After his 92-year-old mother died in 2019, Stephen Payne decided it was time for a change. But having spent the previous six months at her home in Torquay, where he is from, and the 27 years before that living in Los Angeles, Payne, a 60-year-old photographer, wasn’t sure where to go next. “I was complaining too much about Trump while living in the US and it felt like it would be a struggle to get work in the UK with Brexit,” he says. “I woke up one morning and had an idea to buy a boat. I knew nothing at all about them but thought it would allow me to live cheaply and be free to move wherever I wanted. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
Payne bought his 11-metre, nine-tonne motorised boat in January 2020, and has lived on it full-time since, travelling solo across the Channel before making his way along the French coast and through the country’s rivers to reach the Côte d’Azur, the Italian coast and finally Malta. “No one ever says on their deathbed that they wish they hadn’t travelled as much, since it’s the best way to become a better person,” he says. “I’ve experienced new cultures, become more accepting of the ways people live, and I’ve met fantastic people.”
Payne’s experience hasn’t all been plain sailing. After buying the boat, called Jaywalking the World, he taught himself how to operate it and was ready to take his maiden voyage when Covid hit and the world went into lockdown. “We weren’t allowed to move, so I found myself trapped in a marina in Bray, Berkshire, completely alone,” he says. “As soon as we could leave, I moved it along the Thames to Chatham in Kent.”
Navigating the Hammersmith Bridge and commercial traffic on the Thames in central London was hair-raising, topped only by his Channel crossing in June 2021. “My friend, who is experienced with boats, was going to come with me, but then had to stay as he had a baby on the way,” he says. “I found myself navigating one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. At one point, I could count 17 boats around me and they were all a lot bigger than mine. It was like crossing the M5.”
After almost three hours, Payne arrived in France and felt an enormous sense of achievement at making the trip without assistance. “It’s amazing to learn new things as it teaches you a lot about yourself in the process,” he says. “I realised I can keep calm and stay the course no matter what is happening around me.”
Despite his experience, Payne still encounters difficult moments on board, including going aground and getting his anchor caught in a chain at the bottom of a river. “You have to keep vigilant as situations can spiral when things start to go wrong.”
It has also been challenging to find a sense of community while being on the move. “The boating world is transient and the average situation is a single man on a boat,” he says. “Friends come and go, so I’ve had to get used to that, as well as come up with different ways to meet new people.” These have included printing a flag of two hands shaking and distributing it to other sailors to signal that people should feel free to come and chat, as well as documenting his boating experience on his YouTube channel.
Now 64, Payne has moored his boat in Malta for the past year. “It’s a very interesting, cosmopolitan island and everyone is incredibly friendly,” he says. “That’s kept me longer than intended, but I don’t have plans to stay here for ever.”
In fact, the greatest appeal of Payne’s boating adventure seems to be the ability to change his plans when he wants and not think of the future beyond where to drop his anchor for the night. “It’s nice to not have to always be making arrangements,” he says. “Maybe I’ll learn to sail, buy a sailing boat and go around the world. All I can say is that right now, this feels like the best kind of life for me and one I’m very glad I embarked on.”
• Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60? Fill in the online form at theguardian.com/new-start-after-60
