These Parents Are Raising Their Three Kids on a Sailboat in The Caribbean
Talking about extreme parenting: these parents are raising their kids on a sailboat in the Caribbean.
The couple is raising their toddler and one-year-old twins as they sail the world.
Scott and Brittany Meyers live on a 44ft boat and since they started they have visited up to 13 countries and 10,000 miles.
Instead of being a normal, regular family, these guys are spending most of their time playing on the beach, paddle boarding and swimming.
When did they start?
In 2010 they set sail and traveled across the Caribbean, until their first daughter, Isla was born, in January 2012.
And they didn’t stop there. Because their dream was so powerful, they’ve decided not to let raising a family stand in the way.
The couple, who are originally from Chicago, cruised around the U.S. until the third trimester of Brittany’s second pregnancy in December 2013.
This January when the twins, Haven and Mira, had turned 10-months-old the family of five returned to the waters.
Brittany said: ‘Scott and I have both been sailing for most of our lives – we grew up around boats so sailing was sort of in our blood.
‘With the babies it’s a lot of work, twins plus a three-year-old is no joke – it’s exhausting.
‘But it’s also a huge gift to be able to be with our girls 24/7 and have the ability to travel in our home and see the world through their eyes.
‘I love that there is adventure every day. On land life gets booked up so fast, whereas at sea there’s just not all those extracurricular commitments to run to.’
Instead they’ve brought up baby twins and young daughter while traveling the world.
Before they set up sail, Scott Meyers, 39, and wife Brittany, 36, met whilst racing sailboats on Lake Michigan, USA, when they found that share the same dream of sailing the globe.
Brittany has been sailing for as long she can remember and has lived in Tanzania for three years straight. Her adventures have been taken her as far East as Thailand, and as far South as Cape Horn, but usually solo. Now she travels with a slightly larger crew.
The husband, Scott leaned to sail on his family’s Sunfish and 16-foot daysailer, but now he calls the 44ft 1988 Brewer 44 his home.
What are their future plans?
The Meyers family has no plans to return to a permanent life on shore anytime soon, and would like to raise their family on the water.
Every day is an adventure for the couple and they love being able to escape the pressures of everyday commitments of their old lives.
The family chose the British Virgin Islands as it never takes more than four hours to sail somewhere and Scott can work as a Captain for cruise company Island Windjammers.
Brittany said ‘We are outside almost all the time, swimming, paddle boarding, playing on the beach.
‘We designed and fabricated a twin dinghy seat, designed a custom twin bunk in the forward cabin and got creative with space to create a little bunk bed for our toddler in our boat’s walk-thru.
‘I’m very creative and Scott’s very resourceful – we’re a good team in boating and parenting. But it’s a lot of work and certainly isn’t for everyone.
‘We are sort of going back to basics in some ways. I do all our laundry by hand, Scott maintains all our systems himself, we walk almost everywhere, and we make water from the sea and collect power from the sun.
‘We do without so many of the conveniences that are taken for granted on shore and I like how resourceful that makes us.’
Among countries they visited so far are: Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and many more.
Have you heard of the couple who travels with their cat?
