Cait James and her husband Sam sold their house and quit their jobs to live at sea with their one-year-old daughter Charlie seven months ago, and still the Queensland couple has no regrets.
Ms James, 31, said downsizing to a sailboat has meant fewer household chores and the freedom to travel whenever and wherever they want.
"There's less stress," Ms James said.
"We just don't have too much that ties us anymore. It's very freeing."
For Mr James, 41, it has also meant more quality time with his family.
"It's really nice to have everyone around and have the same adventures together," he said.
"We both get to watch [Charlie] grow up and have experiences with her."
Mr James used to work on a container ship on a fly-in fly-out roster until his daughter was born a year ago.
"I like being around a lot more because I wasn't around very much [at the start]," he said.
"I put on a lot of weight, got unhappy. I'd go to work when [Charlie] was asleep, came home and she was asleep again."
Now the family spends every waking moment together, anchoring off tropical beaches and eating meals in the company of sea turtles and dolphins.
They can even hear whale songs vibrating through the hull of the boat in the winter months.
"Every day is different," Mr James said.
"Because, essentially, we're both semi-retired at the moment it's easy to get very lazy and do nothing.
"So we do have a rule — every day we have to achieve something, whether it's an excursion, going somewhere, [or] maintenance."
'We now work together on everything'
The adventurous family has already sailed from Sydney to Townsville, and are now making plans to travel to Indonesia and the Galapagos Islands.
A former ophthalmic technician, Ms James said she never saw herself living on a boat, but it was a conversation with a friend who had already made the sea change that convinced her she could do it too.
"She was talking about all the benefits and it made me realise how good it is," she said.
Mr James, who spent his own childhood on a boat, said he could not wait to share the experience with his wife when she came around to the idea.
"I leapt at the opportunity," he said.
"I put the house on the market, sold the business, talked to my employers."
The family's former home in Airlie Beach, in northern Queensland, sold in less than a week, and they're now living off the proceeds of the sale.
Ms James said they sold most of their belongings, including their cars, and lived out of motels for the first couple of weeks until they bought the boat.
She said it took some time for their daughter Charlie to adjust to the change in lifestyle.
"The little one had to learn that she doesn't have full reign of the boat," Ms James said.
"She's not allowed out of the cockpit unless one of us is out there with her, we've got child netting [in place] … and when we're sailing she's got a child [safety] harness on, so she's hooked in."
But Ms James said Charlie had quickly come to enjoy the trade-off.
"I think she's had the most fun because now she's got both of us with her all the time — and she gets to play at the beach," she said.
"She gets more attention now than she would have at home with both of us working."
Mr James said their seafaring routine had also changed the dynamics of their marriage as it forced them to collaborate more frequently.
"I'm so glad we did this. We thought we had a very strong relationship in the household and we didn't realise that you could make it stronger," he said.
"We now work together on everything — raising Charlie, sailing the boat, anchoring."
When asked about the secret to keeping the peace in their marriage, Mr James could not help but laugh.
"I'm the captain, [Cait's] the admiral," he said.
"It's a dynamic that works. Hopefully, every guy realises that quicker than I did!"
Living off-the-grid and on budget
Having both left their jobs the couple said they had to stick to a set budget if they wanted to keep sailing for at least the next five years.
Mr James said they were spending up to $1,000 each week on all their household expenses, including boat insurance and maintenance.
"We found that this is costing a bit more than we first anticipated in order to get the quality of life we want," he said.
"But there is no way we could travel around the world for a thousand dollars a week without a boat [and] if we did flights and all that."
Ms James said because the boat used solar power they did not have to worry about electricity bills either.
"All of our outgoings are fuel, food, and the phone bill, really," she said.
"So financial stress for me has dropped."
Ms James said they spent about $400 on food every month by buying in bulk and storing the food in freezers.
"You'd be amazed how much cheaper it is," she said.
"We're also trying to get better at fishing, so we don't have to buy so much meat."
It is a lifestyle that Mr James said was more accessible than people might think.
"Everyone can do it. You don't need to be a skipper, you don't need to have heaps of money," he said.
"We've decided to spend a bit more because we want to see a lot more, but you can do it very cheap [if you stay in the marina]."
Mr James said he had secured an international licence to be able to work on any commercial vessel.
"My dream is that we won't go back on land," he said.
"I can work anywhere in the world if needs be."
While Ms James had not yet made up her mind about sailing indefinitely she said she was enjoying the perfect balance of stability and spontaneity.
"I've really liked that we get to explore, travel, go to new places, but we're also bringing the home with us," she said.
