Lisa Terauchi-D’Rozario’s husband had been a captain with Hong Kong airline Cathay Dragon for 14 years when he lost his job in October 2020, she said.
Cathay Pacific cut 1000’s of jobs and shuttered its regional airline through the pandemic.
The news was crushing, Lisa said. The family decided to go away Hong Kong to return to the Netherlands, where her husband, Jeroen, is from, she said.
But they didn’t stay long.
Lisa’s husband is an adept sailor, and life at sea “appeared to be the most effective place to be,” especially because the family hoped to avoid Covid, she said. So the couple sold their home within the Netherlands and purchased a secondhand monohull boat to “live and travel the world.”
Lisa’s husband, Jeroen Slot, harnessed to the deck in full gear.
Lisa Terauchi-D’Rozario
The family first sailed to France, then to Spain and Portugal, before reaching Sardinia, she said. They wintered in Sicily before sailing to Greece, she added.
They sailed from June 2021 to the summer of 2022 — when their travels were cut short by engine failure.
Lisa and her family.
Lisa Terauchi-D’Rozario
Sailing full time didn’t mean the family’s boat was continuously moving. “Sailing is a matter of short hops,” said Lisa. About 85% of their time was spent on anchor or in a marina, so the family was capable of explore many European towns, she said.
Homeschooling on a ship
Lisa’s children were homeschooled — with home, in fact, being a 52-foot Swedish-built boat. Lisa liaised with a college within the U.K., which provided monthly assignments and report cards. But she did the teaching, she said.
Lisa’s sons, Micah and Sasha.
Lisa Terauchi-D’Rozario
Unlike traditional classrooms, where children are “vying for the teacher’s attention,” homeschooling let her give attention to concepts her children didn’t understand, Lisa said.
Homeschooling can also be less time-consuming than traditional education, she said. Schools add filler activities between lessons so students’ attention spans don’t wane, she said. But with homeschooling: “You do not need that many hours in a day to review … You are done inside two to a few hours.”
Now not vegans
Sailing means cutting out rent, electricity and water bills from monthly spending, Lisa said.
While living at sea, her family used a water maker to show seawater into drinking water, she said. In addition they used a wind generator and stored solar energy with lithium batteries, she said.
The family’s Forgus 52 boat on the dock.
Lisa Terauchi-D’Rozario
Lisa said they reduced costs further by buying food that was available. They stopped being vegan because the small coastal towns they visited often lacked fresh vegetables, she said.
“As a way to be sustainable, we had to really eat locally and shop locally,” she said.
The family also switched to foods that were easy to store, resembling dry goods like pasta, rice and sauces, she said.
Challenges of full-time sailing
Lisa fearful she would feel lonely while at sea, especially without a web connection, she said.
But her family learned to embrace the peace and quiet, she said. “You would just sit above deck and have a look at the water … and before you knew it, eight to 10 hours had passed.”
Sunset over the Mediterranean sea.
Lisa Terauchi-D’Rozario
Exercise was an even bigger challenge, she said. The ceiling of the boat was too low to do yoga, and she or he could swim within the ocean only so repeatedly, she explained. Lifting free weights on the front deck required good weather because the boat needed to be still, she added.
In truth, all the things on board was subject to the weather, she said. The family checked weather forecasts often but, Lisa said, they still encountered situations they weren’t prepared for.
Benagil Cave on the coast of Portugal.
Lisa Terauchi-D’Rozario
On one occasion, the boat experienced “almost three-meter swells” that had not been predicted, said Lisa. Although the family was seasick, the 25-ton boat wasn’t damaged, she said.
“It actually taught us not only to have respect for the ocean … but in addition mad respect for the boat we’re in,” she said.
Life lessons
“The perfect a part of sailing is just when you’ll be able to’t see any land anywhere,” said Lisa.
Sunsets, starry night skies and waves lit up with bioluminescence were frequent sights, she said. The family also had a “spectacular” journey through Portugal, exploring places like Porto and the Algarve, she said.
The view of the family’s boat from inside Benagil Cave.
Lisa Terauchi-D’Rozario
“Sailing really teaches you about life because plenty of the time you are not answerable for how things go,” Lisa said. You’ve got to learn easy methods to handle yourself when things go flawed and refrain from taking unnecessary risks, she said.
Many wait until they’re older and have saved enough money to aim the same journey, she said.
However it’s possible to purchase a ship “really low cost” and fix it up yourself, she said. Lisa added her husband has done many of the repairs on their boat.
Individuals who sort things themselves learn “the hard way,” said Lisa. “There is not any higher strategy to learn than the hard way, because that is when it sticks with you for the remaining of your life.”
