Ready to cast off on their sailing adventure of a lifetime are Adrienne and Simon Easton, holding their cat Dusky. Their yacht, Hope, is on the left. PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY Five years ago, Simon and Adrienne Easton did not have the foggiest idea of how to sail a yacht. Now the Dunedin husband and wife have quit their jobs, packed up their belongings and their cat Dusky, and are about to head off on a voyage around New Zealand on their yacht, Hope. Mr Easton said the trip had been 10 years in the planning and now it was all coming to fruition. He resigned from his job as a fireman at Dunedin City Station in November and Mrs Easton did the same from her job as manager at an early childhood education centre. ‘‘We’ve ... dreamed of this trip for like 20-odd years, and our kids have just left home, so we’re like, ‘Yep, let’s do it’,’’ he said. ‘‘We taught ourselves to sail about four years ago.’’ The found inspiration after they hired a boat in Auckland for Mrs Easton’s 40th birthday. ‘‘Just that feeling of freedom when you can turn the engines off and let the wind just take you — it really captivated us. ‘‘But it started a long time before that. I want to see the Greek islands and it’s always been a bucket-list thing of mine.’’ They were now waiting on a good ‘‘weather window’’ and planned to set sail for Stewart Island some time this week. From there, they would sail up the West Coast and aimed to reach the Bay of Islands where they would spend the summer. Despite the arrival of winter, Mr Easton was not worried about rough seas along the route. ‘‘My theory is there’ll be less people and less bugs. It’ll be great.’’ They were looking forward to life on board their 11m-long, 1986 Alan Wright Oceans 11 yacht, which would now be their home for the foreseeable future. As for Dusky the cat, she had not been on a boat before and, initially, they were not sure if she would take to sailing. ‘‘She hasn’t fallen off the boat yet. ‘‘She’s definitely fallen in the spa pool and she wasn’t overly fond of that, but she seems to have been OK on our practice runs over the last few months.’’ Once they got to the Bay of Islands, they would likely sell the boat and buy another — probably in the Greek islands — where they would plot a course around the Mediterranean. ‘‘We don’t actually want to do the really big ocean passages — we just want the destinations, like the Greek islands. ‘‘I’m constantly shopping for new boats online. Something will pop up and present itself by then.’’ As for how long they planned to continue their new lifestyle, Mr Easton said it could be for a year, or it could be a decade. ‘‘We don’t have any plans other than this. We’re very open-minded about it. ‘‘Eventually, we will return to Dunedin because we still have a base here.’’ But until then, the world is their oyster. john.lewis@odt.co.nz
