Three-Plus Years at Sea: How a Family Homeschooled Twins on a Boat

Hi friends! Families who pack up and head out into the unknown have always fascinated us. We first heard about Katrin Linke through another family who'd moved abroad, and she was immediately up for telling us about her adventures on board with twins, homeschooling included. In her book Kurswechsel ins Blaue: Eine Familie auf großem Segel-Abenteuer (“Change of Course Into the Blue: A Family on a Big Sailing Adventure”), she goes even deeper.

Dear Katrin, when your twins were born, did you have any idea what the next few years would look like for you?

When the kids were born, the dream of sailing had moved to the back burner. We'd dreamed of having a boat for many years before that, but there was never enough money.

When did you decide, “That's it, we're buying a catamaran and sailing out into the world. This is what childhood can look like!”?

There wasn't really a “that's it” moment. It was more of a wake-up call: if we don't do this now, we'll probably never sail around the world in this lifetime. Here's the background: thanks to Covid, boat prices had dropped, and we were able to teach the kids ourselves.

That turned out to be a stroke of luck for us. They were in first grade, and by schooling our kids ourselves we lost our fear that we couldn't pull it off. We did still worry about whether we could be good teachers. Thanks to Covid, the boys also hadn't built up deep friendships, which confirmed for us that in 2022, with them already in third grade, it was high time to set sail! A year or two later, the boys might not even have wanted to come along.

You sailed 10,000 nautical miles from Greece across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Can you say which place was the most magical?

The most magical place was the sea. It has so many faces… It's like a cat: it rubs against your legs, and then suddenly out come the claws… The most magical moment: one night off the Spanish mainland, a pod of dolphins was hunting sardines, and the sea and the dolphins' bodies glittered with thousands of tiny points of light, thanks to phytoplankton and bioluminescence.

You're a marine biologist and science journalist. Could you keep working from the boat?

Yes, we worked as authors along the way. It was a huge challenge! Juggling several jobs at once, 24/7 – our work, being the kids' teachers, making sure everyone had fun, repairing the boat, housework and grocery shopping – that was an explosive cocktail for us as a couple.

How did you pay for all of it, and what worries did you have beforehand?

We took out a loan on our house. And Grandma lent us her savings. 

You lived three and a half years of school and work life on board. For me, Covid, with all that close supervision and schooling of the kids, was plenty. How did you do it? How did you get materials, and how did you get along?

I brought tons of school materials. There are workbooks for every grade level. From fifth grade on, our foundation was a set of college-prep workbooks covering fifth and sixth grade. We had the books shipped to us in the Caribbean. We focused on reading, writing, math, and English, and the trip itself took care of the rest.

The kids came up with ideas, like building a wakeboard in Curaçao, and we tried to make it happen. Geography and history came along with the route, for example the history of slavery while we crossed the Atlantic (which the kids could really understand). All in all, we got along well, even though we often hit our limits when it came to stress. But the time with the kids is/was worth every second!!! There's nothing better than being there when they marvel at something or light up with joy. <3

You also survived wild storms. How did that work with kids on board? Did it ever get really dicey?

The kids slept through most of the storms and bad weather. There were a few thunderstorms that taught me what fear is! The worst, though, was one of the kids having an allergic reaction to ibuprofen in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There was no turning back, and three weeks at sea lay ahead of us…

Was there anything else that totally surprised you, something you hadn't expected?

It surprised us how often something on a boat breaks and how much time and money the repairs eat up. We knew a used boat has its quirks, but that you end up “repairing your way around the world” still caught us off guard. The poor quality of so many spare parts amazed us too. A boat has to be safe, and the materials should make sure of that… We wanted to go around the world in an eco-friendly way, but when it comes to solar systems and electrical gear, we're disappointed there as well.

You write about a pod of dolphins. What exactly is that?

A pod is simply a group of dolphins in the water.

What happened for you and the kids after the trip? Or are you still on the move?

We're back in Germany. One of the kids wanted to go to school at 13. The other twin was less eager, but we'd made a family contract: if one of us wants to go back, boat time is over. The boys are in school now and have successfully finished seventh grade. Right now we're traveling toward Norway in a camper van and enjoying the change of scenery. We're curious which we'll like better, boat or bus. The boat is waiting for us in Panama for a while. Who knows? Maybe we'll set sail again soon?