Although Jess Lloyd-Mostin suffers from seasickness, she and her husband James have been living on their yacht for eight years. The couple who left the UK in order to take a voyage around the world in 2011, not only continue to travel, but also managed to get married, and they now have three children.
The joke has come true
Jess Lloyd-Mostin from London, now 36 years old, never even boarded a boat when she “joked” with her boyfriend James, and now her husband, that they should buy a yacht and go around the world.
But after less than a year, having completed several sailing courses, the partners left the British Falmouth and embarked on a long adventure. To date, they have traveled to 36 countries and have traveled 26,000 miles (about 42,000 km) for eight years, and do not want to return home.
They just dramatically changed their lives
They gave up their own careers: Jess was an artist, and James an architect with four degrees. They rented their London house and apartment to finance the trip. The couple used savings to buy and restore the Rocket ship, which required a lot of work.
Besides the fact that Jess and James fell in love with a new lifestyle in which they visited the Caribbean, Tahiti, New Zealand and Fiji, they wanted to start a family on board.
2 years after sailing, their first child was born, named Rocket in honor of the ship. This happened in Mexico after Jess had to travel six hours by bus to the maternity center. In 2015, Indigo's son was born immediately upon arrival in New Zealand, and the couple’s third child was born last year during their visit to London.
And do not regret their choice
Jess and James today educate their two oldest children at home, but they do not follow the curriculum and instead focus on “learning by interest”. Explaining the decision to hit the road, Jess says: “We didn't have any real reason to leave: home, work, and friendships were pretty stable. We were just visiting family friends in Cornwall, and went for a walk to the top of the cliff. I looked at the sea, thought about it and said: “Honey, we can buy a yacht and sail around the world.”
“And he laughed at me, which was quite fair, since I had never been on a sailboat when I proposed this. But a year later, we left, ”the woman continues. “At first we thought that we would go on a voyage around the world for about 2.5 years, and then return to London, gaining experience. However, after passing the Atlantic and spending several months in the Caribbean, we arrived in Panama, where we wanted to start a family. ”
Their firstborn was almost born en route
In an interview, Jess agrees that there are very few people who travel around the world and decide to have a baby while swimming and continue to live on the water. The first-born couple was born in Mexico after they decided not to risk crossing the Pacific Ocean when Jess was pregnant. The couple decided that they would arrive in Guadalajara at the maternity hospital with a sufficient supply of time until the day of delivery. But when Jess got on the bus and went on a six-hour trip for 300 miles (about 500 kilometers) by land, she began to struggle.
“Only when I found myself in the aisle of the bus on the floor on towels did I realize that it actually started,” the woman recalls. “We managed to get to Guadalajara, and they transplanted me into a taxi, and I was almost without memory when I heard a police car.”"A taxi drove us under the police sirens, and we flew through all the red traffic lights in the city and got to the hospital on time."
Jess had a natural birth, Rocket was born earlier for three weeks, weighing only 2.7 kg, but she was healthy. Thus, the couple spent five weeks in Mexico in a hostel before relatives arrived to congratulate them on the replenishment.
Jess says: “Mexicans have a tradition in which a child and mother do not leave the house for the first 40 days, and we decided to wait this time and not show our daughter to anyone. After that, it was time to return aboard the yacht, departing from Mexico to New Zealand. An eight-week-old girl was on board with them while the couple explored all the islands of the South Pacific.
They were not afraid of difficulties
The first trip to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia lasted 26 days. But how did they decide on this with a small child? Jess says she never argues with James and says: “The yacht is very reliable from the start. No cabinets or drawers can open or fly into the sea, because they all already have fuses. Plus, there were no sharp edges that could be dangerous. ”
“There are people who think that a sailing vessel is really unsafe for a child. But on a good day, our yacht runs an average of five miles per hour (7.5 km). Obviously, swimming training is of utmost importance to us. Our children had life jackets, not cots and strollers. ”
Being supporters of the ecological approach and preferring to swim mainly on wind energy rather than using a motor, the couple thought about the waste from the funds for the child, and how to deal with them. Jess said that for this reason they decided to use cloth diapers, adding that life on the yacht made them more "environmentally friendly."
Traveling even helps save money
In addition to the fact that spouses receive funds from renting their house and apartment, they also earn money by blogging about their trip and the photos they share on Instagram. Jess admits that they live very modestly and cook their own foods, such as bread and cookies.
She says that although they get rent from two properties, they keep track of how they spend their money, and they actually manage to save a lot while they are on the go. The initial cost of the yacht and its repair, as well as everything to start traveling, was approximately 60,000 pounds.
The woman admits that the cost of living varies greatly from place to place, but they spend just over £ 20,000 a year (more than one and a half million Russian rubles), which includes all living expenses.
Jess said the family spends days and weeks exploring different countries, doing kayaking, yoga or swimming. It was on the way to New Zealand, while on the open sea, they decided to get married - only 16 hours before they arrived on shore. But instead of arranging the luxurious wedding that their relatives were expecting, they chose a modest and simple ceremony in 2014 in Fiji, which cost them only 18 pounds (less than 1,500 Russian rubles). Their daughter, Rocket, was the only guest, and she overslept all this. On the way to New Zealand, the couple wanted to have another child.
The second child was born without the help of doctors
Jess said: “When we started traveling with our daughter, it was easy and beautiful. She was one year old at Bora Bora, she took her first steps in the Kingdom of Tonga. I identify each stage of children's development with the places where we were. ”
The couple decided to arrange a stop in New Zealand on the eve of the second birth of Jess. Nevertheless, their location was quite remote from civilization, and repairs were carried out in the nearest maternity ward. This meant that Jess would have had to get to the nearest hospital for more than an hour.Having a small child in her arms, the couple decided not to take risks, and instead Jess chose a home birth. Their son Indigo was born in a bathroom in a rented apartment.
Jess said: “It was amazing. I can’t call myself very strong, but I did it without any medical preparation. It was an incredible influx of hormones and endorphins, and I felt that I could do anything. ”
Jess explains that although they traveled like a family of four, the yacht never seemed crowded to them. It has two double cabins, one “studio”, which is used as a workshop, the main living space and a galley, which has a really well thought out design and allows them to eat like kings.
And although the couple was not going to have children on board, the space came in surprisingly good.
They returned home to have a third child
Then a family of four sailed from New Zealand back to the South Pacific, and then to Southeast Asia. They planned a third child and left the yacht in Indonesia to sail back to London, and there Jess gave birth to a girl in October last year, whom she called Outemn.
They plan to sail again soon and said they were not going to return to normal.
Jess said, “Some people work their whole lives to retire together, which they may not need.”
The woman explained that they would travel to Malaysia and Thailand after leaving Britain. But she admits that they will not always be able to stay at sea.
Jess added: “Most likely, we plan to buy a bus, convert it and drive through South America, or find a piece of land and build a tree house there.”