DHARMA BUM III & Sailing Around The World

A few years ago my friend Herbert Salvenmoser went sailing with Wolfgang Hausner. He's been sailing and living on catamarans since 1965, circumnavigated the world twice and lives now on his boat in Kota Kinabalu, Indonesia. He also has a daughter, Vaitea, who is now about 16 years old.

Wolfgang and his wife Gerti didn't opt for an Austrian or German education, but instead went for home-schooling American style, through the Calvert School in Maryland. The results seem to be more than encouraging, with apparently no problems as far as socialization is concerned.

I have always been interested in home-schooling and distance education, especially since Liping checked it out and got her 2nd degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of London on our last sailing-trip in 1994/1995.

I did a fair bit of research those days about Master's Degree programs, but now I am more interested in courses for children; home-schooling programs for elementary, junior, and senior high school. I used to teach some of the "kids" living on boats years ago and my impression was very positive.

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So what I did, is to buy another catamaran , a Privilege 39. At twelve meters long it should be big enough for a family with kids, but small enough to handle for one person alone. The idea is to go for a complete circumnavigation lasting around five or six years :-)

Or at the very least slowly, slowly sail through the South Seas, from island to island, and from country to country. Not like last time, in a hurry to cross the Pacific before the cyclone season sets in again, but with long breaks here and there. Perhaps even make it a permanent lifestyle, like some of my friends have done. And if it gets tedious after a while, what with all the work, the dirt and the anxiety, maybe settle down on one of those islands.

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By far the biggest change and challenge, however, is that this time it won't be just Liping and me, but our daughter Aurora Ulani and us.

Maybe this is all a bit crazy, but then most of my past ventures fall into that category. <grin> As I know people who have done it, it is definitely do-able, the only questions that remain are whether it a good thing to try and do and whether we can actually handle it.

Right now DHARMA BUM III is in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, where she will remain until the end of the hurricane season. Then we'll go down to Trinidad, get some work on the boat done and head for the Panama Canal, Galapagos, the Marquesas, the Tuamotus and Tahiti.