‘We quit our jobs and sold everything to travel’

STUCK in a life of monotony and longing to break free from the rat race, Jessica and her husband made some huge sacrifices for the chance to travel the world. Now they’re living it up.

Jessica, Matt and Georgie the cat are travelling the world.

STUCK in a life of monotony and longing to break free from the rat race, this young couple packed it all in for a life at sea.

It was 2008 when Matt and Jessica Johnson, both 32, quit their jobs and sold their possessions in order to buy a boat — despite never having sailed before.

They spent the next three years practising on their Sabre 34 Targa boat, waiting until their confidence grew before they finally set off, leaving everything they knew behind. And they haven’t looked back since.

Jessica doing a spot of yoga on the boat at Sint Maarten in the East Caribbean.

The couple officially left their hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan on 12th August 2011 and have been to 16 countries so far.

To date, they have explored the colourful, brimming culture of South America, the turquoise, crystal waters of the Caribbean and some European-style western islands. They now have their sights set on further afield.

Crossing larger distances will be a challenge however, as the ocean can often be unruly — which they found out when they ended up in an unexpected storm 1600 kilometres from the nearest land while crossing the North Atlantic Ocean.

They have been travelling ever since 2011.

In 2012, the duo decided they wanted a little more company on their travels, so they adopted a cat from a no-kill shelter. Georgie the cat has been accompanying them on their journey ever since, visiting 13 countries.

Georgie the cat lounges around on the boat.

While sailing, Matt and Jessica ensure that Georgie is in the cockpit or below deck, wearing a harness and leash for safety.

Matt caught a huge Mahi fish.

“She does very well with the sailing and is more steady on her feet than we are,” Jessica said. “She loves sitting on the deck and watching the fish over the side of the boat when we are at anchor. We found out she can swim when she jumped overboard in Grand Cayman. She swam around the back of the boat and climbed up the ladder.”

The stunning island of Bermuda.

Before their trip, both had successful careers, with Matt working as a sales manager at a car dealership and Jessica as a billing specialist for an auto insurance company. This and selling all their belongings — including their house, cars and personal items — allowed them to save up enough money to fund the trip.

They left everything they knew behind and sailed into the unknown.

They are still getting by on their savings years later. This is thanks to living frugally and saving money wherever they can, usually opting for dinner on deck instead of expensive restaurants.

The couple keep track of the cost of cruising on their blog — mjsailing.com. On average, they spend around $1422 a month on diesel, docking feeds, boat maintenance, insurance, food shopping, eating out, entertainment and general costs.

Matt and Georgie the cat enjoying a snooze.

Matt and Jessica claim that being together 24/7 has made their 10 year relationship stronger than ever.

“Our lives were the typical American Dream. Go to school, get married, buy a house, start a career. So far we’ve also left out the part of having 2.5 kids.

“For too long we had spent all of our weekends in front of the TV without ever doing anything productive or enjoyable. We realised this needed to change.

They definitely made a big change.

“The strange thing for us buying a sailboat and sailing off into the sunset is that we had never even set foot on a sailboat until the week before we purchased our first one back in 2008.

“It’s been amazing but there have been some challenges. When the storm hit, we thought we might lose the boat. Winds rose up to 55 knots and the seas built to 5 metres. This went on for 2-3 hours. We were ready to abandon ship and jump onto our life raft.

Minke whales swimming alongside the boat.

“I think that sailing the world has been great for our relationship. There’s no walking away from an argument when one person gets mad at the other you have to keep working together until the job is done.

It has been an unforgettable experience.

“As for being with each other 100 per cent of the time, we don’t mind at all. We have always liked to be around each other. We’d also been hearing stories from so many others that had been putting their dream on hold until retirement and for one reason or another (health, financial, etc.) until their dreams were no longer attainable. We never wanted that to be us.

“There was nothing holding us back, so why not go now?”

Jessica and Matt pictured at their wedding.

Countries they have been to so far:

Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, Grand Cayman, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Columbia, Belize, Mexico, The Azores, Madeira of Portugal, Canary Islands of Spain, Sint Maarten, British Virgin Islands and US Virgin Islands.

Freedom ...