LET GO, LET'S GO: A Family's Adventure

SUMMARY:

In this episode of the Frenchitivity Podcast, hosts Kent and Michelle interview Jon and Kirsty from Let Go, Let's Go, a family that has embraced a life of travel and adventure aboard their catamaran. They discuss the motivations behind their decision to leave traditional life behind, the challenges and joys of world schooling their children, and the importance of adaptability in travel. The conversation also touches on the practicalities of living on a boat, including safety measures, packing light, and the significance of cultural exposure for their family. As they reflect on their journey, Jon and Kirsty share insights on the importance of flexibility in travel plans and the value of documenting their experiences for future generations.

TAKEAWAYS:

Traveling as a family creates strong bonds.
Letting go of fears opens up new possibilities.
World schooling offers real-life learning experiences.
Children adapt quickly to new environments.
Traveling with kids enhances their social skills.
Cultural exposure is vital for global citizenship.
Packing light is essential for boat life.
Safety measures are crucial when sailing with family.
Documenting experiences is important for legacy.
Flexibility in travel plans leads to unexpected adventures.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction to the Adventurous Family
04:09 Taking the Leap: Risks and Motivations
06:17 Letting Go of Fears and Embracing Growth
10:20 The Decision to Sail: A Family Journey
15:56 Adapting to Life on the Water: Kids' Perspectives
22:05 World Schooling: Education on the Go
31:27 Life Aboard: The Catamaran Experience
36:01 Crossing Waters: Sailing Adventures
43:01 Welcoming Friends and Family Aboard
49:52 Documenting the Journey: Balancing Work and Travel
54:08 Memorable Destinations: Surprising Experiences
58:39 Looking Ahead: Future Plans and New Chapters
01:04:19 Introduction to Frenchitivity
01:05:14 Exploring the Concept of Possibilities

INSTAGRAM:

@frenchitivityfamily
@let.go.lets.go

Frenchitivity Instagram Page
Frenchitivity YouTube Channel
Frenchitivity Website & Blog
Frenchitivity Podcast

Transcript

Frenchitivity (00:01.966)

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Frenchitivity Podcast. Kent and Michelle back with you and super excited to introduce everyone to this couple that is joining us now. John and Kirstie, part of Let Go Let's Go. We've found them on Instagram and we'll be talking about some of the other social channels here in a little bit. Welcome, first and foremost. We are so happy to have you guys with us. You're somewhere in Italy on a Monday night and we're somewhere in Costa Mesa in Southern California on a Monday morning.

First and foremost, thanks for joining us.

Kirsty & Jon (00:33.33)

Well, thank you so much. Thank you for having us. Yeah, we are in Bari on the on east coast of Italy at the moment.

Frenchitivity (00:42.038)

That's sounds beautiful and hopefully one of these our travels might take us there We've seen some of your photos on Instagram and they're just absolutely gorgeous. I mean we love everything that you guys post But we have when it comes to this podcast We try to be as focused as possible when it comes to what we are doing and Michelle had a great thing the other day And we have three different pillars that we cover One is dealing with just individuals who've made that leap of faith to follow a chase a dream

follow a dream, whatever that may be. Number two is the travel family, the travel couple, the travel individuals. And the third is really chronic chronicling chronic chronicling chronicling. That's it, right? I haven't had enough coffee. I apologize. Our travels and you guys hit all three. You're three for three. You're betting a thousand. So you guys touch all the points and you are you are. We mentioned this a minute ago.

Truly an inspiration. We've been able to follow you and given us a little confidence to be able to jump off this cliff too. that is kind of how we want to start this thing. But Michelle, know too, there's two different questions we love to chat about right off the top. I'm going let Michelle take this one away. cool. Yeah. So yeah, to just dive right into it, just this way of living, I am curious and we'd love to have you share what it is that you risked. What...

What motivated you to take the risk, to take the leap, and what did you really put on the line to make this kind of lifestyle a possibility for you?

Kirsty & Jon (02:15.453)

Yeah, so for us, mean, was something that we've of, we've always been absolutely obsessed with travel. And we would really kind of love to be able to pass that on and just enjoy those, some of our kind of experiences that we're able to have with our boys while we're in a position to be able to do that. And a couple of years ago, well, about six or seven years ago, we did a trip through Africa. We took a little bit of a time out, kind of a sabbatical. And about three or four years ago, I think we,

we started kind of bouncing some ideas around on how we could do this again. Obviously our situation had changed a little bit in that we've got, we had two more as part of our team. We've got a five year old turning six shortly and a three year old turning four, two boys. And we really kind of wanted to do something that we could do as a family. And we just started pinging some ideas around and then we kind of circled back to...

how we could kind of travel together as a team. And obviously with the family, it's slightly different. You need more of a home base for small children. So for me, was kind of a bit of a no brainer. Having a yacht as a home base that you could move around the meds or to the Caribbean or whatever it may be is absolutely perfect. that's basically what got us started on how we got to where we are now.

Frenchitivity (03:31.83)

I love that you said team, team, you two more members to your team. And we can relate. We have a seven year old daughter who will be traveling with us as well. So I love that. And we feel the same way that she's part of the team and we can only do it because of who she is. Like we can do this because of what she contributes to. The other thing that we've been in a lot of reflection to is that, you know, when people choose this kind of lifestyle and this adventure, it's like, yes, you're risking a lot and giving up certain things, but

We also find they're actually leveraging a lot as well. So I'm also curious. Some people are like, you know, you're just leaving it all behind. And I'm like, yes, but we're actually taking with us so much of skill sets from other areas of our life. And so it's actually just more of this journey and this evolution. So I'm curious about that too. Like, what do you leverage and bring with you in this adventure as well?

Kirsty & Jon (04:22.243)

Yeah, I think it's so interesting what you've said about that letting go. mean, then that's part of what kind of formed the name of our boat and kind of our little mantra, let go, let's go. Because we say let go, but what are you really letting go of? You're letting go of your fears. You're not actually letting, yes, we sold a house, but it's just a house. You can buy another one.

I think for us, what's really become very clear now, having done this for two years now, is that we've really let go nothing. We've lost nothing. We can go back to anything at any time. And yet we've gained so much. We've grown so much. We've learned so much. We've experienced so much that we really didn't let go anything except our own.

fears and kind of self -limiting beliefs. So yeah, there's so much to gain. And in terms of leveraging skills, mean, John, for one, grew up sailing, but it was never really part of our lives. I mean, we've been married for eight years, been together for 10 before that. We've been together a long time and I never really considered John a serious sailor. You know, it was never part of our daily life.

But now having made the choice to travel in this way, John really honed his skills. He took what he knew in that experience and he studied and he got his skippers, then he got his yacht masters, and he's now an extremely competent captain. And we all feel incredibly safe in his very capable hands.

That's been amazing to see that, to see those skills really, really grow. And I think his confidence in that has grown as well. Yeah, and I think they're in love. you talk about, for instance, we love to share our journey on Instagram, for instance. And I love taking pictures. for me, that's something that I've really enjoyed, in a way, doing more of.

Kirsty & Jon (06:45.213)

because I've had this opportunity to travel and see so much and take pictures. So I suppose that's another thing that I've loved as well. Does that answer?

Frenchitivity (06:54.85)

Yeah, and Kristy, know that you took some sailing. you took some sailing too. I saw one of your episodes. Have you utilized your sailing skills? Have you honed your sailing skills? Or has John let you sail?

Kirsty & Jon (07:05.06)

No, well, yes, I had basically no sailing experience prior to this. It was a sort of a drink on a boat around the bay, that type of thing. That was my sailing experience before really just kind of recreational. So I did a competent crew course in Cape Town before I left, which was really, really actually fantastic. It was a five -day course, five consecutive Sundays, full days.

theory, practical, and then a little exam. And it was, I'm so glad I did it because it really, really, it gave me just that knowledge. What I learned in that time just gave me the confidence to kind of go forward with it. And obviously I've learned, you know, on the job as it were, but yeah, no, I mean, I've learned everything. I didn't know a thing about sailing before. it's, yeah, it's amazing.

Frenchitivity (07:58.786)

Talk about letting go your fears, my goodness gracious. That's impressive. No, that's amazing. Yeah. And thank you for even answering that within of the context because we wanted to talk about your name and the boat name, the yacht name, her name, and your kind of family's name. And I really appreciate how you frame that up because it is let go, but like it's of your fears and of what could be holding you back to open up all this possibility. So thank you for saying that. think that's beautiful.

Kirsty & Jon (08:00.766)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (08:23.472)

Yeah. Yeah.

Frenchitivity (08:26.562)

John, you mentioned you guys had gone and took a sabbatical, did some traveling before, but when was that moment that you and Krusty sat down, wherever it might have been, and decided to let go, let's go, that you were actually going to do this, sell it, buy a boat, and just take your life on the road?

Kirsty & Jon (08:49.084)

I don't know. just think it's one of those things, like I said before, we've both unfortunately been heavily bitten by the travel bug and it's been a problem for us for years. For me, it's always been about balance. And yes, career is important if you can do what you do while on a boat or wherever in a different space, that's fantastic. If you can't, and it's just a matter of taking a couple of years or two of kind of a sabbatical.

And then I think that's great. think it's really important. There's a lot of kind of talk about these kind of micro retirements rather than kind of don't bank too much for later on for when you get to 50 or 60 and your position when you can retire. You really kind of, if it's something that you want to do, just really just, you've got to kind of bite the bullet, do it, take what needs to be done. We basically just sat down decided we want to do something like this again. How can we do it? So we got kind of going on the sailing thing. And from there it was a matter of me figuring out how

how either I was going to run my business remotely or offload the business. And fortunately, I decided to offload the business. And I think it just worked really well. It's allowed me a lot more time to spend with the kids, a lot more time to focus on the sailing and the traveling aspect, and then kind of just wrapping up the house. And once we were done with that, think it was fairly kind of easy going for us to just get going. And it's just kind of getting the momentum. I think a lot of people have that

that fear, they love talking about it, they sit at home and we should do this one day when we, I think it's a matter of just if you're in a position to do it, you just gotta get that ball rolling and it just kind of gathers momentum and it snowballs and then it just turns into this wonderful thing that it has been.

Frenchitivity (10:30.86)

That momentum is such, you're right, like once it's going and we sort of like compare that, we call it driftwood. Like once the momentum is going, what are the signs that we start seeing that it's going well? So for your sailing experience, the driftwood.

analogy for us has been amazing. There's been driftwood everywhere once the momentum was going and we made that decision. Has there been a moment for either one of you where it really hit you and we're like, this is the right thing because of this thing that just happened or some experience you felt that you're like, there's no doubt this is the right thing.

Kirsty & Jon (11:03.658)

I think, mean, initially, you know, when we, when we made the decision to, to, to do this, as John said, really just started to fall into place. It was, there was a sort of fantastic kind of flow and ease of, once we had decided to sell our house, for instance, which in itself was a letting go, because we do hold on to possessions, memories, you know, all these things form part of our identity.

you know, how we know ourselves, how people know us, our jobs, our careers, our houses, our things, you know, it's, it's, we hold onto those things that like, it forms part of who we are. But somehow once you let that go, we found things really kind of flowed. You know, once we'd made the decision, we had a buyer almost the first day, well, it was the

The first day this gentleman came to look at our house, he made an offer that afternoon. know, things really flowed. John had a business which he put on the market, which also sold well. you know, things, just ticked along and for us, just, it felt right and right for now, you know? And... I don't think was any kind of looking back or any resistance. Once you get that, once you get the ball rolling and you know that's something, you've got your mindset and there's something you want to do.

I think it's just that then it's the excitement because then it's just getting everything else lined up and really it's just so much to look forward to. And yeah, I mean, for me, it's fairly kind of, it's fairly kind of natural step and that's always very comfortable for me. I've sailed from racing small dinghies from when I was about, I don't know, seven or eight years old up to kill boats and then working in the sailing industry for a while. So for me, it is quite a kind of comfortable step.

I still think it's nice, it's definitely useful to have a little bit of sailing experience. Yeah, I mean, it's the sea, it's the ocean. Wherever you're sailing, it's the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, it's nice to know. So bit of experience always helps. Go to a good sailing school if you can. That would be my top tip to someone who wants to do it. Join your local club, do some whatever, band night races.

Kirsty & Jon (13:24.198)

just get more comfortable in that space and it just makes it so much more enjoyable, I think, when you're on the boats. Yeah, it's absolutely fantastic.

Frenchitivity (13:32.494)

I love that you've also let go, like you said, of just sort of that other paradigm or that other identity to just become more of who you also already were. And it's just becoming more of that. So and you're exemplifying that's very cool. I want to know about your other two team members. Yeah, I know how they have they've embraced transitioned. I don't know the adjective, but how has that been from day one to two years down the road? How have they been handling and dealing with this?

Kirsty & Jon (14:01.97)

Well, I mean, they absolutely love it. Particularly our eldest Kai. mean, funnily enough, name Kai means ocean, so it feels like it's sort of in his blood somehow. I mean, he's a real sort of adventurer at heart. just, you he's got these wide eyes that look at everything and take everything on. And he's so interested in.

Frenchitivity (14:16.439)

I mean...

Kirsty & Jon (14:28.209)

how everything works and wants to be involved and a part of everything. And then our little Jay is just, you know, sort of wonderfully goes along, bumbles along happily, you know, with us. And, you know, it's really, really, really been amazing for them. They have grown so much, they've learned so much. It's been incredible having that incredible time with them. Sometimes, you know, truthfully, it's

a bit hectic, you know, all the time with them. But, you know, we wouldn't trade this experience with them for the world. It's really been fantastic. I think just also touching on that, just from the outset, one of my biggest concerns behind us kind of taking on this whole thing was how the boys would adapt from going from a little house, little school with their friends to boat life. And they just kind of...

They absolutely owned it, they embraced it, they just dived in. was never, never kind of looking back, I miss this person, that person. They just got involved. They got stuck in, as I say, part of the crew from the outset. Now three -year -old and five -year -old or whatever they were, what were they, two and four at the time. For them to just get stuck in, was never any kind of discomfort or any kind of sense of being uncomfortable in the space. It's just...

It's been incredible, but I suppose with mom and dad, maybe that helps, but it's just been amazing for them. They both adapted and they absolutely loved the lifestyle. I'm a little bit scared of the day that we do decide to give it a break and their reactions and how they're going to be, but it's been incredible for they love both, because even when we went back to Cape Town for a couple of months now,

you know, nothing changes. You go back to your normal life and your normal friends and your normal, you know, and the same for them. And I think that's part of this kind of relief in that you're not giving up anything. You go come and go whenever, you know, it doesn't matter. Do it for a year, do it for two years, do it for 10 years. It doesn't matter. Whatever feels right. I think that, you know, each family will be

Kirsty & Jon (16:44.025)

will be different and have different experiences. we've met a lot of families along the way now with little kids and the kids love it. they've, mean, yes, there is this, they may want to see their friends back home or that, but then they also make friends and they also, so I think a bit of both. And again, it doesn't mean that it's necessarily forever and ever. Go out there, do the things, have the experience.

and worry about the other stuff at a later stage when it comes. it's, we can't recommend this whole experience enough, honestly. And as a family, it's really an amazing thing to do together. I think traveling with kids also, yes, there are challenges in traveling with kids and...

because things like sightseeing, I we've got little ones, so you've got to drag them a little along, maybe give them an ice cream to keep them going. But then you also see things that you may not have seen if you were just the two of you. So yeah, it's amazing.

Frenchitivity (17:50.882)

I love that.

Frenchitivity (18:00.462)

the whole time, everything you're saying. And we believe in that as well, that they...

They're just adaptable and resilient. you know, part of this is that wonderlust that we have for travel and for experience, but showing them that as well. And this in this way of wanting to make friends wherever you are or being curious and having this mindset. And I agree with you that I think traveling with children with them allows us to see it in such a different way. Like we would choose a different route and a different way of doing it. But when they're with us, it's, you know, just making sure that we have that same kind of child.

like wonder and not losing that and holding on to that so yeah that's amazing and yeah they can make friends everywhere and so can we!

Kirsty & Jon (18:38.519)

Yeah. Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (18:44.855)

That can make friends, exactly. And I think that having to meet people everywhere and make friends everywhere is so good. It's so good for their confidence just to be able to talk to anyone, young or old, from different parts of the world. For us as well, it's been fantastic. In our daily lives, we've got a wonderful bunch of friends that we see and we do things with. But this has forced us out of our comfort zone.

And we've met amazing people along the way. So for adults too, it's also helping us grow and step out of our comfort zones. But also in terms of for the kids and learning, they're learning so much firsthand as well, just by the experience of it. A lot of it's funny looking at little books and things, sort of curriculum for kids. And it's funny that some of the things they're being

kind of told about in the book, they're experiencing firsthand, you know, in that moment, it's just, it's amazing to see. So yeah, it's very valuable.

Frenchitivity (19:49.772)

I love that. think you write that application of it is like, there's one thing to follow a curriculum, and I do have some questions for you about that, then that actual, and we talk about that in the school system in general, that maybe school systems kind of changing to a little bit more of that project -based learning, and it's really what you're doing for your family. Well, I love the fact that you're sitting there looking at a history book and you're like, wait, there it is, right there, wait, there it is, or whatever. I that's pretty remarkable to be able to do that.

Kirsty & Jon (19:53.897)

Yeah!

Kirsty & Jon (20:11.339)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (20:16.266)

Yeah, mean the one thing I was teaching the kids about wind and waves and then I was like hang on kids look outside like Yeah, and volcanoes. It's like we're just into a volcano. There's a there's a volcano remember that you know, so no, it's in crazy. It's amazing

Frenchitivity (20:23.928)

Here we are!

Frenchitivity (20:34.072)

That's amazing. I think too, like culturally for us, mean, Americans, America is quite young. And so for us to be able to expose ourselves and our daughter to really, you know, what's how the world has sort of developed and what other opportunities there are culturally, just to, you know, be better citizens of the world. Like that's a big goal for us. And with travel, that certainly was accomplished. Yeah, great.

Kirsty & Jon (20:58.408)

think another thing also is just showing them as well that it's okay to do things differently as well. go against societal norms and to do things in this sense of freedom in living in a different way and by your own terms and things like that. So I think it's also a good thing to teach kids as well. Expand their imaginations.

Frenchitivity (21:28.174)

This podcast is obviously for us to talk to you and expose to the people what you're doing, but also it's selfishly we're trying to learn and taking notes before we get on that plane here in about three weeks at the time that we're doing this. But I know Michelle wanted to kind of maybe dive a little bit into the homeschooling, because that's what we're going to be doing here for the next year for our daughter. But one more question for me on the family, just, when everyone asks me,

you know, when we come back, you know, cause we, stepped away from our careers. and we were just kind of doing this and just taking this chance. But no mat, we always say, no matter what happens when we come back, we're to be stronger as individuals, as a couple, as parents on the other side, no matter if we have to go back to work or we decide to go back to work, we're going to be better off. I wanted to just gauge.

where you are as a family like how much closer did all of you become over the last couple years and your family unit must be just amazing.

Kirsty & Jon (22:31.1)

Yeah, think it was incredible. I just look at some of our peers and just to have that opportunity to just spend so much time with Kirsty and the boys. mean, our relationship has never been kind of an issue, but just not having the boys going off to school. You have the boys around, yeah, it's quite full on because you've got them around all day.

But we get to bond and we're swimming and we're diving and we're going to town and we're to look at these incredible places all over Europe. It's just the most incredible opportunity in how I've grown to, I just absolutely love these boys to pieces, much as they drive me up the wall and all this gray beard, which you can't see is as a result of them. It's just an incredible opportunity to just kind of step back a little bit. As I say, even if you have to work, we've met plenty of couples that are working, they've got kids.

Frenchitivity (23:15.185)

You

Kirsty & Jon (23:25.106)

but they still, they've got this absolutely incredible bond that they've built with their families and the families are so strong as a result of doing something like this.

Frenchitivity (23:37.303)

sold. I was already sold going in. mean, I'm already, yes, fantastic. That's awesome. Yeah. I think that, you know, we all know that our children grow up fast, time passes quickly. So to be able to experience it in these ways, I have different kinds of benchmarks than just like our

typical year goes by and we do some of the same things, which are amazing. And there's no right or wrong, but it's just trying to encapsulate this special moment in time in a way that is different and special. And yeah, the closeness that you and being together all the time.

Kirsty & Jon (24:05.432)

Exactly. And we, I mean, we will go back to, you know, to normal life, life on land. And but that, you know, for us, that's fine. We've had, we're having this amazing experience. And, you know, and I think when we go back to jobs or, you know, new ideas, perhaps starting new businesses, which is something we're thinking about doing. Yeah. So there's

the opportunities arise as well, you know, when you are, when you're just living, when you're traveling, when you're doing things. So all going back to old careers as well, but you expand it as well as a person, as a mind, as a, know, so you'll bring that experience into what you were doing before and grow on that. So I think

There's no right or wrong. It's all amazing. If it's something that your heart is yearning to do, go and do it. Don't think about it for a second. Yeah.

Frenchitivity (25:09.134)

Absolutely. Love that. Love that. Well, I know that not to make it a complete homeschooling episode here, but can you kind of dive into what you've what you've

I kind of heard you say what you learned is really cool. It's the world school as our daughter has told her friends. I'm going to world school this year and it certainly seems like that's you know what your boys are doing but I saw that part of your what you what you're doing is you have some curriculum online and different things that you've done. you what what's really worked for you with the two boys in helping you know educate them along the way?

Kirsty & Jon (25:41.232)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (25:45.392)

Yeah, so the first season we didn't have any sort of set curriculum, so we were just fumbling along, and they little. I mean, last year they were two and four, so it was very much doing a lot of of craft -based things, looking at ideas on Instagram and various pages, and having various little workbooks, just color and draw, but a very loose kind of, well, no curriculum, just loosely just applying it.

Frenchitivity (25:53.826)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (26:14.436)

Then we decided for this year, because Kai is five, although in South African law, he's not yet in a school going age, but we wanted to just keep... So we actually went with a curriculum called Moving Beyond the Page. It's actually a US -based thing. you may or may not... And we've absolutely loved it. It comes with a...

Frenchitivity (26:26.305)

Okay.

Kirsty & Jon (26:43.747)

student manual or student workbook, a parent manual with very, very clearly... It just gives us such a wonderful guideline of what to do. Plus, comes with... It's a literature -based curriculum as well, so it comes with about 30 different books as well, stories, and then a whole bunch of amazing craft things. Each week is based on a book.

And then there's like a kind of craft pack and a worksheet or whatever. So it's all laid out for you, which is really, really handy because then you don't have to spend so much energy kind of thinking up ideas because they're all there for you. And again, it's a great kind of range of different skills and learning. So we've loved, loved, loved using that.

Frenchitivity (27:27.586)

you

Kirsty & Jon (27:39.235)

I'm really glad we went with that and the boys have loved it as well. Yeah, so I can definitely, I don't know any other one. I mean, that's the one that we went for and we loved it. Yeah, so yeah.

Frenchitivity (27:55.062)

I love that. Yeah, and the research that we had done as well, what I'll say to that is that it's just so amazing that there's so many options. And it's just...

wonderful that there have been some ways that this is possible laid out in that educational way that we can look at education a little different that it's widely accepted and there's lots of options. so I think depending on how someone feels about it, like kind of I would say I'm not someone that said I'm not going to homeschool my child. Like I just didn't think I had the capacity. I don't know how to do that. But with all these tools and these resources and doing it in this different way, I don't even look at it that way. Like Kent said, we're

Kirsty & Jon (28:32.577)

Exactly.

Frenchitivity (28:34.882)

world schooling her like it's it doesn't feel like a difficult curriculum like we know how to do this because we can all learn together and we are our resources so many more resources than maybe there were before so so fortunate I'm glad that one's working for you

Kirsty & Jon (28:36.641)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (28:49.503)

Exactly, there are so many and there's all sorts of online. I never thought about homeschooling as a thing before. mean, it never really kind of crossed my mind. And obviously, we've done it as a kind of result of being on the boat, but it's fantastic. I think both, again, whether they go to school or whether they do homeschooling, both are wonderful. And there's so many tools now to help do it well.

Frenchitivity (29:17.158)

Absolutely. John, can you describe the boat that has become your house for the last couple years? I've seen pictures of it, but... We watched the tour. We watched the tour, but please... I like the aquarium. It's amazing. mean, but yeah, just let everybody know the size and kind of how it's been working for you guys.

Kirsty & Jon (29:36.095)

Yeah, so kind of from the outset we had some kind of basic ideas about what we wanted. There was kind of non -negotiable catamaran thing from Kirstie, but it's perfect. Just to be clear, liverboard works well. Obviously, monohulls are great. There's a couple of other reasons we went with catamaran, just like stability on anchor. We like to spend a lot of time on anchor. You can see on our boat tour, but we've...

Since we bought the boat, I'm going to go into more on the boat now, but we've put in solar panels, we've got water makers, so we are in theory completely off grid. So marinas are not really necessary. They are nice every now and then, obviously luxury. But from a boat point of view, we ended up going with something called, it's a Norty Tech Open 40, which is a 40 foot long catamaran. It is manufactured in...

France along with most of the other catamarans that you see around the Mediterranean and it is 40 foot, I'd call it a semi -performance catamaran. It doesn't have dagger boards but it is a little bit light so slightly narrower hulls and for a 40 foot it's relatively quick and if you do kind of, if you're on a position where you're looking to going to need to cover kind of fairly significant distances it is quite nice to be able to get a bit more speed.

And then the other thing about this particular catamaran is that we've always intended on summer sailing. We've never intended on going to the kind of the poles and sitting there with heaters on and all of our woolly gloves on. So the Norditec Open 40 has a particularly large outside space, the kind of cockpit area as opposed to a smaller kind of interior space, but big sliding doors, you can open it up anyway, but it gives you massive outside area relative if you look at the balance.

And then if it does get a little bit cooler, a bit breezier, you can just drop the sides down. can zip it all up soon. One big cocoon anyway. So it's a beautiful boat. It's got two helm stations on the port and starboard side, right at the back. So I can see for me, that was a big factor over a flybridge or a partial flybridge, which is where you sit up top.

Kirsty & Jon (31:50.591)

because it gives me complete visibility over the boat. We've got the two boys running around. obviously from a safety point of view when we're sailing, make sure that no one's disappearing. A lovely big window. it's great sort of visibility, sort of 360, wherever you are on the boat, you can sort of see everything, is lovely. Light and bright and also great for the kids. And we also went for the full cabins because we, yeah, we got full cabins instead of having an owner's version.

Frenchitivity (32:12.246)

And then underneath. wow. Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (32:20.319)

So we have one for each of the boys, us, and then whenever we have a guest or sometimes we have an au pair on board as well, then we've each got a, and that, works well for us. We love it. Yeah. We often, we often have this conversation looking around other boats and think, that's really nice. And, know, would you, would you swap? Would you, if you could have something else, would you swap? And, know, nine times, 99 % of the time we wouldn't, we, we're so happy with.

with our little home. It's really worked well for us. It's a good size as well because obviously we sail very short -handed. I do most of the sailing, helps out, but Kirsty is mostly busy with the kids and it's full on. I would rather be in my position. It's a very good short -handed boat, soft tacking jib, very easy to sail relative. And the other thing about it

Frenchitivity (33:06.978)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (33:18.718)

boats in general is smaller boats are easier to sail shorthanded. As soon as you start getting above like 50 foot to the 60 foot range it's much more difficult to sail shorthanded. So for cruising with the Adull family of 40 foot catamaran is absolutely bang on. The boat has been spectacular.

Frenchitivity (33:35.223)

And glass bottom boat, is it? There's some glass on the bottom, right? Michelle mentioned the aquarium where you can see, can they see, the kids can see down underneath?

Kirsty & Jon (33:41.927)

Yeah, well those are those escape. So in each hull you've got an escape hatch. So should the boats end up upside down, you can escape. But yes, we can see the fish.

Frenchitivity (33:54.774)

It's a safety feature that has a really cool side effect. What's the longest sail you've done? I'm not sure, like the longest distance that you have traveled.

Kirsty & Jon (34:00.877)

Yeah, Yeah, yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (34:10.62)

So our longest kind of crossings away from land was from Menorca to Sardinia. It was about 220 miles, 220 nautical miles, yeah, about 400 kilometers -ish. And again, all of the crossings we've done, I've done kind of on the back of a fairly big weather system. So again, we didn't have...

We had breeze, I wanted to sail, not motor. we had some, actually on that crossing we had some pretty gnarly conditions, but Kirsty and the boys just disappear below, close the doors, go and read or play Lego and they leave me out. But at the end of the day, I'm the one making the call on the day to do the crossing. So I think it is understandable that they leave me out there in the conditions and they enjoy a hot chocolate inside and a nice game of cards or play some Lego. But when we do do...

Frenchitivity (35:05.026)

Do you?

Kirsty & Jon (35:06.18)

We do crossings. do. I give John a couple of hours break. He goes down and rest and I listen to, often dance on deck with my earphones on and watch the shooting stars. then John comes up with a real business. comes back up to... Exactly. Yeah, genuinely.

Frenchitivity (35:17.644)

Nice. Yes.

Frenchitivity (35:26.306)

You take the calm route, the calm part. If you're below with the kids, John, like you were describing, if Kirsty's down doing Lego and hot chocolate, but can you two communicate? Like, do you have a two -way radio or like, can you like be like, hey, everything's okay, right? You're there? You're still up there, right?

Kirsty & Jon (35:40.464)

not.

Kirsty & Jon (35:44.506)

No. No, I would normally check on them. mean, I do a lot of the longer distance sailing with autopilots. I'm not steering both the whole time. is tiring the longer passages. I find it really tiring because a lot of it's on me navigation and sailing. But with regards to safety, if the conditions, particularly with the kids, if the conditions are in the slightest bit choppy, the kids have

Frenchitivity (35:48.184)

that.

Kirsty & Jon (36:12.188)

PFDs or inflatable life jackets on. If the conditions Or they're in the boat, yeah. Or they're in the boat or inside the boat. Yeah. But we've obviously always got our life jackets out and about and we've got the life rafts and all the rest ready. But with us, when we are on deck and I'm sailing on my own, definitely at night time, I will put a vest on if I go anywhere away from the helm station, because the helm station is pretty much in the cockpits and then lifelines.

Frenchitivity (36:18.542)

short short

Kirsty & Jon (36:39.2)

always, if I go forward, even if it's flat and I want to go and just check the job, do something on the bow, always lifelines. Cause if you fall in the water in the dark, yeah. Yeah. Say it's safety first that you can't, you just got to.

Frenchitivity (36:50.946)

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Frenchitivity (36:57.308)

Yeah, absolutely. No, thank you for sharing that part. mean, those are the parts that, you know, there's the beautiful part of any of this where it's like, how dreamy and look at your gorgeous yacht and you're sailing around. But then it's also like, let's also talk about some of the reality, especially as a family of safety first and having that confidence in each other that you have a system together and you know how to how to do it safely and do it well. So.

Kirsty & Jon (37:08.09)

See you

Kirsty & Jon (37:19.664)

It's not a scary thing. It's just you should be anybody on a yacht should be doing that. And it doesn't take away from the magic. I mean, I've been sailing on my own under the stars with lifelines on and absolutely beautiful, but it's just having those kind of safety checks in place. And in general, as a general rule, just erring on the side of caution. Fortunately, John is a very cautious person naturally. he will always err on the side of caution, check the weather constantly.

Frenchitivity (37:24.546)

Yeah. Yes.

Frenchitivity (37:32.462)

You just know.

Kirsty & Jon (37:48.828)

And yeah, sort of ensure, well, where possible that we try and move in the right conditions where possible. and comfortable, yeah. Safe and comfortable. That's ideal, yeah.

Frenchitivity (37:48.91)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (38:00.27)

Absolutely. Safe and comfortable sounds great. I love that. So I have a question and I need your help. How do you pack? We don't know.

Kirsty & Jon (38:09.5)

Less is more. I took so much stuff I don't need. my goodness.

Frenchitivity (38:17.038)

saw your first thing and you were like, we did not pack lightly and it was all these things and I was like, well, maybe we're gonna have a VRBO. don't have a, you know, we're in a boat. but I mean, how do you pack for something like this? I feel like we don't need anything, but I also feel like we need everything. I don't know. So what do you think?

Kirsty & Jon (38:33.018)

Now, honestly, less is more. And I think it depends on, you know, weather conditions. mean, if you're going to a nice, warm, sunny place, then you don't need, I I took winter, I've got winter jackets, I've got boots, I've got, you know, woolly hats. I mean, I haven't, this is the first time I've put a jacket on in like six months. It's got cooler now. But I mean,

Frenchitivity (38:57.112)

Yeah, it just got...

Kirsty & Jon (39:01.035)

It's it's hot and it's it's you know, you multiple costumes. I mean that's like baseball. I pretty much wear swimming shorts. Yeah, I've got about three or four sets of swimming shorts that I rotate a couple of caps some t -shirts when I need to dress up if we're going out for dinner. That's really about it. don't wear long pants. Goggles and snorkels and all that kind of thing. And half of our stuff was actually kids toys Lego and kitchen gear.

Frenchitivity (39:29.816)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (39:30.272)

couple of parts, pans, that type of thing. Yeah, we've accumulated a lot of kids toys along the way, but I don't know how we're going to get those home. Yeah.

Frenchitivity (39:37.614)

I know we figured we have to set up some parameters because they do you know they like to have certain things but we'll be moving every month or so and so it's like yes do we ship some of those things back home in a periodic basis or like how do you you can't really accumulate like it's one thing to whatever you're going to pack when you really can't.

Kirsty & Jon (39:50.261)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (39:53.703)

Nah, honestly, minimal. where possible. Put everything out that you want to take and then like cut it in half. Seriously, you need a couple of things. You're going to be washing whatever you're going to do. I don't know. But like you don't need a lot of stuff, I think. Less is more like things, baggage, you know, it becomes a hindrance more than you you need it. Both stories. I mean, a lot of yachts, you might think they have lots of

Frenchitivity (40:00.952)

Enough.

Frenchitivity (40:06.99)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (40:22.787)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (40:23.635)

little cupboards and bits and pieces, but by the time you get all your goodies in there, it's snug. So I'd rather if you need the bits and pieces as you go, pick up other things, but just keep it super simple. And I don't know what you're planning on kind of starting off and ending up or which direction you're going, yeah, we always, no matter how much we try and kind of limit and restrict, we always double what we should have anyway. yeah.

Frenchitivity (40:49.124)

We hear that. I understand. You mentioned the people you meet along the way and creating this, you know, experience in this community. But I want to our because we have friends like, it'd be so fun to meet you somewhere or, you know, have you had friends, parents that have joined you somewhere on the journey to kind of experience this with you?

Kirsty & Jon (41:10.505)

Yes, we have and it's been absolutely amazing. Kirstie's parents joined us last year in Turkey. Yes. And this year they joined us along with Kirstie's aunt and uncle in Croatia. Yeah. And then we've had my brother and his family join us this year in Montenegro. very, very close friends from back home. They've got two little boys the same age as ours. They're like little besties. And they came and that was also amazing. That was amazing. That was in Turkey as well.

something on having guests. is absolutely amazing to have guests and it's lovely, of breaks things up and it's a change of scenery. The one thing again, depending on where you're going and what your kind of itinerary or your timeline looks like is to be very careful with committing to a time and place. And we would advise that by other sailors and other people that do this. They just said it's quite

Frenchitivity (41:45.4)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (42:03.157)

Nice. If you can say to someone, you can either meet us. If you want to meet us on the 20th of July, sure. We'll let you know two weeks before where are we going to be or the other way around. Just because it's very difficult when you're so slow. we worked out it's basically running pace. I always think, okay, we'll just skip over there. We'll hop over there. Then we'll go there. And then John's like, hang on a second. You know, that's going to take us like, you know, 10 days just to sail straight.

Frenchitivity (42:31.319)

You

Kirsty & Jon (42:32.915)

You know, so I think that that's something I've definitely learned is it takes a long time to get somewhere. And if the weather is not favorable, you can, you can just as well just sit there for, for a week, two weeks and not move. You know, have a boat issue, which, which happens. You might have a oil leak or whatever. Maybe that's also when you start to put yourself at risk is when you're trying to get somewhere to meet someone or do something and the weather isn't right or.

You and you, and you, kind of trying to raise a head and it's, it's, it's, it's not quite right. you think, I just got to get this. I'm going to sort of risk going through that storm or something and you shouldn't, you know, so. Yeah. And, know, we felt that definitely flexibility in our schedule, you know, we, you know, we'll be in some way for, for a little while and then realize that, okay, actually, you know, we're to spend probably another month here, another two months here or.

Frenchitivity (43:02.702)

Thank you.

Frenchitivity (43:12.994)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (43:28.398)

Yes.

Kirsty & Jon (43:29.155)

Whatever, so allowing ourselves the flexibility to change plans here. So as amazing as guests and friends are, we love sharing this experience. Absolutely, we love being able to share. We wish, actually, wish more would come and join us because it's so wonderful to be able to share it. But yeah, it's just the timing. They've got to just be able to do it on a...

Frenchitivity (43:45.688)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (43:49.848)

They just need to be able to like, yeah, the time they need to be able to just like get themselves there.

Kirsty & Jon (43:54.827)

Yeah, they've got to just do it like, say, OK, where you next week type thing and then book the flight on a get to that country and then catch a bus, rent a car, whatever it is to get to you. It just makes it easier and yeah.

Frenchitivity (43:58.337)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (44:07.704)

That's great. That's great perspective. That's great perspective. And I think that that's a little bit of the lifestyle as well is that part of it is lessening the commitment or the need to be somewhere at a particular time. And then that kind of adds to it. So, yes, we want to see all the people and also like the pace of the travel still has to be what feels right to whatever is the next step. And there's been a lot of questions to us of like, well, what's the itinerary and where will you be here? Because we'll meet you here. And you're like, I'm not sure where we'll be.

and maybe we'll be here or maybe we'll be there, but we want that flexibility to say we love it here and we're gonna stay longer.

Kirsty & Jon (44:36.879)

Nice chat.

Kirsty & Jon (44:41.273)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (44:43.22)

So we're actually not going go to that place. It'll be a different time. So that's great. Words of wisdom. love hearing that from you guys, too. I was going to ask you, you know, how scripted is your travels? It seems like it is kind of we kind of follow the wind, you know, it's like where we want to go and what we want to do and and to kind of kind of alluded to it. We're planning on spending the first month in Portugal and then November, December will take us. We love Croatia. We haven't been. We love giving your photos of Croatia, Croatia, Greece and then end up in Malta for Christmas. But that I mean, that's still we have

Kirsty & Jon (44:46.894)

Yeah, it's excellent.

Frenchitivity (45:13.056)

haven't booked a flight yet. Like we don't have a VRBO yet. Like we're still, we're gonna get on a plane in some point, know, October 5th is what we're looking at. We're gonna go, but we are trying to keep it open -ended enough. Like who do we meet? If we meet someone, they go, well, we want to meet, you know, come visit us here, or you need to go to this place that we didn't think of. We wanted kind of like what I'm hearing you say, that flexibility is so cool not to have, you know, an agenda, you know, an ink. I just can't, cause you know, back into the real world.

Kirsty & Jon (45:37.708)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (45:41.484)

We have agendas and I, that's certainly one thing I want to get away from. Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (45:46.701)

think the other thing from kind of our side, and I think I've always kind of pressed this issue with Kirsty, is Kirsty likes to say, she would be kind of in far Eastern Turkey and she'd be like, let's go to kind of Tunisia for the weekend. I'm like, Kirsty, like, she's like, but it's just over there. I'm like, no, no. Even just starting in Portugal, I don't know whereabouts you're starting in Portugal, go to Portugal, after Croatia, down through Greece to Malta. So I could say it's a long way. And I could do...

Frenchitivity (46:00.558)

laughter

Kirsty & Jon (46:13.165)

I mean, last year we went from Gibraltar to Turkey and we had like three months. We just did it in just over three months and we were doing a lot of sailing. And you just kind of, you skip a lot along the way. So it's quite difficult to kind of find that balance between seeing places and also not over committing to distance because like I say, you might say, we're getting from A to B, we need to only do 10 miles a day, but then you miss a week because there's a massive storm that passes through or you really like an area.

there's, that's all stuff you need to consider. kind of whatever distance that you're probably looking to cover, I would probably Harvard's like realistically. mean, you don't want to just be sailing throughout the night the whole time to kind of, because you've got a deadline to be in Malta or to be in Turkey, unless you have it with your 90 day shing and shuffle like we do. it's quite nice to avoid that if possible and just rather go on a much kind of lighter side from a mileage point of view. It just makes it a lot more.

less stressful for me as a captain and for everybody on the boat as a result, I think.

Frenchitivity (47:18.574)

As we start to kind of wrap things up with you guys I wanted to ask because we are looking to document our Our travels and have the vlog and we say, you know and kursi you have a you're a wonderful narrator on the stuff that you've done I it was great. The video is wonderful. So clean is it was that something that you were looking to do is document this and Two years into it. Where are you at? Are you looking to maybe I?

I heard you alluded to creating maybe a business. I don't know if that's from this experience, are you, know, where are you guys and how, how is this, you know, trip kind of maybe, you know, turned into a career situation or kind of what are you looking to do with it? Besides happiness.

Kirsty & Jon (48:01.5)

So yeah, initially, initially I, you know, I had this idea to do the, you know, to do all the YouTube videos and things. think more than anything, I wanted to record the experience for ourselves and, know, for the kids also to look back on down the line. I, took me a little while to work out.

the video editing software, I was using Premiere Pro. I had no experience with video editing or anything like that before. So it really took me a long time to kind of like work it out and do the first couple of episodes. And by which time I've got so much material, I've got so many videos recorded, like shorts of places, that I kind of became a bit overwhelmed at some point and then thought, I'm just gonna just

travel and not get too hung up on making the YouTube videos. love the Instagram stuff for me is easy and quick and it's, you know, it doesn't take much out of my day and I love doing it and I love sharing it and doing that. The videos I found took a lot of time, like it took time away from being a part of whatever we were doing. I'd have to say, no, listen, John, you got to do that with the kids. I'm going to go edit the video. But then I was kind of like,

Frenchitivity (48:59.073)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (49:05.827)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (49:26.427)

missing out on the experience in some way. So as much as I would still love, and I'm sort of thinking maybe I might do like a one or two longer videos just of what we've kind of done just to kind of combine it or something, just to have a record of it. But no, the sort of short answer is no, we're not looking to kind of monetize it or do anything of that sort. I mean, I feel like I've

gained a lot of skills in learning. So personally, very rewarding and satisfying. And I might apply it to other things that we do down the line. But no, not really. Not really going to monetize the experience really at this stage. I think it's very difficult in a short space of time, just from a content point of view, to monetize if you're referring to YouTube and Patreon type thing. There's also a lot of competition out there. And I know a lot of the bigger

Frenchitivity (50:11.672)

You

Kirsty & Jon (50:26.172)

The bigger brands have been doing it for a long time and they have the opportunities pre -kids to develop the necessary skills to do it. I think for us taking that on, I want to say us, mean, Kirsty, because she's really the one that's grabbed it for all kinds of sides of social, is a hell of a lot to take on to kind of grasp it.

Frenchitivity (50:34.126)

You

Kirsty & Jon (50:45.928)

and still enjoy the trip unless that's all you want to do is sit in your cabin. Also this season I also took on some part -time work for the company I used to work for in South Africa as well because I love working for that company for one but it was nice to have some income and we worked out a way that I could work remotely and also part -time with flexibility around our schedule. it's really been great but my time away now, my quiet time on my computer is now doing that.

Frenchitivity (51:03.64)

Sure.

Kirsty & Jon (51:15.791)

rather than the video stuff as well. But it's typical because I would love, I wish I had more time because I would love to do the videos and it was really fun and I love looking back on them. we look back at all the pictures and I'm glad I've taken so many pictures and videos because we absolutely love looking back at it and it kind of fills us up so much watching them back. So, that's yeah.

Frenchitivity (51:15.832)

work.

Frenchitivity (51:23.992)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (51:29.998)

for it.

Frenchitivity (51:40.98)

Yeah, of course. Of course. Well, I mean, think that's part of it, too. Like that balance, and you've mentioned balance before, too, of enjoying the trip, being immersed in the journey, also documenting it more for legacy and just for your family. And wouldn't it be nice, of course, if they were all always, you know, buttoned up in some way. But it doesn't always have to be for that. Like it can just be like, look at this and look back and reflect. And I think us just having the technology and ability to document in the way that we can now.

Kirsty & Jon (51:59.984)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (52:05.549)

Exactly.

Frenchitivity (52:09.804)

gives us more than we could have imagined to have. So you'll always have that regardless of what you do with it. What location gave you the biggest moment? Like you wanted to go to this spot, but it exceeded expectations when you got there. Was there a place that, or just probably many, mean, I don't know you can narrow it down.

Kirsty & Jon (52:17.552)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (52:31.013)

I guess I can't put it in the video.

Kirsty & Jon (52:35.478)

A lot of people ask us, which was your best of cutting tree or best destination? has genuinely been, it's all been incredible. But I think the one place that probably at the end of last season, we kind of wrapped up the boat quite late. We actually left the boat in early December, about middle of November. What we did is we left the boat in Leros, which is on the Eastern side of Greece, very, very close to Bodrum. We pulled the boat out the water and we took a ferry

across to Turkey, we did a little bit of an inland circuits in Turkey. We a road trip. A road trip. I know not really sailing related, but if you're in the area, both of us were absolutely blown away by Cappadocia. It honestly blew our minds. mean, you know, we saw, you know, a lot of videos and pictures and things about it on, you know, travel blogs and Instagram.

Frenchitivity (53:10.924)

You're a jerk.

Kirsty & Jon (53:32.686)

But really in real life, that place is unbelievable. It's really magical and well worth... Yeah, we loved it. But on the boat, I think for us, we loved Mallorca. That was one of our favourite places that we visited on the boat. But I mean, mean, Greece is... mean, everywhere is amazing.

Frenchitivity (53:52.802)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (53:57.348)

We had no idea Montenegro is so fantastic. So beautiful. Anyway, so it's endless. Honestly, everywhere is fantastic. Yeah. Yeah.

Frenchitivity (54:05.292)

Everywhere, there a spot now on your agenda that is a must see that you have to go to now that you haven't been to that you've kind of circled in on the map that we have to get there?

Kirsty & Jon (54:19.844)

At some point, think across to the Caribbean and Frenchitivity Polynesia for me is big on the bucket list. I'd love to do that. Indonesia. the whole of Asia. would love. There's no way we don't want to go. yeah.

Frenchitivity (54:38.03)

I know we feel the same way. There's nowhere we don't want to go. are you going to go here? Well, that would be the next trip. Maybe the next time. The next time. That's so funny. And are you wintering in Italy? what's the... Will you be staying there?

Kirsty & Jon (54:46.829)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (54:52.822)

Yeah, so we were going to actually, were on the east coast of Italy, just kind of bottom of the hill. We were actually going to go to a place called Ragusa, which is in southern Sicily. just with the weather's gone a little bit wintry and little bit stormier recently, a couple of big thunderstorms running through in some not ideal conditions. And that along with our limited EU days, I...

and or we have decided to be going to be leaving the boat here for the winter. in. So yeah, this is where we are now at this marina in North Carolina. Reneary North Carolina, which is more of a right off the. Really great sort of family run marina here. We're going to be leaving the boat here. And yeah, it's a long story. We've.

We've decided to actually take a very spontaneous 12 day, nearly two week trip to Morocco, leaving in three days time. It's again, it's to do with our EU days and what have you, but we're leaving, we're essentially leaving the boat here for the winter. We're going to Morocco for a bit and then we're going back to Cape Town. Yeah. Yeah.

Frenchitivity (56:12.442)

Okay great, Morocco, also on the list. On the list.

Kirsty & Jon (56:15.635)

Yeah, I know it's hugely on our list as well. Genuinely to get out of the EU.

Frenchitivity (56:22.642)

Well, you have to leave the EU. What are you going to do? All right, I promise. Only one more question, I promise, because we could talk to you guys all night. And it's getting late in Italy, How much longer for the trip? I'm sure it's been thought about, but I know that you're kind of like, well, can do this. In your mind right now, a couple of years in, how much longer do think you're going to do this?

Kirsty & Jon (56:24.918)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (56:48.466)

Well, the truth is, this is probably the end of the road at the moment for us. We've gone backwards and forwards with it. I'm devastated to let go now of this. Let go, let go.

Frenchitivity (56:54.264)

Okay.

Frenchitivity (57:06.862)

Right. my gosh. What a way to bring it back. Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (57:12.542)

Yeah, time has really come for us because, for a couple of reasons. Work -wise, I've been doing a little bit of part -time work. John's essentially taken a kind of two -year sabbatical. sold his business before we left. So he's got an idea for a new project, which he wants to start, hopefully, when we get back to Cape Town. And that came.

Frenchitivity (57:15.074)

I know.

Kirsty & Jon (57:42.35)

about on this trip. You'll have to watch the space to see what it is, but it wouldn't have been something that would have been on our radar had we not done the trip. So that's exciting. of, it's spurred this new, totally new thing for us, but based on John's previous kind of skills and experience. So it's kind of building on that. So that's super exciting. And yeah, like I say, I've still got my ties,

Frenchitivity (57:49.451)

I love it. Of course.

Kirsty & Jon (58:11.71)

to the company I used to work for. But what's amazing about these couple of years is that I've moved into a role and a position within the company that is more suited to what I actually love doing. So again, it's helped me shift into that space. So that's also been really amazing. And then also we actually want the kids to go and have a bit of school experience now and go and...

play sport and have some time with friends. yeah, my parents and John's parents live in Southern. We want them to have that time also with their grandparents for a bit. so we, having done all of this now and in a way kind of broken the ice with it, we know how to do it. We feel like it is something that we will revisit down the line. we...

Frenchitivity (58:40.408)

Socialize a little bit, yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (59:06.393)

Yeah, we just, we kind of ready for another chapter now, a different chapter. So back in Cape Town, which we're excited about because we love it and all our friends and family are there, but in a different, we've changed and we're going in with a different approach. yeah. I think it's, I think it's from the outset, we always kind of approached it with a kind of an open, there was no intention to do one of 10 years. We just kind of said, you know, let's go give it a year, let's see how it We've done two years.

was, mean, he was kind of like when I said to like, maybe we should kind of go back and I can just get stuck into kind of, need that focus. So for me, that was quite a, I think it was probably more from my side, but it's, it's definitely, as I say, it's not something we are absolutely ecstatic that we made this choice, we wouldn't change it for anything in the world. The only thing I probably would change, I'd probably keep a little business taking over on the side, then I wouldn't have to worry about any of that. Then we could be sailing for more years.

Frenchitivity (01:00:00.216)

Thanks

Frenchitivity (01:00:06.936)

For more years, yeah, right. that's beautiful. Yeah, and I mean, it's how you opened it, right? Of like, we never know where this will go and we always have options and choices and we become more of who we are along the way. And now we get to go back and experience that in our new way. And the boat is still there. She's there waiting for you whenever you're ready again. I love it, I love it. How do we follow? So is it the let go, let's go Instagram to see the future of what's next and then follow you guys?

Kirsty & Jon (01:00:08.181)

Yeah.

Kirsty & Jon (01:00:18.944)

Absolutely.

Kirsty & Jon (01:00:33.207)

Yeah, I'll keep the Let Go Let's Go going. I'm not 100 % sure exactly what I'll do it, but it will definitely continue to be family travel and adventure type things as we go along. And yeah, I'll keep it going. So you'll definitely see the new thing there at some point. I'll hopefully see some more video content. Yeah. Yeah, let's see.

But it's so exciting. that's the thing is like we don't know the future and it's ever evolving. We're all in this sort of constant chain. Nothing stays the same. So we're just allowing that to kind of flow and moving to the next thing.

Frenchitivity (01:01:20.01)

Absolutely, absolutely, in a beautiful way, in a beautiful way with a beautiful experience and an opportunity to go back to your life as your new selves, which is beautiful. Well, thank you guys for doing this. I can't thank you enough how inspirational and fun and crazy how this big world and we're able to talk to you, you know, in Italy in a marina. it's just it's just amazing. Thank you for responding my DM on Instagram and we able to do this. So thank you and.

We certainly are taking mental notes and we're gonna carry the torch for you guys, hopefully as well as you did for the next year or so. We can't thank you guys enough and best in the future. Hopefully, this is beginning we get to hang, or if we're in Cape Town, we'll knock on your door. We'll do this again. Hopefully we can do this again in your new chapter of what's been going on with Like the evolution of returning home. We'll do another one.

Kirsty & Jon (01:02:04.028)

Yeah, absolutely.

Kirsty & Jon (01:02:10.119)

Yeah, I must say it makes me so happy to hear that other people are in some way maybe inspired by it. I think that really means a lot. So I'm so happy to hear that and so excited for you. Now I get to watch your journey.