A couple has decided to abandon the “rat race” of living on land and take the plunge and live full-time on a boat.
Esme and Paddy were first inspired to embark on a nomadic lifestyle during lockdown in 2020, when they began renovating a caravan.
But after discovering Paddy’s grandparents’ boat during a trip to France, the couple decided they needed to learn to sail.
With a broken foot and some amazing boat trips later, Esme, Paddy and their furry friend decided to make marine life an integral part of their daily lives.
Explaining her journey into the nautical life, Esme said: ‘Paddy knew a lot more about sailing than I did, so he spent the next few years teaching me.
Paddy and Esme (pictured) began leaning towards boat life after discovering their grandparents’ boat during a trip to France.
“We kept costs down by doing much of the maintenance and DIY ourselves.”
After a solo trip with just the two of them in the summer of 2022, the couple realized that marine life was calling them.
The couple sold their boat, their caravan and even their apartment so they could live off the water permanently.
After many renovations, they finally finished their new boat home in December 2022 and named it Selkie.
They spent most of the following spring sailing along the Cornish coast and have even greater hopes of traveling the world.
‘We learned to fish and saw some amazing sunsets. Leaving the rat race to live on a boat was the best decision we ever made. “Now we are saving to travel the world,” Esme said.
In an attempt to save for her trip to the Caribbean, Esme has even gone so far as to participate in the FluCamp clinical trials.
By traveling to her vaccination trial, Esme was hoping to earn £3,000 for taking part in the clinical trials.
Explaining the process, Esme said: ‘I was blindfolded so I wouldn’t know what was happening to me.
“They monitored me for half an hour and then sent me home with a thermometer and a ruler to check my temperature and the size of the injection.”
People flooded the comments to congratulate them on their nomadic lifestyle, with many sharing their own experiences.
‘So inverted now guys. We are with you for the adventure,’ wrote one.
A second exclaimed: ‘This is my husband’s dream. I’m not 100% sold on the idea, but I love seeing that it’s possible. Good for you two.
“We’re about to do exactly the same thing in about two months, when our 30ft yacht Contest returns to the water off the south coast,” said another.
In the summer of 2022, the couple decided to sell their boat, caravan and apartment to dedicate themselves full-time to living on the water (pictured: their boat, the Selkie).
Social media users flooded the comments section with encouragement for the sailing couple, with many sharing their own experiences at sea.
‘Fair play to you for having the courage to leave the rat race and really live life. Incredible,’ added one user.
This comes shortly after a young woman decided to purchase a narrowboat on Facebook Marketplace after mold in her previous apartment affected her health so severely that it left her with respiratory problems to this day.
Daisy Wood, 25, who has been living on her humble boat for the past four months, revealed her mental health has improved “a thousand times” since embarking on her life on the water.
Sharing her frustrations, the West Midlands native confessed that the mold and damp in her former riverside apartment had become so severe that she had to use an inhaler every morning.
“I would wake up and have a hard time breathing and then my mental health would go downhill because all my stuff was going down,” she said.
“I would be afraid to open my closet because there would be black mold and all my clothes would be covered.”