Cruising and live aboard with 4 kids. Is it possible?

[RPZ]

Best place to see how it works is to watch videos posted by cruising families on YouTube. Lots of folk have done it and are doing it. Their kids probably get a better educational experience than they will in any western public school.

[Smart555]

Thank you very much, friends, for your advices and suggestions!

Now, when we’ve got the boat and living aboard for 4 months already, our answer to this question is YES! It’s not only possible, but it’s an adventure and fun to live onboard with kids traveling full time!
We sold the house and bought the sailing catamaran Lagoon 40” (we had to overpaid our budget but we’re so happy with our investment!)
We couldn’t find anything for the money in Florida when accidentally an advertisement caught our eye in this cruising forum! Very useful resources!
And we bought our Mana Kai in Antigua without any brokers, did survey and registration in Florida by ourselves. At first, as we hadn’t have any sailing experience before, we thought of hiring the Captain to get the Cat to Florida or to the Bahamas. But it looked costly, so we decided to try to take a sailing course in Antigua and to sail back by ourselves.
So we were doing, hopping island by island we were heading towards Florida and trying to get there till the beginning of the new school year. We started to miss some interesting islands and were in hurry... and finally when getting St.Thomas there was a big decision made and we turned around and sail back! This time it was our the longest nonstop offshore passage! For the first time we spent 4 days in the he open Caribbean Sea underway from St.Croix to Grenada where we’re hiding during hurricane season till now
We’ve got a lot of exciting materials during our adventure and started our YouTube channel.
It’s
www.YouTube.com/c/SailingManaKai
If you take a chance we would be glad you to come and check our video episodes and also the tour around our floating home! We will be glad if you give us feedback and your advices and suggestions for running the vlog! What is interesting to see and to get known?

[NormanMartin]

A success story is always welcome.

thanks and I will follow your channel.

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by Smart555

If you take a chance we would be glad you to come and check our video episodes and also the tour around our floating home! We will be glad if you give us feedback and your advices and suggestions for running the vlog! What is interesting to see and to get known?

Great story so far so I subscribed to your channel. Well done!

[Smart555]

Originally Posted by NormanMartin

A success story is always welcome.

thanks and I will follow your channel.

Great! Thank you so much!
We’ve shot a lot of material on every island we’ve visited (about 15 for 4 month). But without previous experience in making movie it turned to be a process that takes a lot of time. But we do our best and working on getting better!

[Smart555]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

Great story so far so I subscribed to your channel. Well done!

Thank you !

[chall]

Originally Posted by Smart555

Thank you very much, friends, for your advices and suggestions!

Now, when we’ve got the boat and living aboard for 4 months already, our answer to this question is YES! It’s not only possible, but it’s an adventure and fun to live onboard with kids traveling full time!
We sold the house and bought the sailing catamaran Lagoon 40” (we had to overpaid our budget but we’re so happy with our investment!)
We couldn’t find anything for the money in Florida when accidentally an advertisement caught our eye in this cruising forum! Very useful resources!
And we bought our Mana Kai in Antigua without any brokers, did survey and registration in Florida by ourselves. At first, as we hadn’t have any sailing experience before, we thought of hiring the Captain to get the Cat to Florida or to the Bahamas. But it looked costly, so we decided to try to take a sailing course in Antigua and to sail back by ourselves.
So we were doing, hopping island by island we were heading towards Florida and trying to get there till the beginning of the new school year. We started to miss some interesting islands and were in hurry... and finally when getting St.Thomas there was a big decision made and we turned around and sail back! This time it was our the longest nonstop offshore passage! For the first time we spent 4 days in the he open Caribbean Sea underway from St.Croix to Grenada where we’re hiding during hurricane season till now
We’ve got a lot of exciting materials during our adventure and started our YouTube channel.
It’s
www.YouTube.com/c/SailingManaKai
If you take a chance we would be glad you to come and check our video episodes and also the tour around our floating home! We will be glad if you give us feedback and your advices and suggestions for running the vlog! What is interesting to see and to get known?

So great to hear back on how it has gone for you so far! Well done in pursuing your dream.....will subscribe and look forward to following your adventures.

[Smart555]

Originally Posted by chall

So great to hear back on how it has gone for you so far! Well done in pursuing your dream.....will subscribe and look forward to following your adventures.

Thank you very much! We’re so pleased!

[Smart555]

Good day, everyone!

It’s been for so long since we posted here... we were so busy sailing around the Caribbean, there have been so much happening around, good and bad. Like when we have started diving with most of our family including girls. Or when unexpectedly we got into the epicenter of a thunderstorm, was stroked by the lightning and lost almost all electronics.

And now we’re staying last days in an historical charming town of Christiansted, St.Croix, USVI and getting prepared for the 4 days trip to Grenada, we realized that we have been sailing for more than a year already! And it was an amazing and unbelievable experience!

We tried to filming our adventure and have posted some video episodes on YouTube but in the middle of this journey when we stayed in Fort Louise Marina, French side of St.Martin, somebody had gotten to our boat in the night and stole our computer with all of media taken from all islands we had visited, and some other electronic devices.

Only after several months when we got to US Virgin Islands we could order the new one and a NEW VIDEO on our YouTube channel SailingManaKai is READY! We’re so excited to show you it!
There is a bit of everything in this movie: some of our daily routine, a lot of walking through numerous places of interest around one of our favorite favorite island in the Caribbean, the island of St.Thomas, USVI. There you will see swimming with sea turtles, breathtaking views and fabulous sunsets , take a tour of Charlotte Amalie, snorkeling the shipwreck in Buck island and many more we want to share! Maybe we even will be able to inspire someone to try this amazing lifestyle!

Your comments and subscription will be hugely appreciated!!! What you like or dislike about it, what else themes can be interesting to highlight, what do you think? Thank you in advance!

[TheRailRoader]

I will come check you out later today with my kiddos

But happy to hear you seem to be enjoying yourself wife and I just got a boat ourselves and are learning to sail, taking care of responsibilities we have over the next 5-6 years and maybe you will see us out there after all that.

RR

[jmh2002]

Yes, been waiting for your next video and update about your cruising. My wife loves to see all your kids running around too. Happy to hear that you are still out there doing it.

[Smart555]

Thank you so much! We glad to hearing from you! Hope you will enjoy your sailing adventure as we do, it’s just amazing! We also started with zero experience and, have to notice, the real situations are the best teachers

Just in case the link for our movie https://youtu.be/h1CVzhJUyOQ

Will be glad to get some feedback so we can make it better))

[Smart555]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

Yes, been waiting for your next video and update about your cruising. My wife loves to see all your kids running around too. Happy to hear that you are still out there doing it.

Thank you so much!!! It’s so nice of you
Yep, it was so frustrating when we lost all media as we have visited so many islands by this time...
now we recovered and eager to share all unique moments of our adventure and attitude of all amazing places we come to! So we’re in a process of editing the next episode of charming island of St.Croix and several episodes of diving there. And yes, our girls (now 10 and 13) got their open water diving certificates as well. We’re so glad they can witness the underwater life with us as there is so much to see: unbelievably beautiful corals, diversity of colorful fishes, sea turtles, sharks, shipwrecks! Girls gonna make their own video about their learning and practicing with instructors.