With house and belongings sold, boat bought and two young children in tow, Mark and Catherine’s amazing journey had begun. For many people life follows the familiar pattern of school, career, mortgage, marriage and children. If we are lucky, we manage to squeeze a few weeks of free time out of our hectic year, to enjoy the fruits of our labour as a family. For others, the need to get off the sofa and explore the world doesn’t stop when the school run starts. Meet the Jacksons; Catherine and Mark Jackson met while yacht racing in Jersey in the Channel Islands and have been sailing together ever since, both acquiring yacht master qualifications on the way. With their two children, Mia aged seven and Lochy aged six the Jacksons had a good life in the island of Jersey but they still had the taste for an adventure.

The couple had previously been selected to participate in the Clipper Yacht race. However, after sitting down together to work out the costs, the pair quickly concluded that perhaps it might make more sense to put the thousands of pounds needed to join the race towards a boat of their own, and as Catherine put it, “actually see some of the world rather than just race past it.” 

“Being a parent can be exhausting and mostly revolves around feelings of guilt. We find ourselves getting into a vicious circle, working longer hours to earn more money, seeing less of our kids, but compensating for that by buying them the latest toys and being relieved when they’d rather play with those than us when we get home because we are too tired anyway. So before I know it we’ve got the house on the market (yes that one bit of security that people strive to get) and my husband and I are trawling through the internet looking for boats for sale”

Now the proud owners of a Nautitech 395 catamaran called “Pegasus of Jersey” the Jacksons set sail from Greece, which gave everyone a chance to find their sea legs.   The family spent Christmas in the Mediterranean (with a welcome visit from Grandma) before crossing the Atlantic.

Catherine added “I won’t miss the lunch box and school run routine, but I will miss my friends and family. Have we done the right thing? Well, I don’t think there’s a right or wrong to life and if we do come back sooner than planned I’ll have at least had a break from making lunch boxes for a time. But I am hoping we can discover that there are different paces to life and for the time being, we’re taking life in the slow lane.”