When we first came up with our idea, I read every blog I could find. I distinctly remember seeing that a few families had been in their local paper and I thought to myself, that will be us in a few years! Well it' only taken two years and here we are! Hopefully our story will inspire even one family to have an adventure. Next thing to tick off my list is being interviewed on a podcast! Challenge accepted!
View the article below. They got Jack's name wrong and it's not the best photo, but otherwise it's pretty good!
Caribbean Dream: How One Adelaide Family is Planning to Just Sail Away
AS others decorate their Christmas trees, one Adelaide family is packing up their worldly possessions and preparing to leave life as they know it, as well as dry land, behind.
Erin and Dave Carey, along with their young sons, eight-year-old Hamish, seven-year-old Jake and three-year-old Christian are readying to set sail on the Caribbean Sea on a two-year adventure of a lifetime.
Erin, 36, says she and her 35-year-old husband have been planning their unusual family getaway for two years, and will take leave without pay from their government jobs.
The seed for the idea grew more than two years ago as the couple watched Maidentrip, the story of Laura Dekker, the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe single-handedly.
“We just had a feeling we wanted to do something bigger,” Erin recalls.
“We were leading a normal life, a good life with good jobs, a house, three lovely kids, (but) we were both working full-time and hardly seeing the kids or spending any time together,” she says.
“We both sat and watched the documentary in silence and something, I don’t know what, resonated with us and it grew from there.”
The couple saved like crazy, pulling the kids out of a private school, selling their cars and taking in international student boarders at their Largs Bay home to supplement the family income. “We’ve been working towards it, talking about it, pretty much every day since we decided to do it,” she said.
On February 2, they’ll fly to the Caribbean to board a boat they’ve recently purchased.
To prepare, the novice sailors joined a yacht club and began researching, even hooking up with an international family that has been sailing the seas south-east of the Gulf of Mexico for 10 years.
“It is actually a thing, people live on their boats and travel from place to place,” she said.
The strangest reaction the family has had?
“Some asked how we planned to pack enough food for two years ... people don’t get you go to land, we’re not literally sailing on the ocean for two years,” she laughs.
Erin admits to feeling a little apprehensive about home-schooling the kids.
“I have read a lot about people who’ve done this, and they always say the children don’t fall behind because of the things they learn and the experiences they get,” she says.
But it is family time she is craving most.
“I am looking forward to simply connecting with my family in a deeper way and having more time with my children to develop that bond where we all just love being with each other ... and, of course, getting to experience travel together.”
The family plan to blog about their experience.
