Family of 5 quits job and school to sail around the world and pursue their dreams
Life is for living right! So often we get bogged down in life, work, bills etc and forget to be happy and live the life we want to live.
So today I wanted to share the incredible story of Kat and her family who decided to quit life as they knew it to sail around the world - which blows me away!
Kat had an incredible job working as a Partner for Deloitte in Sydney but quit her job and sold her house to travel the world!
I have known Kat for a number of years and have always been inspired by her ability to juggle a family of 3 kids and a very busy corporate career whilst at the same time always being such a calm and nice person and I have LOVED watching her travels and am inspired by her every day!
And how good to the photos look!
I hope this story inspires you to do what you love too!
Kat's incredible travel story with her family sailing around the world
"I am from the UK and have worked in Mergers and Acquisitions since qualifying as a chartered accountant (far too) many years ago.
I met my Australian husband on a sailing theory course being hosted at the investment bank we both worked in.
I was afraid of sailing and thought understanding the theory would help me overcome the fear. My husband had a lot of experience but needed to formalise this.
A few years later we ended up fulfilling his dream and sailing half way around the world from the UK to Australia.
We timed the trip well as it was the GFC so the M&A market was very quiet. It took us 2 years of sailing at a leisurely pace and was an amazing experience we always wanted to repeat when we had children.
I interviewed with Deloitte from Tahiti when we were still on our trip and joined them as a Director when we arrived in Australia.
They have been fantastic to work for and very supportive throughout my career. I was promoted to partner a year after my first child and then had two children subsequently.
I worked for them for 12 years and through that time always found new challenges that interested me. I ended up leading the technology group for the broader corporate finance team and was part of the leadership team.
I was also very involved with the TechFast 50 programme and through that and our broader M&A work met so many incredible founders of businesses such as you Rhian!
We had a great lifestyle and I was careful to balance my workload with spending time with my family and generally this worked well. COVID however was a particularly stressful time as we were busy and short staffed and I started to revisit our old dream of sailing around the world with children.
As we thought more about it we realised that if we were going to go sailing we had to get on with it as our oldest child was 10 and we didn't want it to impact his later high school studies. It did mean that we would be home schooling the children but we had a taste of this during COVID and I found I actually enjoyed it!
We knew which type of boat we wanted to buy, a catamaran, so there would be lots of space for us and the kids could have their own hull. We had always wanted to sail our trip in an Outremer, as the brand is renown for its safety in 'blue water' (or offshore) sailing. These are very in demand and the second hand price is similar to the new price so we ordered it from the factory so we could plan when we would have it and start our trip.
We downsized our house on the Northern Beaches to a flat in Manly to help finance the trip. This was a bit nerve wracking but we were very committed to the sailing plan and the boat (will hopefully) have good resale value.
We ordered the boat and watched them build it through weekly photos and videos. We struggled with what to name it but our oldest son came up with the name of Spirit and we all thought it was perfect.
Brad picked up Spirit from France in January 2023 and I stayed working with the kids while he fitted all the electronics on the boat and got it ready.
We met Spirit in Venice later that year and it was an amazing start to our trip. The kids adjusted very quickly to life on the boat and enjoyed visiting the cities in Europe and swimming and SUPing in the water.
We had heard stories of families having a tougher time to adapt but we had talked to them so much about the trip they were very excited. I think having 3 children also helps as they are good company for each other and we had a lot of friends visit us to start with which was great.
After enjoying a season in the Mediterranean we crossed the Atlantic with a rally comprising 100 boats and arrived in Grenada in the Caribbean before Christmas. The rally was fantastic as we met so many other families and the children had a great time.
We have since sailed up through the windward islands in the Caribbean, loved sailing in the Bahamas and then visited Cuba, Mexico and Belize before sailing up the Rio Dulce in Guatemala to moor the boat up safely for a few months to ride out the Hurricane season. We will cross the Panama Canal before Christmas and then start the trip across the Pacific.
zing
Living so remotely in the Guatemalan jungle and staying in one place for 3 months has been the most challenging part of the trip so far for me and yet it has also been rewarding as we have met an amazing community of people.
The best part of the trip is seeing the world through the 'new' eyes of our children and seeing their growth this year - both through the schooling (and knowing we helped with that) and personally.
When I look back over the last year we have experienced so much together as a family.
We are making a series of short videos to help the younger two children remember it all.
Currently this are just on instagram - see https://www.instagram.com/
I would definitely recommend travelling together as a family for an extended period of time. Sailing is fantastic but in my view it is important to have good experience to keep your family safe.
