Kristen was born in a small town outside of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada (wait, that is too much detail, let’s start over…)

We both worked as paramedics in London, Ontario, Canada and as educators with the Paramedic Programs at Fanshawe College in the same city. As with many stories, we fell in love and were married in the summer of 2013. Dugg proposed to Kristen in Venice, Italy, and we captured the moment with two photographers who were with us. That’s a story for another time (see photo).

Living in a large house, we had lots of stuff, too much stuff, but something was missing. Our limited time off from work was spent organizing and cleaning stuff rather than spending time together as a family. We made a radical (for us) decision to change our lifestyle.

Growing up, Dugg dreamed of living and travelling on a sailboat. After some boat shows and sailing courses, Kristen quickly jumped on board (pun intended). We decided to actively pursue this dream. Inspired by The Minimalists, we downsized, well, almost everything.

Kristen is a genius with online sales. She sold our furniture, books, appliances, and clothing. If we were not able to sell it, we donated it to the local library, college, women’s shelter or thrift stores. Dugg fondly recalls how she literally took the glass he was drinking from out of his hand as the buyer was there for the complete set.

Our downsizing was purposeful; if it did not serve a practical purpose on a sailboat, we no longer needed it. Conventional pots and pans were replaced with Magma nesting cookware with removable handles. Everything breakable was replaced with unbreakable dishes, and all glass was eliminated as we planned our full-time move onto a sailboat. We were completing all of these steps a couple of years before we knew which boat we would eventually buy.

Fast forward to the fall of 2018. We had moved from a house to a smaller condominium as part of our downsizing, or more aptly worded, “right-sizing”. It was time for the next big step: move somewhere we could actually live on a sailboat, prepare for the world passage, and work and add to our savings. Oh, and enjoy the process, of course. We decided to move to Vancouver, Canada. A decision we should have made years earlier.

In Vancouver, we moved into an even smaller condominium. At 91.5 m² (984 ft²), two adults, two tweens, and a German Shepherd became even more comfortable living in small spaces. This decision was calculated as part of our transition, and the ridiculous housing pricing in Vancouver, Canada, helped us solidify that we were making the right decision. It was not lost on us that we could buy a large sailboat for less than the price of a small condominium. The search for the sailboat began.

Read more about our purchase of S/V Agora in our first blog post.