An extraordinary journey Reading: Life on a boat a) Read the story of the Gilbert family and their journey around the world. 454ns2 7 1 Barbara Gilbert and her husband Greg had it all: two young children, a lovely home near Vancouver, Canada and two well- paying jobs. So why did they decide to leave it all behind and live on board a sailboat for three years? “It is easy to live the same way for a long time and do what other people do,” said Barbara, “but one day we just felt that we needed to do something different.” 2 So they decided to leave and try something completely new for a while. They sold most of their things and used their saved money to buy a 15-metre-long sailboat with two sleeping cabins and a kitchen. They named their new home Spirit. The family also learned how to navigate a sailboat for many months, before finally setting out into the Pacific Ocean. Not a vacation 3 Not everything in the last three years was like a vacation, Greg says. “My wife and I often had to work on board the boat in a port somewhere. Luckily, these days a lot of work can be done on computers from almost anywhere on the planet.” 4 The two children Ryan (8) and Mara (11) had to keep learning, too. They were homeschooled, but had to study the material of their school year on their own, often in digital form on their tablets. “We both really like reading,” said Mara, “and to be honest, there is a lot of time on a boat.” Of course, each new country they visited offered a new culture, language and environment for them to explore. “I loved looking at coral reefs in the ocean, instead of just reading about them in a coursebook,” added Ryan. 5 During the three years of their journey on the boat they also experienced dangerous situations, moments of doubt or fights within the family. “Not everything was always perfect,” Barbara said, “but nearly everything was worth experiencing.” How sailing around the world for three years changed the Gilbert family’s life. 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 12 1 Unit Journeys twelve Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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