There are many different ways of parenting. Bringing up your children on a boat while teaching yoga worldwide is probably one of the more exceptional ones. Why would a family leave behind their secure jobs and home in suburbia Sydney for a nomadic life around the globe? The answer lies somewhere between utopia, craziness and an immense leap of faith and trust in dreams becoming reality.
When we left Sydney two years ago, we only knew that buying a mortgage and tying ourselves down for the next 40 years was not our thing. All the rest was uncertain. Our youngest was a mere three months old. Sometimes life can be too short to wait for the right moment, thus we chose to just make the moment right.
We spent six months travelling Europe in a campervan, stopping at every port until we finally found what we were looking for. Many of the boats we had looked at were for sale because the owner had fallen too sick or passed away before he could realise his life-long dream of long-term cruising: another reminder to seize the moment - a lesson that yoga helps to embrace every day. "The past is a memory, the future an idea, the present - a present!"
Longing for adventure and depth My grandpa taught me how to sail when I was a little girl and ever since, the ocean and the most far-away islands have captivated me in a way impossible to escape or ignore. Discovering new places, learning from different cultures and growing friendships across peoples and language barriers are some of the greatest gifts I feel I can give to my children. With this come qualities such as open-mindedness, tolerance, adaptability and self-reliance.
Choosing adventure over security, and detours over the usual road, is never easy, but is always deep, exciting and fulfilling. Luckily, my dream of sailing the world was contagious. As soon as I met my now husband he started to learn how to sail. As it was hard to find the right crew, we resorted to making our own.
A typical day aboard Nowadays, when our two toddlers wake up in the morning, they don't rush off to kindergarten. Instead, they have a swim with dad in a most stunning bay or join mum doing yoga on a beach. After breakfast and the morning writing or reading session, we go off to discover and explore. When on passage, arts and crafts, making music, cooking, fishing and simply observing the wind in the sails keep us busy. Evenings are spent en famille on board or in local tavernas or on beaches, with visiting old cruising friends or local new ones.
No deadlines, few expenses Rather than taking a sabbatical, for us every day is part of our big adventure - the aim of which is no other than the journey itself. We have no deadlines to meet. When the kitty runs low, we stop and work for several months. I also teach yoga retreats and workshops in many of the places we sail to. Moreover, you need surprisingly little when all the fixed costs of settled life - from rent, and electricity bills to phones and the like - are non-existent, and paradise is your every-day backyard.
Even the biggest journey begins with one small step So far we have explored different corners of the Mediterranean Sea. By the end of this year, we will head across the Atlantic for a few years in the Caribbean and then make our way slowly back to Australia through the Panama Canal and the Pacific.
Free-range schooling If we are still cruising happily when the kids reach school age, home-schooling is a no-brainer for us. Many other cruising families have fared well with anything from formalised distance learning programmes to more improvised individual approaches. That aside, rather than school benches and tight schedules, education for us revolves around living ethically, spending time in nature, understanding the power of pursuing your passions, learning about finite resources from the ocean itself, implanting in our children the notion that everything is possible and living consciously, rather than comfortably, in tune with themselves, nature and the environment around them. Both sailing and yoga bring us closer to the realisation that everything is one and we therefore have a moral duty to treat ourselves and our planet with respect and dignity.
Knowledge is to change what we can, and accept what we can't. Wisdom is to distinguish between the two.
On board our Moody 425 sailing boat Happy Dancer, free-range education takes place naturally. Three -year old Noah already speaks 2.5 languages, can point out the different components of an engine blindfolded, talk you through setting the sails and abandoning ship, explain the basics of recycling, imitate the noises of dolphins, explain how to get energy from the sun and wind and show you on a map the shortest line from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. His two-year-old brother is following closely. Their physical ability exceeds that of most children of their age, as they have been climbing the companionway, boom and mast on a daily basis ever since they can remember. Reading, counting, writing, painting, discussing, cutting, creating and more takes place on an impromptu basis and naturally, in a fun, loving and supportive home-environment. Social interaction with the same age groups happens organically in the places we go to - especially when we stop for longer during the winter months.
Risks and challenges Contrary to what you might think, falling in the water is not the predominant issue. Notwithstanding that, however, living on a boat has its risks, but they are mitigated just like stopping your kids from running onto a busy road. More real challenges include things like the lack of personal space, close to no couple time and sometimes the distance to your dearest friends and extended family.
A life that is dream-based as opposed to fear-led It is no secret that every life, every parenting style and every family's choices bring their own joys and challenges. You need to outweigh them against one another and make sure your choices reflect your hopes, ideals and dreams - not your fears. As renowned novelist and poet Paulo Coelho says: "There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure." We believe that it is scarier to spend your whole life dreaming, than actually live your dreams. This is why we are spending the most precious years of our kids' childhoods as a family, discovering new oceans and lands.