping Nomad

• Content Creators
• Sailing Lifestyle

5 Crazy Cool Families That Sail The World With Their Kids

Can you imagine sailing around the world with your kids? It may sound overwhelming for some, but you might be surprised at the impact it can make on a family. We found five families teaching their children about the world and oceans from a sailboat. 

Please keep reading to learn what it takes to sail the world with kids. Then, we’ll introduce you to five YouTube channels worth subscribing to and keeping up with their sailing adventures.

Let’s hoist the sails and take a look!

How Long Does It Take to Sail Around the World?

Sailing around the world could theoretically be done in two months. A trimaran holds the world record for completing the circumnavigation in 40 days.

However, sailors’ average time to make their way around the earth’s waterways is typically between three to five years. It depends on how much time they spend in one destination.

Is It Safe to Sail Around the World With Your Kids?

Overall, it is safe to sail around the world with kids. However, safety is a top priority for any sailing vessel. The oceans and weather can be unpredictable, making sailing extremely dangerous at times.

We recommend you put together a safety plan specific to your boat and the people on board. Watch the YouTube channels of the sailing families in our list, and you’ll observe that they each have implemented unique plans. 

HOT TIP Learn the truth about living on a boat versus full-time RV life .

5 Crazy Cool Families That Sail the World With Their Kids

Are you ready to meet some crazy cool families that sail the world with their kids? Check out these five families and their sailing vessels.

1. Sailing Zatara

Sailing Zatara is a family of six circumnavigating the world while homeschooling and having fun. Originally from Texas, they were fed up with corporate life, so they sold everything and bought a sailboat.

They started on a monohull in 2016 and now live aboard a catamaran. Having sailed more than 30,000 nautical miles so far, they’re making their way around the world. They’ve been to the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Pacific Islands and are currently making their way across the Indian Ocean to the coast of Africa.

How to follow along on their journey: YouTube → Instagram → Facebook → Website →

2. Sailing Mokara

Sailing Mokara is the Taylor family from the UK. They wanted to show their two sons there is more to life than work and school, so they decided to sail around the world.

The sailing vessel Mokara is a Lagoon 400 catamaran they bought in 2020. The family cruised the Mediterranean and Caribbean, went through the Panama Canal, and is doing a Pacific Crossing to the French Polynesian Islands.

How to follow along on their journey: YouTube → Instagram → Facebook → Twitter → Website →

3. Sailing with Six

Sailing with Six sails the world on their vessel, Happy Days. Originally from Australia’s Gold Coast, the family of six started on a monohull and now lives aboard a Leopard 46 catamaran.

They enjoy sailing, snorkeling, kite surfing, and more while sailing around the world. Having boated and sailed in Australia and New Zealand, they’re now on their catamaran in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. 

4. Feel the Breeze Family

Feel the Breeze is a full-time sailing family of three from the Netherlands. Rianne and Gerben live aboard their Beneteau 57, a monohull, with their young son and a baby on the way.

They’re making their way through the Mediterranean, including Greece, Turkey, and Montenegro. Feel the Breeze are stellar videographers and photographers, so you can quickly become inspired by their footage.

5. Cruising Meraki

Cruising Meraki is a unique family affair. They’re sailing with three generations from Australia, on two boats!

Kevin, Shawna, their daughter Kate and husband, Mick, and their two young sons are sailing the world together. They started with all six living aboard a C&L Explorer 45’ monohull by the designer Stan Huntingford.

Now the grandparents have a sailboat, and the family of four has a sailboat. They’re making their way down the Pacific Coast to Mexico.

Set Sail on Your Own Adventures

Are you inspired to pack up your family and sail around the world? Subscribe to the YouTube channels of the five families on our list to see what sailboat life with kids is all about.

You’ll see them go through fun and epic adventures, as well as some challenges along the way. It’s also entirely possible to homeschool your kids while showing them the world.

If you were to sail around the world, where would you like to visit along the way? 

If You Want the Latest Travel News, Join Our Mailing List

Don’t rely on biased RV industry news sources to keep you informed. Stick with Nomadic News. We publish articles and breaking stories that matter to you every weekday.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

5 Best Vans for Van Life in 2022

Who Is Andrew Steele?

Related posts.

Who Is RV Miles?

Is Enjoythejourney.Life Breaking Up?

RV Lifestyle Is the Best RV Podcast Out There

YouTubers Build 42-Foot Catamaran From Ground Up!

Best Sailboats For Families

Last Updated by

Daniel Wade

December 28, 2023

Sailing has always been a family activity and a great way for families to bond. But what sailboats are best (and safest) for the whole family?

Family sailboats are spacious, easy to sail, heel gently, and safe in rough weather. The best production family sailboats are the Catalina 22, the Catalina 30, the Lagoon 470 catamaran, and the Beneteau 49.

In this article, we’ll cover in-depth four of the best sailboats for family cruising. We’ll go over what to look for when choosing a family sailboat, along with what to avoid. Additionally, we’ll compare single and multihull designs and cover the benefits and drawbacks of each.

We sourced the information in this article from the sailing community and specifically sailing families who’ve embarked on extended voyages.

Table of contents

‍ Family Sailboat Sailing Characteristics

Beyond obvious considerations (such as size and accommodations), what is the most important aspect of a family sailboat? It’s sailing characteristics—and this is especially true for monohulls. Sailing characteristics play a large part in the safety of the vessel and also the comfort of its less experienced crew.

There are several factors that contribute to sailing characteristics and a family-friendly boat. First and foremost, a boat’s heeling tendencies should be taken into consideration. Boxier modern boats tend to heel (lean over under sail) much less dramatically than older, more rounded designs. This is also true for wider boats, which are more stable.

Heeling is natural under sail, but it can be alarming to kids and inexperienced sailors. Additionally, it makes it much more difficult to cook or move around the boat safely—especially out on the deck but also in the cabin. A boat with milder handling is much better suited to families.

Another factor to consider is seakeeping. A comfortable boat is one that doesn’t pound excessively and takes waves gracefully—and this is not always the case. Some sailboats (particularly narrow and flat-bottomed versions) are notorious for being dreadfully uncomfortable in rough weather.

Larger, wider, and more rounded hulls handle waves much better than flat-bottom boats, though other factors also contribute to seakeeping abilities. The best family boats are a bit sluggish due to their increased displacement but far more comfortable when the weather gets rough.

Family Sailboat Size

What’s the ideal size for a family sailboat? Well, the answer clearly depends on the size of your family—however, we can start with a simple rule that a family sailboat should be able to accommodate at least four people comfortably.

Four people should be able to be in the same place at the same time—for example, in the cockpit or in a common area in the cabin. Some sailboats may accommodate six or more people in the cockpit, but only two or four around the dining table—which is not the ideal arrangement for a family.

The average size of a family sailboat is between 30 and 40 feet. This applies to both monohull and multihull sailboats. Sailboats of this size generally have standing headroom and enough sleeping spaces for the whole family. Additionally, virtually all sailboats of the size have a shower and toilet, and sometimes two.

Monohull Vs Multihull Family Sailboats

Monohull sailboats are vessels with a single hull. Monohulls are probably what you think of when you picture a typical sailboat. Multihull sailboats have multiple hulls, and the most common types are two-hull catamarans and three-hull trimarans.

Monohull sailboats are significantly less expensive than multihull sailboats. This makes them the most common choice for families who are more budget-sensitive when it comes to recreational equipment.

But when it comes to handling and cabin comfort, the multihull has several distinct advantages over the monohull. These sailboats distribute the force of the wind between multiple hulls and a wide stance, which makes them extremely safe and stable.

Additionally, virtually all cruising catamarans and trimarans have extensive center cabin space and several private stateroom areas in the hull. This allows families to give each person adequate space on long voyages. Many cruising families opt for a multihull, as the additional space is paramount to long-term comfort.

Best Family Sailboat Models

Hundreds of sailboat designs have been sold over the years, and a few stand out as spectacular family coastal cruising and long-distance sailboats. This list will include an example of each common family sailboat type, and we’ll specify the best uses for each vessel. Here are four of the best and safest family sailboats on the market today.

1. Catalina 22 Trailer Sailboat

{{boat-info="/boats/catalina-22"}}

The Catalina 22 is one of the most popular sailboats of all time. It was introduced in the 1960s as a family sailboat for lakes and coastal waters, and it was produced in many variations over the years. Thousands of Catalina 22 sailboats are still on the market today, which serves as a testament to their robust design and timeless utility.

Most Catalina 22 sailboats are trailerable, which means you don’t need to rent a permanent slip to store it. The vessel is 22 feet in length and can be towed by a reasonably sized SUV or standard pickup truck. It’s constructed with marine fiberglass, which is low maintenance and extremely durable.

The Catalina 22 is not designed for extended cruising. Instead, it’s a day boat with a reasonably sized cabin for short overnight trips. It is a perfect alternative to camping, and there’s usually enough space to sleep four.

All things considered, the cabin space aboard a Catalina 22 is generous. Some versions of the boat came with a pop-up companionway hatch, which turned sitting headroom into standing headroom towards the aft end of the cabin. This is exceedingly rare on small trailer sailers, and it’s a big perk of having a Catalina 22.

The Catalina 22 is the perfect starter boat for a family. It’s heavy and stable and offers excellent sailing characteristics (even in higher winds). Additionally, it’s easy to rig and small enough to be handled by one or two people. Kids can learn the basics of sailing and get experience piloting a “big” boat—at least when compared to a dinghy or a Sunfish.

The Catalina 22 can be found on the used market for between $5,000 and $15,000. Outliers exist, and you may be lucky enough to find a Catalina 22 in operable condition for less than $3000–trailer included.

2. Catalina 30 Cruising Sailboat

{{boat-info="/boats/catalina-30"}}

Catalina makes the list again with its extremely popular 30-foot sailboat. The Catalina 30 is a fiberglass sloop that was introduced around the same time as the Catalina 22. Unlike the Catalina 22, the Catalina 30 is more than capable of open ocean sailing—but it’s also easy to handle on short trips in coastal waters.

Catalina 30 sailboats have a wide beam which makes them stable under heavy sail and in rough water. They also have a high freeboard, which keeps the cockpit relatively dry and prevents excessive spray over the bow. These characteristics also minimize heeling, which makes it a comfortable boat for inexperienced sailors.

The cabin is another huge selling point of the Catalina 30. These vessels have standing headroom throughout, along with enough sleeping space for six adults or more. Additionally, the Catalina 30 features a full kitchen (or galley) along with a sitting area and table that’s large enough for the entire family to sit down for dinner.

This vessel is more complex than the Catalina 22. However, anybody who can handle a Bermuda-rigged sailboat that’s larger than 20 feet can easily transition to a Catalina 30. Like the 22-foot model, this sailboat was produced in great numbers during the 20th century, and hundreds are available on the used market in excellent condition.

The Catalina 30 is ideal for a family who wants to take an occasional bluewater voyage. A trip between Florida and the Bahamas is well within the capabilities of the sailboat, and more adventurous sailors frequently sail it between San Francisco and Hawaii.

It’s also a great day boat for coast cruising, as it absorbs bad weather better than smaller boats and handles surprisingly well in low winds.

3. Lagoon 470 Cruising Catamaran

{{boat-info="/boats/lagoon-470"}}

Do you have a large family, or do you place a premium on space and comfort for long-distance sailing? If so, the Lagoon 470 could be your best option. It’s a large, 47-foot cruising catamaran that offers better speed and stability than any similarly-sized monohull.

The Lagoon 470 is a typical catamaran in many respects—it has a large center cockpit area that’s covered and features communal spaces such as the galley and a large sitting area. This space alone is wider than most monohull cabins and offers the family a great place to hang out.

Below decks in the hulls, the Lagoon 470 has several separate bedrooms and private bathroom/shower combinations. This gives family members their own space and reduces the risk of conflict when it comes to showering and sleeping.

Catamarans like the Lagoon 470 have many advantages but also a few drawbacks. This vessel is more difficult to operate in tight spaces and requires more docking space than a traditional monohull. That said, if you can manage the additional stress during docking, you’ll enjoy a much safer and more pleasant time on the water.

Due to its spectacular sailing characteristics and large size, the Lagoon 470 is best suited for long-haul sailing or full-time living. It’s definitely not a day boat—and its high price makes it an unreasonable choice of occasional sailing.

If you want to travel the world with your family, this is the boat for you. If you’re cruising around the bay on the weekends, you may want to consider something like the Catalina 30.

4. Beneteau 49 Bluewater Monohull Sailboat

{{boat-info="/boats/beneteau-49"}}

Here’s an exceptional monohull that stacks up with the best multihulls in terms of space, comfort, and seaworthiness. The Beneteau 49 is nearly 50 feet long and provides accommodations fit for the largest families.

The Beneteau 49 is the quintessential cruising sailboat. It’s wide, fast, and agile—and it has handling characteristics that put it in line with the hardiest recreational sailboats. Plus, the cabin is modern and spacious and includes everything you need to spend weeks (or months) aboard comfortably.

Separate enclosed sleeping areas give each family member privacy, and a sense of ownership over their space—which many families affirm is key when living in tight quarters. Plus, it’s a recent Beneteau design, which means it comes equipped with the latest technology and amenities.

Many of the more difficult aspects of rigging and sailboat control are automated on the Beneteau 49, meaning you can control them from the cockpit without sending anyone out on deck. This keeps the family safe and comfortable in foul weather and reduces the grunt work associated with sailing.

And when it comes to safety, it’s hard to beat a big hardy monohull like the Beneteau 49. This vessel has a wide stance and a semi-flush deck, meaning it’s well-balanced and designed to take on the toughest weather conditions. Additionally, its extended length increases hull speed, reducing the time it takes to get between stops.

As far as price is concerned, you’ll probably pay about the same for a Beneteau 49 as you would for a mid-ranged multihull. This can easily enter the $100,000+ price point, which is steep—but worth it if you and your family intend to live aboard and do extended cruising.

Related Articles

Best Sailboats For Lakes

10 Best Sailboats To Live In

Best Trailerable Sailboats Under 30 Feet

I've personally had thousands of questions about sailing and sailboats over the years. As I learn and experience sailing, and the community, I share the answers that work and make sense to me, here on Life of Sailing.

by this author

Best Sailboats

Most Recent

What Does "Sailing By The Lee" Mean?

October 3, 2023

The Best Sailing Schools And Programs: Reviews & Ratings

September 26, 2023

Important Legal Info

Lifeofsailing.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. This site also participates in other affiliate programs and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies.

Similar Posts

Affordable Sailboats You Can Build at Home

September 13, 2023

Best Small Sailboats With Standing Headroom

Best Bluewater Sailboats Under $50K

Popular posts.

Best Liveaboard Catamaran Sailboats

Can a Novice Sail Around the World?

Elizabeth O'Malley

June 15, 2022

4 Best Electric Outboard Motors

How Long Did It Take The Vikings To Sail To England?

10 Best Sailboat Brands (And Why)

December 20, 2023

7 Best Places To Liveaboard A Sailboat

Get the best sailing content.

Top Rated Posts

Lifeofsailing.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. This site also participates in other affiliate programs and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. (866) 342-SAIL

© 2024 Life of Sailing Email: [email protected] Address: 11816 Inwood Rd #3024 Dallas, TX 75244 Disclaimer Privacy Policy

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes

The true story of True Spirit : What really happened on Jessica Watson's solo sail around the world

EW breaks down fact vs. fiction in Netflix's inspiring movie based on the incredible true story of the 16-year-old who attempted to become the youngest person to sail alone around the world.

Sydney Bucksbaum is a writer at Entertainment Weekly covering all things pop culture – but TV is her one true love. She currently lives in Los Angeles but grew up in Chicago so please don't make fun of her accent when it slips out.

Warning: This article contains spoilers about True Spirit, now streaming on Netflix.

True Spirit , Netflix's latest book-to-movie adaptation, is an inspiring tale about Jessica Watson, a teen who endeavors to become the youngest person to sail alone, nonstop, and unassisted around the world. Starring Titan 's Teagan Croft and based on the book of the same name, the film follows her harrowing journey as she attempts to sail 23,000 nautical miles around the globe in 8 months — something no other 16-year-old had ever accomplished before. But what makes it even more amazing is that it actually happened in real life.

Below, EW breaks down the biggest moments from the film and the true story behind them.

Is Jessica Watson a real person?

Yes! Watson exists, and she wrote the book about her own experience circumnavigating the globe upon which the movie is based. "There's so many layers of emotion in it for me," Watson tells EW of watching the film for the first time. "It's amazing, and Teagan's performance is extraordinary. It's me, but it's also something else, which I just love."

After playing half-demon empath Raven on the DC Comics series Titans for years, Croft was excited to finally take on a role closer to home. "Playing Raven on Titans , it's purple hair, very sullen," she says. "And the [ True Spirit ] producers needed to double-check that I wasn't like that in real life, that I'd be able to play Jess. I cracked a couple jokes, made a couple remarks, and they saw I'd be able to pull off perky. It's much more in my wheelhouse. And being able to act in my own accent was something I hadn't had the opportunity to do before. It was nice to have that burden lifted."

Watson and Croft met in person for the first time over dinner before the movie began filming, and they had a conversation with director Sarah Spillane about how the onscreen version of Watson wouldn't just be an imitation. "Then we also went sailing the next day altogether, and we met a few times up after that," Croft says. "It was so weird and awkward at first. I felt a weird guilt, like, 'Hello, I'm playing you.' But she was so lovely about it, and we get on really well now."

Did she really attempt to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world?

She sure did — Watson, now 29, departed from Sydney, Australia,, on Oct. 18, 2009, and returned on May 15, 2010, just before her 17th birthday.

Did she succeed?

Well, it's complicated and depends on who you ask. Watson sailed an estimated 18,582 nautical miles, crossing through the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans, all on her own and without stopping. But ultimately, the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) ruled that Watson was ineligible for the record, having traveled just short of the minimum 21,600 nautical miles necessary to claim circumnavigation of the globe. In response to the decision and criticism, Watson wrote on her blog at the time, "If I haven't been sailing around the world, then it beats me what I've been doing out here all this time!"

The movie notably doesn't mention the controversy about whether or not she earned the title of the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop, and unassisted around the world. Once she returns to Sydney Harbour amid a massive celebration, the credits roll immediately. "The movie and what Jess is all about is not about the record," Croft says. "That's not what drove her. That's not what she was sailing for. She was sailing for the love of it. The point of the movie is about this girl who had a goal that was crazy and dangerous, and what she did was incredible."

"The thing is, it's a bit of an invented controversy because there actually is no record," Watson tells EW. "There's no 'youngest' record because the body that does official sailing records doesn't recognize youngest records, which is understandable. So I don't really understand how there can be controversy over a record that doesn't exist. The voyage and the way I sailed around the world was very similar to what other people did, but there's actually no official rules, so it's a bit hard to not comply with rules that don't quite exist."

All these years later, Watson isn't concerned about any official records or titles. "It really doesn't worry me because it was about the adventure," she adds. "But also, gosh, people really feel the need to add some drama or find a way to almost diminish it slightly. And I'm like, 'Cool, you guys do that. I'm cool with that.' Maybe I think about it too simplistically, but I'm just like, 'Why are we arguing about the number of nautical miles for a record that doesn't exist?' There is no set nautical miles. You can't argue over a rule that doesn't exist."

Did all the characters in the movie exist?

All except for two — and those two were still based on real people. In the film, Avatar : The Way of the Water 's Cliff Curtis plays her sailing coach Ben, but Watson reveals he was just a "beautiful representation of a few people who otherwise wouldn't have been able to be portrayed," from the crew who helped her repair her boat to the group of people advising her over the phone about the weather during her voyage and more.

Her parents were pretty much exactly as they appear in the movie, played by Anna Paquin and Josh Lawson . "Mum was the one who firstly read me Jesse Martin's book from the get-go, which was what inspired me to do this," Watson says. "She had the same curiosity and inspiration for the voyage as me, whereas dad really didn't believe it was going to happen for much longer. And then, obviously, he was quite reluctant, as you see. That is probably pretty accurate in terms of mom and dad's dynamic."

Croft struggled the most filming the scenes where Jessica talks to her family over the phone during her journey. "At that point, the other actors were gone, and it was just me, so sometimes that was really difficult to get into the scene," she says. "But what was lucky in a twisted way was that COVID was really big in Australia at that time, and so the borders between my home state and the state we were filming in had closed. I'd just come from filming Titans , I hadn't seen my sisters or my dad for seven months by the end of shooting True Spirit , so I was able to pull a real, genuine emotion from my real life from the real phone calls I was having."

Watson adds that the reporter, played by Todd Lasance, was fictional but represents all of the members of the media who were aggressively and publicly criticizing her plans. "There were some that were pretty damn similar to him," she adds with a laugh. "I was protected slightly from some of the intensity of it at the time because I was just so single-mindedly focused on this thing, which you need to be to do something like that. It was my team and my poor family who caught the worst of that, but it was intense."

She continues, "I can really understand where people were coming from, and it's kind of beautiful that there was so much concern. But at the same time, I don't think people really understood that there had been years and years of preparation. And this is a really safe boat, it's done this a number of times. It's not as crazy as it seems if you've got no idea about that world."

Did her pre-voyage trial run really end in a massive collision?

Unfortunately, yes. Watson forgot to turn on the proximity alarms before taking a quick nap, and a few minutes later, her boat (named Ella's Pink Lady), crashed into a cargo ship. "That collision scene's one of the ones that's really accurate, so that one's pretty intense for me," Watson says. "That was something I still have the occasional nightmare about, but it's so important to the story. It really made me in a way because having to go through that and find the strength to continue really set me up for being able to deal with the storms at sea."

Did she really leave her hairbrush at home?

In a moment of levity in the movie, Jessica realizes she forgot to pack a hairbrush for her long journey and tapes two forks together to detangle her hair for months. That did happen ... but not on her long trip around the world. "That happened on a sea trial," Watson admits. "So not quite the whole voyage. And actually, I got the idea from Jesse Martin who did forget his hairbrush for his trip and used a fork."

Did she battle dyslexia during her journey?

Watson is dyslexic in real life, and she loves how the movie accurately portrays the struggles she faced whenever she got stressed and messed up her longitude and latitude coordinates. "So many people can relate to this, and it's not far off from my reality," Watson says, before admitting with a laugh, "I mean, I like to think that I was never that bad with my lats and longs and getting muddled up. But at the same time, it's also based on the truth that mum did used to call me out when I'm tired or flustered, and I was getting stuff like that wrong."

Did she get knocked out during a storm?

In the first big storm she faces at sea, Jessica is hit in the head with a frying pan and gets knocked out. But it turns out that entire scene was made up for the movie. "I feel bad calling out some of the things that weren't quite true, but no, no frying pan," Watson says. "Although there was legitimate danger with stuff flying around inside the boat in a storm — household everyday objects become deadly. Keeping your cabin tidy is something I should have been better at."

Did her boat get stuck for a week without any wind?

In the movie, Jessica hits an emotional low point when there's no breeze for an entire week. She gets frustrated and ends up arguing with Ben over the radio. That was all fictionalized for the film but was based on real emotions Watson felt throughout her trip. "In reality, you never get such long stretches without wind," she says. "Often, it's more like a couple of days. And even within that, you might get a few puffs along the way. It is, however, very true to what that experience is like for a sailor, how incredibly frustrating it is to just be at the mercy of the elements and just waiting for the wind to come back. There's nothing you can do. Emotionally, they were some of the really tough days out there."

Did a massive storm temporarily sink her boat?

Onscreen, Jessica's journey ends with her biggest test yet, as multiple major storms merged into one. The giant waves flip her boat upside down, and she gets stuck 15 ft. underwater for an extended period of time. It's a terrifying scene, and it turns out, the movie version isn't even the full story.

"There were seven knockdowns," Watson reveals. "Not all of them were quite that bad. A lot of the time, it's just the boat being knocked over. But the 15 ft. underwater is real because my emergency beacon did self-activate as the boat sank. That happened. But the time I was upside down for, it certainly felt like a long time. I haven't really got a concept of how long it was in reality, but we are talking seconds compared to what we see in the movie, which stretches on forever in minutes and minutes and minutes. That's a little bit of an exaggeration there, but it was real to the experience of it feeling like forever."

Was her return to Sydney as epic as it appeared?

Absolutely! When Jessica arrives in Sydney Harbour at the end of her journey, it looks like all of Australia came to celebrate her accomplishment. And as the credits roll, real footage from that moment plays, showing the real Watson reuniting with her family. Incredibly, a young Croft was there in attendance that day.

"I was actually there in Sydney Harbour when she came in, but I'd forgotten since I was only six," Croft says. "When I came across this script, my parents were like, 'We were there!' I've been trying to figure out where we were in the crowd to see if you can see me in that footage. Maybe I'm there in a little pink skirt or something ridiculous."

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• Real story of teen who sailed around the world by herself comes to life in True Spirit trailer
• The 23 best book to movie adaptations of all time
• 50 books we're dying to see get adapted

Related Articles

Yachting World

• Digital Edition

Best family yacht: our pick of the best yachts for sailing with the family

• Toby Hodges
• March 7, 2024

Toby Hodges takes a look at all the nominees and the winner of the best family yacht category in the European Yacht of the Year Awards

There are many categories in the European Yacht of the Year awards, from the  best luxury yachts  to  performance yachts . But some of the most hotly-anticipated options come when it is time to choose the nominees and winner in the best family yacht category.

The European Yacht of the Year awards are selected by a broad panel of expert judges from across the globe. These are people who spend their professional lives sailing and comparing yachts, so you can be certain that the yachts which stand out in this field are truly the best of the best on the market for those looking to set out with the whole family in tow.

A crop of the latest 35-45ft mainstream production yachts, including the ultra spacious Dufour 41 and the smaller sister to the award-winning Hanse 460, plus a couple of less well known yachts, made for a dynamic grouping this year when it comes to picking the best family yachts 2024.

In this, the most competitive size bracket for volume production yachts, there was plenty to like, but two models stood out: the RM and the Bavaria. The former because it’s different and fills an interesting niche that crosses fast cruising with family sailing, from coastal and shoal draught to bluewater sailing ability; the Bavaria because it masters that mix of deck and interior space, performance and handling in a well finished package.

Winner of the best family yacht 2024 – Bavaria C46

The Bavaria and Cossutti Yacht Design relationship continues to flourish and produce standout results in its second generation. The C46’s modern, full shape brings vast deck and accommodation space yet manages to do so on a hull which really performs for its size, and rewards the helmsman with direct feedback.

During my trial we had a good mix of conditions and were able to push the boat, a voluminous hull which becomes reactive once the breeze threatens double figures. We were able to press it during a rain squall, hitting 12 knots in 18 under gennaker, and maintained lengthy double digit spells during some enjoyable sporty sailing. Bear in mind this is a single-rudder boat, yet it still didn’t overpower or lose its grip. It’s impressive, especially given the exceptionally low ballast ratio (20%), which shows the reliance on form stability.

“The chine is a bit higher than the C42 and we tried to make the wetted surface as small as possible,” Maurizio Cossutti told me during our trial. The keel is also comparatively lighter, slimmer and deeper for a sporty feel. It’s clear the German yard has really poured its engineering energy and might into this build – from design to engineering to finish quality, the perceived richness of the C46 stands out (although dressed with over €200,000 of options, this is still no mean feat in a mass production size and brand). So much so that other big yards may struggle to compete.

You could argue the Dufour 41 does that to some extent, but here the emphasis is slightly more skewed towards volume, while it doesn’t quite match the Bavaria for the overall engineering and finish quality. Felci somehow managed to swell the forward sections enough to allow the Dufour to be the first 40-footer to offer four cabins, including two doubles forward. We then learned in September that Dufour had signed a new contract to supply Sunsail charter yachts, which helps explain the draw of all this extra accommodation space.

The price for this is extra weight. Although equipped with a tall rig, the 41 only becomes reactive once the breeze is up to the mid teens, where it can lean onto a chine and employ its generous form stability. But for those after volume, max deck lounging space and a bright spacious interior for multiple guests, it’s a hard model to compete with at this size (full report in YW September 2023 and online).

On paper the Hanse 410 should perhaps have challenged the Bavaria more. It’s the latest in Hanse’s new collaboration with Berret-Racoupeau, follows on from the larger sister 460 which won this category in 2022, and shares that appealing modern hull shape. It showed respectable performance and figures, and proved easy to manage short-handed, thanks to the self-tacking jib and winches positioned to hand.

A halyard issue with the mainsail and a tangled sock for the kite curtailed my sail trials somewhat. We also found the cockpit quite busy, particularly the winch layout, although it is nice and deep for protecting its crew. It makes you query why you need two tables on a 40-footer – until you see them lowered to create sun beds, that is!

Stand out features from the interior were the number of stowage solutions, particularly on the two-cabin test boat. Offered as two or three cabins with one or two heads, the former provides a huge amount of stowage accessible from the cockpit or interior. There’s more in the galley and a multifunction space in the saloon, which can be a full length sofa berth, a proper chart table, or a standing desk with storage below.

Beneteau Oceanis 37.1

The Beneteau Oceanis 37.1 is also all about easy sailing and handling, and proved to be a fun, manageable sized cruiser, particularly the First Line option we tried, which increases sail area with a square-top main and flat deck furler. While certainly an accessible yacht, it perhaps comes across as a little basic. This is the last Oceanis in the new generation eight-boat range between 30ft and 60ft, so the focus is more on evolution than the revolution of its early predecessors. Hence the two- or three-cabin interior seemed a little unremarkable when viewed against the opposition.

The same could not be said for the RM 1380, particularly when you step down the companionway – which doesn’t really feel like going below decks on a conventional monohull as it’s so naturally bright in the raised saloon and helps you appreciate your surroundings. So much so it’s more like being on a multihull. The doorways are a little tight, but the double cabins are of good size thanks in part to the generous beam. The standard two-cabin layout has a practical utility space in place of the optional third cabin.

I’ve long appreciated the plywood epoxy technique RM uses for its hulls, together with the powerful form stability Lombard’s design brings. This comes with the choice of keels, including the shoal draught options of a lifting centreboard or efficient twin keels. We tried the latter and the result on the water is in keeping with the sporty looks: it’s an enjoyable mid-displacement cruiser to sail from the aft quarters. Then there’s the superb winch layout, which sees the primaries positioned inboard for use standing under the protection of the coachoof and sprayhood. For offshore sailing the open transom can be closed off with a platform. It’s not perfect, but the RM is intriguing and versatile.

Elan Impression 43

Another memorable interior is to be found on the Elan Impression 43. The rustic knotted oak finish is unique, the only option Elan offers and something the Slovenian yard wanted style gurus Pininfarina to maintain to identify it from the sportier ranges. Personally, I like the strong focus on timber as it helps showcase Elan’s heritage, but appreciate it won’t suit all tastes.

These mid size Impressions are the mainstay of Elan’s sailing range, the family and charter staples for the Med. This Humphreys-designed update has a modernised shape, but retains the older style and the hull rocker to keep a soft, smooth sailing experience. It’s rigged with a genoa or self tacker and two to four winches. Although somewhat unremarkable in terms of sailing performance, it fits its purpose, while the increased aft beam allows for larger aft cabins and a service tunnel between them.

In an age where we need to focus on making things last, my preconceptions of the Maxus 35 revolved around questioning the need for a lower budget Polish build. Why not just buy a proven second-hand yacht? That said, the Northman shipyard has done a respectable job on this, the largest Maxus yet, in terms of the build and finish for the price. It feels solid throughout, the interior is light and inviting and it is worth consideration as an entry level yacht with reasonable accommodation.

I can also see some appeal of the centreboard design for lake sailing. However there was little to take home with regards to the design or sailing experience, so my conclusions mirror my first thoughts.Best family yacht 2023

Best family yacht 2023

Best family yacht winner – linjett 39.

This is quite possibly the best boat you haven’t heard of. The 39 offers easy, fast family cruising and occasional racing in luxurious comfort and proves that classic needn’t be old fashioned.

Linjett exudes Scandi heritage: a third generation 50-year-old brand, it’s run by three brothers and has built 900 yachts from its Rosättra yard in Sweden, which dates from to the 19th Century. Its business model is based on long production runs – think evergreen rather than trendy. Linjett not only designs, engineers and builds its own boats, but services and maintains them too, with 220 in winter storage. It also now produces the high performance Shogun Yachts in carbon epoxy, which hints at the skill levels of its infusion techniques.

A telling result at sea is how quiet the yacht is. Sturdy and stable, it instils instant confidence and proved a delight to sail. We had some very pleasant upwind beats, pointing high, and some lively reaching, hitting double figures a few times while pushing it under 150m2 gennaker in waves. The Linjett is set up to easily short-hand it too, with two winches and a bank of clutches each side positioned aft in reach of the helm.

The interior is offered with two or three cabins and the latter we saw had an excellent layout, including separate shower/wet hanging compartment aft. Joiner work is first class, with traditional mahogany used as standard, or the more contemporary European Oak on the test boat.

This is a premium yacht, but you get what you pay for. It will surprise most and ensure everyone steps ashore smiling. See our full review next month.

The Dufour 37 may be shorter than the old 360, but Dufour was reluctant to brand this 37 as smaller because its modern, broadened hull shape has resulted in an enlarged deck space, cockpit and owner’s cabin. Felci has designed a clever hull that sails well with good performance for its (34ft) size. The aft quarters behind the helms feel compact to maximise cockpit size, but proved comfortable enough to sail from. The primaries are in reach of the helm and we liked the lightweight, low friction jib sheet adjusters.

The 37 is offered in Easy (two winch), Ocean (cruising), or Performance versions and with a two- or three- cabin layout. The test boat was the most popular Ocean model, although it had €100,000 worth of optional extras including sails, engine and bow thruster, resulting in an expensive yacht for its length.

For those who recognise the Bente name, we previously featured it in detail in 2015 when it burst onto the scene with an innovative and affordable new 24-footer (around 150 of which have been built in Poland). We then tested its 39 in 2019, a year before the yard then filed for bankruptcy. But it’s now back under new ownership with this really impressive and more refined Bente 28, again by Judel/Vrolijk.

It’s a fun yacht to sail, easy to short-hand, with sprightly performance, especially when reaching. The coachroof is part of the deck structure and proves crucial in providing light, space and headroom below in an ergonomic interior that has been very well thought out.

All in all it’s a great compact, entry-level cruiser, with a practical, well protected cockpit.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams. Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Home » Blog » Travel » So you want to sail around the world. Now what?

So you want to sail around the world. Now what?

By Author Fiona McGlynn

Posted on Last updated: November 20, 2023

Sailing around the world is a major undertaking, but you don’t have to be super rich, athletic, or have salt water running in your veins to do it.

I know bluewater cruisers and round-the-world sailors from all walks of life: young couples,  single women ,  families with kids , and an  85-year-old Reverand .

Waterborne is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

When I was in my late twenties, my husband, Robin, and I spent three years sailing 13,000 nautical miles from Vancouver, Canada to Mexico and then across the Pacific to Australia in our 35-foot sailboat.

We didn’t complete a full circumnavigation of the world—our goal was to reach Australia—but that’s pretty common for cruisers our age (I’ll talk more about routes and timelines below).

I grew up dinghy sailing and Robin had no sailing experience at all. We had office jobs, average incomes, and knew almost nothing about bluewater sailing when we started. 

It was two years from buying our boat to casting off the dock lines and setting sail. However, we did 95% of our preparation in the year before we left. This just goes to show how quickly you can go from “dreamer” to “doer”.

How to sail around the world

For every bluewater cruiser I know, I can think of dozens of “armchair sailors” who dream of sailing around the world but never get out and do it.

Why? There are some big hurdles to overcome before you set sail: getting offshore experience, finding the right boat, outfitting it with all the right gear, learning how to be self-sufficient, and fixing things that break. 

Not to mention finding a way to finance it all.

There’s also a strong psychological and social element: “What will my parents, friends, and colleagues think?” “Will I be able to find work again with a big hole in my resume?”

Going bluewater cruising is a radical departure from the norm and an entirely new way of living. You’ll be faced with challenges, but that’s what makes it such an incredible experience.

If you want easy travel, get a camper van. Sailing around the world is a life-changing adventure. 

So, I wanted to share how we made our transition from landlubbers to bluewater cruisers and share a few resources to help you on your way.

1. Get some offshore sailing experience

Sure sailing around the world sounds romantic—the freedom of the open ocean, sunsets on a beach in Bora Bora, sipping fresh water from a coconut you picked yourself (words of caution: climbing a palm is much harder than it looks!).

But are you willing to put up with  the not-so-fun stuff  that comes with it?  Seasickness , scary conditions, sleep deprivation from  sailing at night , repairing your boat when it breaks (which it will), and being thousands of miles from friends and family?

Some of the best moments in my life were on the boat, but I’ve also had experiences that put me way out of my comfort zone.

It’s not simply a matter of being  mentally tough  (though that helps), some people are just never going to enjoy the sailing life.

The question is: is it right for you? What about your partner, your kids, or whoever else is coming along for the ride? 

Bluewater sailing can blow up relationships. I’ve heard many stories about sailing couples investing tens of thousands in their boats, only to set sail and discover that one or both of them hate it. 

So, before you buy a bluewater boat, quit your job, or give up your studio apartment, you (and your crew mates) should  go and get some offshore sailing experience . 

Spending a week on an offshore passage will not only teach you valuable skills, but it will also give you a taste of the challenges and joys that come with bluewater cruising.

There are plenty of ways to get experience if you don’t already own a boat:

• Take a course at an  offshore sailing school
• Try  sailboat hitchhiking
• Look for crewing opportunities (or pay for a spot) on a rally boat in the  ARC  (Atlantic Ocean crossing),  Pacific Puddle Jump  (Pacific Ocean crossing), or  Baja Haha  (San Diego to Cabo). 
• Become a crew member on a friend’s boat 

2. Find your community and immerse yourself in cruising culture

If you want to go cruising, you’re going to need a support network of people who’ve been there and done it.

We received so much help leading up to our trip (and along the way). Our liveaboard friends and neighbors in Vancouver helped us fix up our engine, rewire our boat, and find a great deal on a new set of sails, just to name a few. 

There are lots of ways to  find your sailing community , either online or in person. I highly recommend mooring your boat in a  liveaboard marina , where you’ll likely be surrounded by other bluewater cruisers.

You can also learn a lot from other people’s stories. Immerse yourself in bluewater cruising culture: read the  classic sailing books , subscribe to a magazine like  Good Old Boat  or  Cruising World , listen to  sailing podcasts , and follow a few  sailing Youtube channels  or  sailors on Instagram .

3. Make a plan

There are many different routes for sailing around the world. Most cruisers sail the easier legs—following the trade winds across the Atlantic and Pacific, transitting the Panama Canal —and spend their time exploring beautiful places and cruising grounds like the Galapagos Islands, French Polynesia, and New Zealand. 

Only a few cruisers take on the harder routes—transiting the Northwest passage, Southern Ocean, or Indian Ocean (perhaps you’ve heard of the infamous Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope?).

For route planning, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Jimmy Cornell’s  World Voyage Planner  which shows you how to sail from anywhere in the world to…well, anywhere in the world.

How long does it take to sail around the world?

The current world record for sailing around the world is 40 days, 23 hours, and 30 minutes (IDEC 3, skippered by Francis Joyon). But unless you’re going for the speed record, you’re going to want to visit the different countries you sail to.

I know cruisers who’ve circumnavigated in as little as five years and others who spend decades making the big loop. 

In my experience, it doesn’t pay to be in a rush because inevitably things don’t go to plan.

Your boat will break down and need repair which often means spending time in a boatyard. 

You may find yourself waiting weeks if not months for crucial parts. 

You may need to fly home in the middle of your cruise (as we did) when a relative is ill or dies. 

Or, you may just fall in love with one of the remote places you visit and want to stay for a while.

Bad weather and hurricane season will dictate when and where you sail. For example, we had originally planned to cross the Pacific in 2016, but we didn’t feel ready. So, we waited a whole year for the right conditions and crossed in the spring of 2017.

My recommendation is to give yourself a minimum of three years to trial the cruising life . Make a plan but don’t be disappointed if you have to throw it to the winds.

4. Make a cruising budget

When people learned that we were traveling the world on our sailboat, they often assumed that we were independently wealthy, which couldn’t have been further from the truth!

We’ve cruised for as little as $1000 a month, but when it comes to cruising budgets, the sky is the limit. It all depends on:

• Your boat . Smaller boats cost less to buy and maintain.
• Destinations . We found places like Mexico and Fiji very affordable, while places like French Polynesia and Australia were quite expensive. 
• Your timeline. Most of the young cruisers we knew were on three-year timelines (because that’s what they could afford). The retirees and families we met often had the financial means to cruise for longer (sometimes indefinitely). Some had houses that they rented, and others would take breaks in places like New Zealand where they worked regular jobs.
• Whether you’re willing to work along the way. We wrote for sailing magazines while we were cruising, but it wasn’t enough money to fund our trip. We mostly relied on savings. With technology like Starlink and the post-pandemic remote work boom, it’s probably easier today to  earn money while cruising . However, cruising is a full-time job. It can be challenging to cover ground while keeping up with work commitments
• Your lifestyle. As I mentioned, it’s possible to  sail around the world on a budget . But we lived pretty rough: no air-conditioning, no freezer, no hot water—at one point, we hadn’t taken a shower for 8 months!

When making your budget, I’d suggest perusing a few  sailing blogs  where cruisers post their monthly expense. 

Also, there are plenty of  creative ways to finance a sailboat . Some people even manage to  travel the world for free by buying and selling their boats in the right markets . 

5. Buy a bluewater boat

You can’t sail around the world in any old sailboat.  Bluewater boats have specific design characteristics  that make them appropriate for offshore sailing. 

I love data, so I made a list of the  best bluewater sailboats  by looking at 2,000 boats that were entered in the Pacific Puddle Jump, a cross-Pacific rally, over the last decade. We also have a list of  smaller boats  which I recommend if you’re on a budget.

Once you have your list, you can get busy searching YachtWorld, Craigslist, and these other  great places to buy used boats . 

Keep in mind that a bluewater boat isn’t necessarily a seaworthy boat. It may have structural damage, unsound rigging, or need an expensive retrofit. Uncover any lurking issues (and know what they’ll cost to fix) before you sign on the dotted line.

We had a very in-depth  boat checklist  that we used to inspect every boat we considered buying. We also hired an accredited marine surveyor, twice, to survey every detail of our boat. The first time was for the purchase, the second time was when we were preparing to go offshore.

For more on how to search,  understand boat values , and close the deal, check out our series on  how to buy a boat .

6. Live on your boat

The next big step on your cruising journey will be moving onto your boat.

We lived on our boat for two years before we set sail and it taught us so much about the boat (read: what needed to be fixed) as well as ourselves (and whether we could handle close-quarter life).

By moving aboard you’ll learn if living on a boat is right for you  and your family. You can also save a bunch of money for your trip. After two years of living aboard, our rent savings paid for the purchase of our boat.

7. Prepare yourself

Preparing yourself for going offshore is a major undertaking. You’ll need to learn advanced navigation, weather, and excellent seamanship, among other things.

It’s not enough to know the theory. Get out and practice with your gear and become comfortable with maneuvers like reefing,  heaving to , sailing downwind with a pole out genoa , and  anchoring under sail .

In addition, you should become intimately familiar with your boat’s systems. Sailboats break down at sea (here are the  most common problems ). So, you have to be capable of fixing your boat when you’re hundreds of miles from shore. 

Become an expert in your boat’s electrical system , propulsion, rigging, sails, and plumbing, before you go.

When the pandemic hit, a lot of sailing education moved online. Now there are plenty of great  online sailing courses  covering everything from learning the parts of a sailboat to celestial navigation.

That being said you can’t beat on-the-water instruction and offshore experience (see #1 for offshore sailing courses). 

8. Outfit your boat

Preparing your boat for offshore will take dedicated effort and money, especially if it’s an older boat that’s not been previously equipped for bluewater sailing.

In addition to fixing existing issues and replacing old equipment, you’ll want to add offshore gear like a  watermaker , a boom brake , downwind sails , self-steering wind vane, life raft,  satellite phone , AIS, solar panels, and inverter. 

Not to mention all the spare parts you’ll need to keep these systems running. 

Needless to say, outfitting can get pretty expensive but you can save money by buying used boat parts and second-hand sails .

We spent six months in the boatyard, working full-time on our 1979 Dufour 35 to get her ready to sail. We built a solar arch , installed panels, replaced our rigging, added a roller furler, replaced our anchoring setup, removed 30 years of antifouling paint, and much much more. 

9. Do a shakedown cruise

Next, it’s time to test your boat (and yourself) by taking it on a shakedown cruise. The idea of a shakedown is to test your boat’s performance after any major changes or repairs. The goal is to find any issues (and fix them) before going farther afield. 

We circumnavigated Vancouver Island for our shakedown cruise. It took us a little over a month and allowed us to test our systems in a variety of conditions including ocean swell, fast currents, and light and moderate wind speeds.

Despite checking and fixing every system on our boat over the preceding months, we still had issues. Our engine quit, we struggled to get our wind vane working, and we had to make a few adaptations to our brand-new sails. But that’s the whole point of a shakedown cruise!

10. Go now!

“Go small, go simple, go now” is a popular cruising philosophy and one that we adhere to.

Life is short and we’ve seen poor health and other life situations bring cruising adventures to a halt.

There’s no ideal time to go cruising. You can be young or old, with or without kids, retired or working. 

Certainly don’t wait until you can afford a larger boat. A  small boat  was our ticket to cruising early in life because it made it more affordable. 

If your dream is to sail around the world, start working towards your cruising dream NOW. You won’t regret it.

Let us know how we can help you on your bluewater journey and what topics you’d like to learn more about by leaving us a message in the comments.

Fiona McGlynn is an award-winning boating writer who created Waterborne as a place to learn about living aboard and traveling the world by sailboat. She has written for boating magazines including BoatUS, SAIL, Cruising World, and Good Old Boat. She’s also a contributing editor at Good Old Boat and BoatUS Magazine. In 2017, Fiona and her husband completed a 3-year, 13,000-mile voyage from Vancouver to Mexico to Australia on their 35-foot sailboat.

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy

7 Best-Known Routes for Sailing Around the World (with Maps)

Route planning is among the most crucial bits of preparation, especially when it comes to circumnavigation. This article will give you seven of the most commonly used routes for sailing around the world. Some routes have been sailed many times by many people, others are obscure or even dangerous.

• The Fast Route - for the minimum time
• The Pleasure Route - for the maximal pleasure
• The Traditional Route - the road most taken
• The Arctic Route - for the rough ones
• The Dangerous Route - without regards for piracy
• The Cheap Route - with a budget in mind
• The Coast Lover's Route - never going far from the coast

Since circumnavigation is quite a complex matter, let's go through this list one by one below.

On this page:

How to choose a route for you, route for speed, the pleasure route, the traditional route, the arctic route, the dangerous route, the cheap route, the coast lover's route.

What route you will take depends on what kind of journey you are looking for. If the goal is to do it in the least amount of time possible, you will be choosing a different path than if you don't care about time and put emphasis on sightseeing.

Similarly, if safety and convenience are at the top of your priority list, you will choose a route that might differ greatly from that of a person ready to spend more on security and cut corners through tricky territories.

If you have specific locations in mind, you will take turns that are, logistically speaking, quite impractical, while if efficiency is what you want, there are certain places it would make little sense to visit.

And finally, if you are after comfort, you will avoid some bumpy places and times of the year, as opposed to somebody who won't mind venturing into the corners of the oceans that require a hell of a warm jacket.

There is no right or wrong answer here; don't feel some approaches are better than others. Just look at what you want from the journey, read through this article, and then choose what best suits you.

21 Places to Avoid Sailing Around the World (In Order)

Let's kick this off with a racing spirit. This is the route taken by those competing in Vendée Globe, a circumnavigation race. It takes a bit under three months...

...that is if you are a racer and so is your boat. If you are a cruiser kind of person, it will take more time, but the point is that this route is as straightforward as it gets.

So what waypoints does it touch? Vendée globe racers start in France, then head down towards the Cape of Good Hope, circle Antarctica as close as the rules allow, and after getting to Cape Horn, head up to France again.

Of course, based on where you start from, your route might differ. But the idea is as follows:

• head south towards the Southern Ocean
• sail around Antarctica through the Southern Ocean
• after reaching the point where you met the Southern Ocean for the first time, head back up

The Southern Ocean is not a breeze, the cold waters mixing with the warmer ones coming from the north, plus the danger of icebergs, as well as the cold temperature, isn't how your typical holiday dream looks. That being said, it's up to you how close to Antarctica you will want to be when going around it.

This route doesn't touch down at any land, so you must be prepared for months on the sea as far as provisions, spares and mental capacity goes. Of course, this is variable, you can easily make landfall in Azores, South Africa, South Australia, or South America, and some of the South Pacific islands, if you need to. Either way, it is demanding logistically, so be sure to have your checklist in check .

It is among the most straightforward routes. Not just because it is probably the shortest one or the fastest one, but all the hassle with visas, check-ins, going through canals, and other lengthy land creatures' business will be foreign to you.

If you make it through the Southern Oceans unharmed, you will certainly have one hell of a story to tell.

Now let's go on the opposite side of the specter.

Let's suppose you theoretically have unlimited time. Instead of doing things quickly and efficiently, you want to take it at a leisurely pace while admiring all that there is to see.

This route will begin and end in the Mediterranean, but that's just because that's where I am based, sailing-wise. Wherever else you are, just pick the point of the route closest to you and begin there.

We will begin in Croatia, because it has beautiful shores and islands, travel around Greece with even more islands, the south around Italy, through Gibraltar. After that:

• head south to the Azores
• west to the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal
• west to Hawaii
• south to French Polynesia
• west to New Zealand, then Australia and Papua New Guinea
• northwest to Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, India
• south to Madagascar, then along the African coast to Cape of Good Hope
• north to the Azores and then through Gibraltar back home

This route takes time since it aims to explore all it can even remotely touch. It's not just that the route is long, because the aim is to visit pretty places. You might also find yourself having to wait months at some places for the bad weather season to clear before you can make your next crossing. Have a look at our article about things to think about when planning for a long trip .

Because of that, this route is more demanding when it comes to planning, visa hassle, check-in research, more ports and anchors, more provisions planning. Also, your boat will need to be a solid liveaboard , since you will spend so much time on it. Logistically, it will be demanding.

But for all that hassle, you will literally get to see the world. You will visit many fantastic cultures, get to taste the cuisines from all over, and the long times waiting for the winds to calm down will be spent on exploring the place you are 'stuck' at.

What more does one need...

...except perhaps some middle ground. Now that we've been to two extremes, let's look at something in the middle: the route most commonly taken when circumnavigating.

It is rather similar to the Pleasure Route above except for skipping the Mediterranean, Pacific, and Southeast Asian stops.

Thus it goes as follows:

• From Europe, head south to the Azores
• west to Australia
• west to Cape of Good Hope

This route accomplishes the circumnavigation while stopping at beautiful places but doesn't necessarily explore everything that happens to be around. Its strong suit is the variability. If you like the Caribbean, you stop and cruise around there. If Australia excites you, you do the same there. If you want to see Madagascar, well, it will be almost on your way. And so on.

It has been a traditional route to take because it is relatively painless and does not go through any hazardous areas.

It has been traveled by many before you, so there is a lot of info floating around if you want to do your research on specific parts of the journey.

On its own, it has a lot of long legs where you will not see anything but the ocean on the horizon. So for those of you who mind this, you gotta make it your own, customize it a bit, so that you spend more time at places that you like.

This planning really is important. Some of those legs can't be made during certain seasons if you want to be careful, so to make sure you don't get stuck somewhere you don't particularly like, you should plan well.

With that, let's get crazier.

For those who want to do things the hard way. Perhaps you really like the scenery, perhaps you want to test yourself, or maybe you've done every other passage, and now it is time for the icy one.

There is a circumnavigation route that leads through regions so far up north you mostly don't encounter them even on a map. Because why would you look up there.

Now I don't know how long this article will survive on the internet, but note that this route is rather climatically contextual. Given enough time, it might freeze over and become unavailable.

For me, it would begin in one of the northern ports of Norway and then:

• continue west to Iceland
• west to the south of Greenland and then up its western coast to the Baffin Bay
• south of Devon Island and through the archipelagos to Beaufort and Chuchki Seas
• west along the northern coast of Russia under the Lyakhovsky Islands
• west under the Yuzhny Island to the Barents Sea and back to the north of Norway

To this, you will have to add the most straightforward route north from wherever you are to any point on the route above.

Cold. Thus this requires clothing, equipment, and a boat that can withstand the polar temperatures along with chunks of ice floating around.

How much more adventurous can you get? Circumnavigation has been accomplished by plenty of people. This, not so much.

With the above, the major sailing routes have been covered. So what follows are mostly variations. Important ones, though.

Imagine this one mostly as the Traditional Route, except with a few twists. One of them leads through the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and the Suez Canal.

Why take it? Because if you look on the map, you will see that when going from the general direction of Australia or Southeast Asia west, meaning you are probably aiming for the Azores or further for the Caribbean, it will save you a lot of time.

Money, not so much. You will have to pay for security. Because although you will save yourself the long southern route around the whole continent of Africa, which is nearly a 10,000-mile detour, you will have to go through the aforementioned areas that are famous for piracy and require professional armed company if you want to be on the safe side.

Not that it hasn't been done without it, but you know… Furthermore, many insurances won't cover you there since the risks are just too high.

Similarly, the area around Malaysia and the Philippines, which you might encounter during your Southeast Asia travels, bears the same story. No coverage by many insurances for piracy reasons.

Then again, exploring Southeast Asia while avoiding these regions means a few detours and no-go zones.

So if you want to explore the world on your sailboat and don't mind the risk, add these to your route plans.

Obviously, the risk or costs related to security. You will find plenty of sailors arguing that there is no real danger unless you are a cargo ship or a kidnapping worthy target. You will also find plenty who would rather travel in a fleet through there. And plenty who would never set sail towards those places.

Then there is the insurance issue.

With Suez, the upside is the saved time as well as not having to go around the treacherous South African cape waters.

With the Philippines and Malaysia, it's the convenience of being able to go wherever you want to in one of the most beautiful regions worldwide.

See this one as a variant of the Traditional Route and the Pleasure Route.

Some places are cheaper than others. And some places straight up make very little sense to go to.

Going through the Panama Canal is at least a $1,300 expense. Or, there are countries, like Ecuador, where check-in can cost you a $1,000 fee. And last but not least, prices of resources, like food, vary too. The Caribbean is famous for its steep prices in the provisions area.

The prices change, so it would not be bulletproof to give you a precise circumnavigation route exclusively through cheap places. Still, the moral of the story here is that when planning your route, do have a look at the local prices when it comes to check-ins and visas, food and various passes.

The result should be a route you are comfortable with financially. Avoiding the Panama Canal means a detour around the whole of South America, so it rarely pays off. Avoiding Ecuador, on the other hand, won't hinder your progress and save you money. Stocking up on food before getting into the Caribbean is also a sound logistical choice - unless you plan to stay for longer than your stocks can take you.

Saving money can mean detours, inaccessibility of various places, and more thought put into logistics. So it can result in a less elegant route.

On the other hand, being smart about it can result in a much lower bill overall.

Let me start this one by admitting that I don't believe anybody will actually take this route in its entirety, as delineated here. But it serves as an inspiration to those who are perhaps a bit unsure or simply like to combine two different sailing styles.

Some like to cross vast oceans and love to see nothing but the horizon for months. And then some like to stick to coastal waters for most of their journeys. Nothing wrong with that; at least it gives you something to look at any given moment.

And then there is the benefit of relative safety, a port or an anchorage close by most of the time, the ability to resupply whenever you like, to pick up and drop off people, and last but not least the lack of need for a really ocean-worthy boat and equipment.

I'm talking about the coastal cruiser's dream of circling all the world's continents, whereby effectively circumnavigating the globe. Eventually. This is the longest route ever.

The idea is pretty simple. You can go around the world sticking to the coast with no crossings, except for the Norwegian Sea and a few short stretches in Southeast Asia.

Or, if you feel up to it (and want to avoid the freezing northern places), you can cross the Atlantic, the Pacific and keep close to the coasts otherwise.

As mentioned in the beginning, not many will actually take this entire route. But it is not uncommon for circumnavigators to have weeks or months where they do exactly this - stick to the coast and enjoy the country.

Lots and lots of time and resources are needed.

You will constantly be checking into countries and solving visas.

Understand the required paperwork for sailing the world This is an article on the topic of check-ins and paperwork, so have a read through it Read up on global licenses

Some areas are arguably less hospitable than others - the coast of Yemen as an example. So you might want to skip a few.

You don't need a proper ocean exploring boat - an island-hopping model will suffice. Many of the modern ones are capable of long crossings if needed here and there.

You don't need as much equipment as power, water, food, and all that jazz will be available most of the time.

The logistics will suddenly become a whole lot easier. Fewer provisions planning, less spare parts planning, broken stuff won't be a disaster… you get the point.

This is the true world tour.

I liked your article; it raised a lot of good points. I think the article could have benefitted from some maps.

I also think that, throughout the article, you have confused the Canary Islands or Madeira with the Azores. The Azores are not south from Gibraltor or France or Europe. They are 1/3 the way across the Atlantic Ocean, almost due west from Lisbon. The Canaries are south from Gilbrator, France and Europe and most people turn west there for the Caribbean.

Again, I liked the article.

Best wishes.

Leave a comment

You may also like, 41 sailboat cruising essentials for long trips.

In this post I list the items you are unlikely to have if you have never done bluewater or long-term cruising before. There are some essential safety product and …

Everything You Need to Sail Around the World (by an expert)

How Long Does it Take to Sail Around the World?

The Safest Sailing Routes Around the World (Which to Avoid)

How Big Should a Sailboat Be to Sail Around the World?

Own your first boat within a year on any budget.

A sailboat doesn't have to be expensive if you know what you're doing. If you want to learn how to make your sailing dream reality within a year, leave your email and I'll send you free updates . I don't like spam - I will only send helpful content.

Ready to Own Your First Boat?

Just tell us the best email address to send your tips to: