The Brouse family, Kirk, Claire, Wesley and Elizabeth, with dog Skipper, have left for their dream vacation, a sailing trip around the world.
Nineteen years ago, on their first date, Kirk Brouse told his now wife Elizabeth he was going to sail around the world someday.
”I thought he’d grow out of it,” joked Mrs. Brouse, whose mother is originally from Western Shore. “He hasn’t.”‘
Such began the journey of a lifetime.
Last week the Brouse family, which includes 10-year-old twins Claire and Wesley and dog Skipper, left the comfortable waters of St. Margarets Bay to make for the Atlantic Ocean. The first leg of the family’s trip will take them to Hampton, Virginia and the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.
They’ve traded in their house (rented it, actually) in Oakville, Ontario for Discovery, a 57-foot sailboat, and left their jobs behind not knowing if there will be jobs to return to.
The recession has hit people hard and the Brouses are no exception. But the dream was just too long in the making and too strong to pass up.
”After the kids were born we decided to wait until they were 10 before we made the journey,” Ms Brouse said.
After finding the Discovery for sale on EBay in 2007, the family spent the last two years preparing the boat.
”It was too late to back down,” said Mr. Brouse. He said the family doesn’t pretend to have everything figured out just yet. This will be the first real “blue water” sailing the family has done.
And then there are the children. They will be homeschooled on the boat for as much as the next two years. They will be without many of the modern conveniences they’ve become accustomed to.
”This is going to sound very, very low,” Wesley said. “But I’m going to miss satellite TV. For three years we’ve had 1,000 channels at our disposal. Now we just watch movies.”
And then there’s the social interaction with others.
”I’m going to miss my friends,” Claire said. “Of course our house back in Oakville. I liked it there.”
Of course she did, Wesley added, because “she had the biggest room.”
Taking your entire life and stuffing it into a 57-foot sailboat may seem overwhelming to some, but the Brouses have been preparing for this for more than a decade.
”Some people are envious and some are saying ‘better you than me,’” Mr. Brouse said.
”Some people wonder if we’re insane,” Ms Brouse added.
Mr. Brouse maintains the plan is well thought out. Below deck there are three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a full kitchen, a living area and a communications centre. That doesn’t include the extensive deck space above.
There’s also an eight-kilowatt generator, a large freezer and a desalinator on board for converting salt water to freshwater.
The Brouse family was lucky. The person they purchased the boat from was preparing a long-term voyage of his own before personal issues forced him to sell.
”He spent four years preparing the boat for his trip,” Mr. Brouse said. “We put another two into it.”
As for money, rent from their house should cover much of the cost of day-to-day living.
”You can live as efficient on a boat as you’d like or it can be as expensive as you like,” Mr. Brouse said. “Of course, inevitably things will go wrong but it’s the same with everything you do.”
Despite the prospect of being at sea for days and weeks at a time, the Brouses said their children are especially well-balanced about the idea.
”I remember Claire coming home from pre-kindergarten asking if we could go to Africa when we sailed around the world,” Elizabeth laughed.
It’s just always been for them.
Wesley is happy because there will still be Halloween on the boat. But instead of going from house to house, the Brouse children will be trick-or-treating from boat to boat.
Upon leaving Hampton sometime in October, the Discovery will join the Caribbean 1,500.
This year’s version of the annual sailing flotilla is expected to include about 60 boats.
About five of those boats will include children.
”We’ve already been in touch with some of them to network and make some plans,” Elizabeth said.
Once the flotilla lands in the Caribbean, the Brouses will plan the next stage of their journey.
The tentative plan is to make for Panama, Venezuela and maybe even the Galapagos Islands.
Wesley for one said he hopes to make it that far.
”To see the giant tortoises, the place that [explorer and evolutionist Charles] Darwin made famous has always fascinated me.”
Even on their own boat the Brouses won’t be alone. Two other sailors, family friends, will be making the trip to help with the 24-hour sailing clock.
”When you’re out at sea there’s nowhere to stop for the night,” Mr. Brouse said. “So, we have to sail in shifts.”
Of course the family plans on making the most of their adventure.
The plan is to spend extensive time visiting and travelling around the ports in which they visit.
Elizabeth has even made an effort to include wherever they visit into a school lesson plan, much to the chagrin of her new students.
Much of that information will be shared with the world via the Brouses’ website.
Each of the family members, minus the dog, is keeping a blog to inform and keep in touch with family and friends.
The website is http://web.me.com/saildiscovery.
Anyone can comment on the blog and follow the family’s journey.
What exactly happens when the journey is over is a complete unknown.
The Brouse family has spent their summers in Nova Scotia as long as the kids have been alive.
Ruling out a permanent return isn’t out of the question.
