Abbotsford family transitions to land after three-year adventure at sea
The ad says “sailboat for sale,” but what’s really being offered is adventure.
After three years travelling the Pacific Rim from Florida to Australia (with dozens of stops between), the Peters family, including dad Patrick, mom Corice, 12-year-old Ciara, 9-year-old Cameron and 8-year-old Truly, returned to Abbotsford in late June.
They’ve put their 60-foot Gulfstar sailboat, Stop Work Order, for sale as they ease back into life in Canada. The asking price is US$240,000.
“The adjustment will be difficult for all of us,” said Patrick, in a phone interview from Australia before flying back to B.C. “We’ve got to try to get back into the housing market. We sold our house when we left. But I wouldn’t trade this for anything.”
Patrick will return to his roofing company, while the kids prepare to attend school for the first time after home-schooling.
“I’m nervous about a real school,” said Cameron. “I wonder if it will be boring. There’s no breaks in the middle of school to stop and watch dolphins.”
The family of five left B.C. on Sept. 7, 2015, but preparations for their incredible journey began years before.
Patrick learned to sail as a young boy and began planning an international trip when he was 18. He was inspired by his grandfather, who got sick before he could travel.
“He said ‘Do it when you’re young enough to do it,’ ” said Patrick.
As a young man, he made plans to take three years off, no matter what he was doing, when he turned 40.
After 20 years of marriage, Corice said she’s used to her husband’s “big ideas.”
Eight years ago, the family began shopping for a boat, taking navigation courses and practicing on Harrison Lake in their 30-foot sailboat.
They planned their route meticulously, taking into consideration weather patterns, hurricane season and geography.
In 2015, they set out from Florida, where the predictable weather and relatively calm Caribbean waters made it a “good place to cut your teeth,” said Patrick.
The family learned through trial and error as they travelled through the Panama Canal, pulling the boat out of the water along the South American coast to spend one-and-a-half months backpacking around Ecuador and Peru. Then it was on to the Galápagos Islands for several weeks before embarking on their longest water crossing — 22 days to French Polynesia.
Patrick admits there was an element of risk involved in the trip. In the middle of the longest crossing, they were 11 days from land. They saw only two boats for the better part of a month. But they made sure they were prepared with a good weather forecast, communication devices and food and fuel to last three months.
“It’s more of a mental thing, to be mentally prepared to do something like that,” he said.
The family ’s travel blog is a list of exotic islands and atolls like Tahiti, Bora Bora, Fiji and Vanuatu.
In the Lau Islands, Truly had a chance to attend school in a village where people live in grass huts and have no water or electricity.
While her younger sister was in class, Ciara helped teach. Her students made paper snowflakes as she “tried to explain that a smaller version actually falls from the sky in Canada.”
Corice enjoyed the opportunity to deliver donated mattresses and sunglasses to several Fijian islands decimated by a cyclone.
“Those opportunities to serve and help were probably the neatest thing for me,” she said.
One of Cameron’s highlight was standing on the rim of an active volcano in Vanuatu at night, “watching the red hot lava exploding up into the sky.”
The family cherished the opportunity to experience island cultures that are rapidly disappearing as development and internet access bring outside influences.
“The current generation is very different from the generation before,” said Patrick, who hopes he can take life lessons around simplicity and materialism back to Canada with him. “I want to remain happy with less.”
Returning home also gives the family an opportunity to educate others about what they’ve seen, including disappearing coral reefs and beaches polluted by garbage.
“We had a contest to see who could find the weirdest piece of garbage,” said Patrick.
The family originally planned to end their travels in Indonesia, but boat trouble — a torn sail and autopilot issues — forced them to spend more time in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, so they missed their “weather window” to sail safely to Indonesia. Australia was the consolation prize.
Australia would also be an excellent place to start a new family adventure on the high seas.
“It will take some time to sell — it’s a big boat,” said Patrick about Stop Work Order. “But there are lots of opportunities starting from Australia. If time and money allowed, we could get lost out here for another three years.”