Family: We are a young family of 4. My name is Teare, I am a 30 year old mom of two; JR, who is two years old, and William, who is three months old now. My husband Martin is 35 years old. We both grew up in America, and both my husband and I have traveled to various other countries throughout our lives and love travel and learning about new cultures. We love it so much in fact that we decided to live a life of travel by buying a sailboat and sailing the world (albeit very slowly now, due to pandemic complications).

 

Our Home: We live on a Hudson Force 50 Ketch rig monohull sailboat. We had been sailing and working on boats for years before we purchased this boat; I started my time in the maritime industry in 2015, my husband around 2012. Our boat is big, old and requires lots of routine maintenance, and whenever we can afford to-we make improvements on the boat.

 

please note: unlike many people who live on sailboats and sail around the world who are older retired couples, we are a young couple who decided to live for today and attempt this lifestyle sooner rather than later. Having said that, I will admit we don’t have much money, and 70% of our money goes towards maintaining our boat. 25% goes to the family, and 5% towards extra stuff that isn’t necessary - like treats…

 

Our sailboat space can be compared to a small two bedroom, one bathroom apartment. The very forward part of the boat is like the “shop” or “garage” in which tools are kept. As you move back you come to a forward cabin, which has a private double sized bed and a bathroom opposite of it. There is a composting toilet in that bathroom, but right now that toilet isn’t functioning. The boat shower is located in that bathroom as well, but we rarely shower in the boat. We normally shower on deck.

 

Moving back from the forward cabin is a middle space that we refer to as the boys’ room. This is where we have most of the babies’ stuff, where they play, where they will eventually sleep when they stop sleeping in our bed, and where their carseats are secured.

 

Moving back from this middle section brings you to the common room; the boat equivalent of a kitchen and living space. Here, half the space is a kitchenette, the other half is a dining table and the computer. 

 

When you move back from here you reach the end of the boat, which brings you into the aft (boat terminology for back) cabin, which is our bedroom. Here you’ll find a king size bed where my husband and I sleep, and where the boys are currently also sleeping, and then a bathroom where the only functional toilet is. There is no shower in our bathroom, just the toilet that everyone aboard shares.

 

Our location: For the moment we are based in French Polynesia. We had planned to build a house here eventually because we can since my Dad’s family is from here...but who knows if that’ll still happen. Regardless, this is where we are based for the moment, and as borders start to open back up, we plan to sail to Asia, where we will refit the boat in a place that's more affordable. Hopefully by that time, we will have the money to do so.

 

We live primarily on anchor, which makes our lifestyle very different from the “normal” land based lifestyle. So far we’ve lived in Tahiti and Moorea, we will soon live for a time in the Tuamotus, and possibly explore the Australe islands in 2022.

 

BIG lifestyle differences living with us: So, I have a habit of highlighting the differences, or what some people might consider the “cons”, rather than highlighting all the great things - just so that people who live with us feel they’ve prepared for it well enough. Don’t get me wrong, most people find the beauty and fulfillment in this lifestyle just like we do, but if you aren’t prepared for it, it takes some getting used to…

 

Boat life = frugal life in many aspects… Like I said earlier, we aren’t a family with very much money. My husband hates when I say this, but the truth is we’re pretty broke right now. I’ve started a business here in French Polynesia and hope that it builds exponentially over the next year, but for now we live VERY FRUGALLY AND SIMPLY.

 

Electricity: Our electricity is completely our own aboard. We are not plugged into the local power grid, we live off of a battery bank in our boat that is charged by solar panels, our gas generator when needed, or the boat engine when it’s on. Most of our power comes from solar, so we try to charge most of our stuff (laptop, phones, tablets, speakers, etc…) during the day when the sun is out and the batteries are charging for free. We have a small fridge, and a freezer, that runs off of our battery bank. Every day we turn their thermostats’ up to full-blast while the sun is out, and every night we turn them down to low settings so they don’t use up too much energy overnight, thus possibly depleting the batteries.

 

Fresh Water: we currently have the capacity to hold 100 gallons of fresh/potable water onboard. This is roughly 400 liters, but I’d check if you are familiar with liters rather than gallons. I’m currently typing this up at 1am while my family sleeps so I can get all this information down without being interrupted… We do not yet have a large-scale watermaker that allows for us to make our own fresh water, we refill our tanks on different islands/atolls, or when it rains we try to collect rainwater. For this reason, we are very careful about water usage onboard. Our little family uses probably around 2 gallons of fresh water a day, +/- a little bit. After sailing this boat for longer trips with up to 6 people living aboard for a long period of time, we’ve figured out that we almost naturally ration water usage to 1 gallon (approximately 4 liters)  per person per day, especially when using the manual hand pump to pump water.

 

We do not shower every day...and when we do, we normally wash down with salt water and then do a quick rinse with fresh water (or rinse off in the rain if it happens to be raining). These days I do a lot of our laundry by hand...I will wash the clothes in saltwater, and then rinse in freshwater and hang to dry. Now that I am back to using reusable diapers and training underwear for my toddler, I wash two loads a week. This same method goes for our dishes too...we wash the dishes in saltwater, and rinse in fresh water very lightly. If you came to live with us for a time, I would probably do the laundry and the dishes, and of course show you how, but probably wouldn’t leave you to that responsibility until I felt you were able to be as frugal with water usage as I am. :)

 

Food: We eat simply. We eat a lot of meat and pasta / rice. We eat ramen, instant noodles, pancakes, sometimes if I have time I bake… I make lentils, and enjoy curries. IF we are sailing and catch a fish, we also eat fish! We are not vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, etc… My husband is a meat and pasta kind of guy. I love vegetables but don’t prepare them often at the moment because I make what is easy for me to make for the family. We also love fruits when they are available! My husband drinks a lot of coffee, and I drink coffee and tea. We cook on a propane stove top in the boat, and when we have access to a private beach, we make little fires and cook on that.

 

Internet: We don’t have reliable internet beyond the main island Tahiti. We use a SIMcard with data out in the islands, which gives 2G speeds -> enough for whatsapp and sometimes emails, difficult for facebook and IG. If we are sailing around a lot and know we won’t have  much cell phone service, we turn on our satellite phone which allows us to email or text anyone in the world from anywhere in the world. We will probably ask that you bring your own phone and buy your own rechargeable sim, but this can be up for discussion.

 

The daily life? I personally describe our life as a different kind of life to what most people would consider normal. A great example of this is my current situation: It is 1am here, and I am awake mostly because there were very strong winds predicted for the next 6 hours, so I stayed up after feeding the baby his midnight bottle so I could pay attention to our position on anchor and wake up my husband if I notice that our anchor is no longer stuck hard to the ocean floor, allowing for the boat to drift. Our lifestyle requires us to drop any kind of “normal schedule” when necessary in order to maintain safety of the boat and the people aboard. I will probably stay awake for a few more hours, and then go back to sleep for a few hours. By then the winds should hopefully be back to normal light trades, and we will be awake anyway because our boys wake up around 530am every morning.

 

This is just one example of the difference in lifestyle. We don’t operate on a normal schedule that most landbased lives do. We live very simply. We don’t stay on land after dark normally because we often have to use a dinghy (small inflatable boat) to get back to the big boat and night trips aren’t always safe. When we have to re-anchor, or move the boat, or while sailing if we need to take down sails ASAP, we stop everything we’re doing and take care of that issue at hand. With the babies now, what we’ve started doing is buckling them into their carseats the moment we know we’ll need to be doing things on deck. I give my toddler the tablet with his shows, and a sippy cup of water with snacks. The smaller one sometimes falls asleep, but mostly for now he just cries until we are done with our task and I can come back in and give him a bottle or hold him. This is actually why we would love to have an AuPair. For moments like this when my husband and I are both needed for a task and cannot care for the boys, I would love to have someone aboard that can focus solely on the boys and their needs. They are pretty easy, but in some situations it can be quite stressful for my husband and I. Despite the hardships though, we do love living the way we live and it does seem like the children are happy and live a fulfilling life thus far…

 

What we are looking for: We are looking for someone to live with us for a time and take care of the kids and help out with little chores like cooking, grocery shopping, tidying up the boat….if you’re bored you can even help with boat projects...but primary focus would be childcare.  If someone were able to help with the kids, I would be able to focus on my work/business and my husband and I would be able to get more work done on the boat as well as sail inter-island more often! It would be great to sail more, and having help with the kids would allow for this.

 

We need someone who loves kids of course. Someone who has patience for toddlers (something we still work on every day). Someone adventurous, who is interested in this new experience of living on a boat and traveling around with the family. We need someone with a full heart and to be honest, someone with his/her own faith. I mean, we aren’t really religious…spiritual for sure, but this lifestyle can be more rewarding and less frightening at times to those who believe in something more than just oneself. I will be completely honest, sometimes the howls of the wind outside can be intimidating. Sometimes the flash of lighting in a distant storm on the horizon can be scary. Living on a boat isn’t for the faint of heart, and living like this with kids may require even more inner peace for those stressful times. We need someone who can take direction well and someone who is independent and self-confident...if it is stormy outside and my husband and I need to turn the engine on and move the boat in uncomfortable circumstances, we want to trust that whoever is in the boat with the kids can handle the interior just fine, even if that means simply buckling the babies in and sitting with them. Have I scared you off yet? If you’re still reading, you are a trooper, and might have what it takes to be part of our family…

 

Now that I’ve focused on the scary and the hardships, let me talk about all the great stuff!

 

If you’re looking for adventure, look no further! We are blessed to call anywhere we go home, because we bring our home with us wherever we go. This life attracts people who love to learn new things and experience new places/people, and that is exactly what we do. In each place that we anchor/moor/dock, we inevitably end up making new friends or discovering beautiful or interesting things. 

 

You can wake up every morning to some of the most beautiful views that many people will only see on postcards and travel blogs. We love to explore secluded islands where we can let the boys (older, soon to be both) run around and explore in nature.

 

We don’t expect our aupair to be working 24/7 of course, so if you decide to spend the weekend on shore wherever we are or spend the night partying with new friends, go for it! Life is fleeting, take advantage of every moment!!!

 

We have a SUP and a kayak onboard as well that you’re welcome to use on your time off, we only ask that you be careful and use your better judgement when you go out on solo adventures, and lock it up when needed. We may send you off with a walkie talkie so you can keep in touch, or just take your phone so we can reach each other. 

 

When you live with us, especially on the boat, you are family. Yes, you are an adult and do your own thing, but your safety will also be something we think about. It's a small space, and even though we have our private areas, we will spend a lot of time together -> so we’ll have to vibe well and become family or it just won’t work well.

 

You’ll be able to swim in beautiful clear waters, go snorkeling, have bonfires (depending on locations), do yoga and meditate in beautiful locations, live simply, learn new languages and meet new friends, travel! If you experience any hardships with us, I guarantee you’ll grow from them as we do every day. And if you become a part of our family, you’ll be a part of our family for life. Living in such close proximity, especially in sometimes stressful conditions, really creates a bond.

 

What we can offer: Right now, there isn’t much we can offer because of our financial situation. We can offer adventure, a different lifestyle, a private room and access to water toys like a SUP or kayak when you want. We can offer food, though we don’t eat very lavishly and don’t eat big meals, nor very often. If you want more food or special types that we don’t normally buy, we’ll ask that you purchase that with your own money. If you want your own phone line, we’ll ask that you buy that with your own money. As we work hard to become better off, we may be able to pay more expenses for someone, but until then this is all we’ll be able to offer. 

 

Expected Responsibilities: In exchange for the aforementioned, we’d expect help with the babies 5 days a week, hours from 8am to 3pm. Help with babies include: changing diapers, prepping snacks/food/bottles and feeding, playing, watching shows, going on adventures with them, swimming at the beach if we are at a beach, nap time, helping with laundry (I'll teach you), and tidying up (or teaching them to!). Also, cooking dinner at 430pm would be highly appreciated, and if there are dishes in the sink that I haven't gotten to the night before and my husband and I area working, helping with the dishes would be great. I'll teach you that as well.

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Please note that responsibilities can change if we are actively sailing. We would need to figure that one out as we go. This may require you to be on-call per-say during off times as my husband and I would be sailing the boat in 3 hours shifts between the two of us. While underway, we may ask that you cook two meals a day. Oh, and please think twice if you get seasick, this will not be fun for you or us if you get seasick.

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Other things to consider: You might not want to join us if you get motion sickness or seasick. You'll also need to be able to boat the boat from a dinghy - its a lunge, so you have to be just a little sporty. Also, you have to be okay with a flexible schedule (regarding where we are/dept dates). We base everything we do off of the weather, so our plans often change based on changing weather. :)

 

Want to learn more about us? Visit our IG @seaourtravels or our blog www.seaourtravels.com