- Tess Fraser, 30, Adelaide, SA and her boyfriend Brett sold everything to buy a boat
- She had never sailed before the couple bought a boat in Fiji
- They adopted a kitty, Coco the sailing cat, and now the trio explore the seas together
Here Tess tells her story in her own words.
Living into the crystal-clear waters off Vanuatu, I relished the coolness on my skin.
‘Coming for a swim too?’ I called to my boyfriend Brett, 33.
‘I’ll feed Coco first,’ he replied from our yacht, cradling our three-year-old rescue cat on his lap.
Since January 2022 we’ve called our 39-foot monohull boat our home.
I love boat life. Image Credit – Instagram @seafaringproject
It was always Brett’s dream to buy a boat, and one of the first things about him that caught my attention when I came across his Tinder profile five years ago.
Who wants to sail the world with me? it read.
I was instantly drawn to his sense of adventure and we started dating.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
A couple of years later, once we’d saved enough money, we made his dream a reality.
Selling our cars, furniture and ending the lease on our home in South Australia, we bought a one-way ticket to Fiji with plans to buy a boat.
Our friends and family thought we were mad, but we knew it’d be the trip of a lifetime.
Being a paramedic, I swapped to working on a casual basis, so I could fly back for shifts when we needed cash, and Brett left his job as a machinery operator.
While Brett had experience crewing on boats around the South Pacific, I had never set foot on a boat, let alone lived on one. But I was itching for the adventure.
‘I’ll teach you the basics. You’re going to love it,’ Brett promised.
Touching down in Fiji in December 2021, we moved into a hotel and started our boat hunt.
We made friends at the marina and on frequent trips to the villages for food, petrol and supplies.
On one visit, I returned with a kitten, much to Brett’s surprise.
‘He’s homeless and needs us,’ I begged Brett.
‘A cat is an 18-year commitment, and it means we can’t sail into New Zealand or Australian water because of their strict quarantine rules,’ he tried to reason.
As the kitten let out a purr, my mind was made up. ‘She’s coming with us,’ I declared.
We named her Coco, and soon Brett was as smitten as I was.
Within six weeks we’d found the perfect vessel, forking out $50,000 on our yacht Complicité. It had made its way to Fiji from Canada, but needed a lot of work.
For the next five months we spent every day working to get it ship-shape for sailing.
While Brett worked on the boat, I organised food, fuel, medicine and spare boat parts.
By mid-2022, I was elated as we set sail on our first voyage.
We began with day sails, returning to the marina at night, before building to overnight trips and open ocean voyages.
I can’t believe this is our life, I thought, taking in the sunsets on deck.
It was a steep learning curve as Brett taught me to raise and lower the sails, chart a course to avoid bad weather and read the tides, winds, currents and swell, but I soon got the hang of it.
In the last three years we’ve travelled to five different countries.
Coco loves life at sea, especially with all the fresh fish to snack on.
Coco loves life at sea, especially with all the fresh fish to snack on.
She spends most of her time running up and down the mast and sails or snoozing.
Every day is different. We love the freedom of dropping anchor in remote places, and spending hours fishing and surfing.
But living on a boat isn’t always paradise. The weather is a huge dictator, as well as where we are located.
If the seas are rough, we spend long days battling sickness, while also taking on the demands of running a boat – sail changes, taking turns of shifts on watch for weather, navigation and trying to catch fish.
Plus the never-ending list of things to be repaired.
And in March this year, we realised our boat was slowly sinking after a small crack formed around the rudder post.
Our boat was slowly sinking
Thankfully, we could sail without the rudder to stop the water coming in, and used a back-up rudder we had and headed to land as fast as we could.
But for all the challenges, we wouldn’t change a thing.
Our cost of living is small, around $500 per week, which is half of what we spent in Adelaide.
We have solar panels for power, and a watermaker on board to convert seawater to fresh. We trade clothing and fishing gear for fresh fruit and vegetables with local villagers, and catch our own dinner as much as we can.
And when money runs low, I fly to Adelaide for casual paramedic work, while Brett stays to look after the boat and Coco.
It’s been amazing sharing our lifestyle with our families, who have visited us in Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.
With patchy reception, it’s often hard to call loved ones, so in 2024 we started our YouTube and Instagram
@seafaringproject, using a satellite connection to share videos of our life at sea, featuring Coco the sailing cat, of course.
Now we have over 10 thousand followers from around the world. And while we don’t plan to live at sea forever, we aren’t done adventuring yet.
Living on a boat may not be for everyone, but for me, Brett and Coco it’s purrfect.
