We ditched our jobs to explore the world on a sailboat with our kids

A family has spent the last nine years living and traveling on a 53ft sailboat – and spear their own fresh fish.Sara Rice, 41, and her husband, Lee, 45, had always dreamed of traveling on a boat full time.After each losing a parent they decided “life is too short to wait for retirement” and set about finding a boat to make their dream a reality.They bought a $15k, 45ft boat 11 years ago and spent six months traveling the east coast of Australia with their two children – Taj, 20, and Bella, 18 – as a trial run.After loving it they pulled the kids out of school and spent the next five years exploring South East Asia.Three years ago they upgraded their boat to a $40,000 53ft sailboat – and have now set sail again around Mexico and Costa Rica.The family spear their own fish to eat but have a smaller dingy to get to land for supplies.Sara, a content creator, from Gold Coast, Australia, said: “Being able to go surfing and waking up every morning is amazing.“We catch our own food and spear fish.“We have that sense of freedom.“Our kids see that as a reality – they can live simply.“You don’t need all the external things – buying a house and car loans.“If I think of going back to land life it stresses me out a bit.“People’s lives are so busy – they can’t fit you in.”Sara and Lee grew up surfing and living by the beach and always wanted to live on a boat.She said: “We both lost a parent.“It made us realize life is too short.We wanted to see the world with our kids and not wait until we retired.”In 2014 they were finally able to buy a 45ft boat and travelled down the east coast of Australia to see if they could live on it as a family.They loved it and packed up their life in May 2016 – putting their belongings into a few boxes and selling their cars.They sailed around Australia, before heading to Indonesia and then spent the next five years in South East Asia.Sara said: “It was incredible.”The kids were homeschooled – and g...