Tell the class how you spent your last vacation.

Excited about this particular assignment, Kaeya Gautam (14) began her story by recalling her visit home. As the tale progressed, the amused bunch of students learnt that she wasn’t referring to a house but a 42-foot-long sailboat where her parents, Capt Gaurav Gautam, a retired Indian Navy officer, and Vaidehi Chitnavis, a media professional, have lived ever since they pledged themselves to a nomadic life in 2022.

And it is vacation time that their daughter looks forward to the most. After all, it means endless hours spent with her best friend ‘Reeva’, the 1988-built Tayana Vancouver 42 sailboat that is their home on the waters.

A riot of fun is how Kaeya describes her vacations. When she isn’t snorkelling, she’s perfecting her sailing skills or catching a sunset on the deck. Everyone in class that day had one question: Is it even possible to live on a boat?

It once baffled him too, Gaurav says. “But, it is a popular concept in many Western countries,” he learnt when he commanded INS Tarangini (2015) — the Indian Navy’s first sail training ship. Intrigued, he began reading up.

But the more he delved into it, the more it seemed like a logistical nightmare. “Suitable boats were not being built in India at the time. Even if I did want to buy a boat, I would have to import it into the country, which would cost a great deal. Then there would be the question of where to anchor it, and the added maintenance,” he thought.

Unwittingly, the idea took a backseat for a few years until the COVID-19 pandemic, when news about the dipping prices of boats around the globe made Gaurav sit up. It sparked a dormant dream.

Postal address: Somewhere in the middle of the ocean

The decision to quit their land-based lives was a weighty one, Gaurav and Vaidehi discovered while attempting to bundle up their assets. It brought with it the predicament of what to take on their sojourn and what to give away. “It’s a good thing Gaurav and I are not too attached to material things,” Vaidehi shares, albeit pointing out, “When it comes to discarding things that have been there with you for decades, there is bound to be a sense of attachment.”

© The Better India