Meridian family sells house to live on boat full-time

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — Sometimes we wish we could take a vacation, and no one understands that feeling more than the Morse family.

"It started back in 2020 during COVID, we just realized it was time for a big change for our family, so we set out in an RV and went around the country for a year and about halfway through that we were like, 'What the heck are we going to do next?' That's when we decided to buy a sailboat and take our travels further than just the RV could take us," said father Brandon Morse.

The family of six from Meridian, Idaho and has now lived on their sailboat for nearly three years.

"Basically, we can just up the anchor and move the boat and live wherever we want for the most part," said Brandon.

From solar panels, to saltwater converters, the family has found a system that makes living off grid work for them.

"We do homeschool and a combination of online school," said mother Amber Morse. "For groceries, we have to take our little dinghy to shore and we actually have to walk to grocery stores and haul all of our groceries back."

Brandon says sea life isn't quite as convenient as land life, but that it's worth it for them.

"We don't have a car, I mean, it's just a completely different way of life," said Brandon. "But I would say one where all of our character has been built and our resilience has been challenged and you know, it's just made us stronger."

While they know this lifestyle isn't for everyone, they hope they can encourage other families to get out of their comfort zone and try something new.

"We hope that people feel inspired to not feel stuck and to live life a little bit differently and to make more memories as a family and ultimately to create more Saturdays and their lives," said Amber.

Brandon says they named their social media handles "everydaysaturday" because he believes every day should be lived to the fullest.

"We found ourselves always kind of working for the weekend, waiting for Saturday, the one day that we all get to look forward to and spend time with those that we love," said Brandon. "We just want to inspire people to do something different, to not feel stuck in the grind, and to get outside and enjoy the world."

The Morse family says they've traveled to more than 20 countries on their boat. They want people to know that you don't have to be "rich" to enjoy a similar lifestyle and that you can still find a great sense of community at sea.

"Living smaller so that you can save and invest your money so that you can create really meaningful experiences as a family, that's kind of how we've gotten to be able to do what we're doing and we're so grateful for it," said Amber.

"This lifestyle appears like you'd have to be rich to live it and you absolutely don't. I mean, we bought the boat with basically the equity we had in our house, which in the Boise area is actually pretty easy to do these days because everybody's house is worth a lot of money," said Brandon. "You know, we don't have as many bills as we had on land, you actually can live quite cheaply out here, especially if you do your own boat maintenance. We don't own cars, we don't have car insurance, so we try to live pretty frugally out here. We don't eat out a lot, we cook our meals, we fish."

The Morse family says they have made great friends over the last few years and found a large group of like-minded people.

"Something that's really amazing out here is there's a huge cruising community, we're just in a bay with some friends right now. Hudson's got some good buddies, we have meetups all the time and we're not short of any friends out here," said Amber.

"On our way down last season down to Grenada, we traveled consistently with probably six to seven other boats and families and all of our kids had their own friends," said Brandon. "A lot of people on social media give us flack for taking the kids out of public school, saying they're missing out on social experiences and all of that, and it's really the opposite. They've got tons of friends and we've got lots of incredible community out here."

With hurricane season coming up, four of the six Morse's plan to return to Idaho for the summer. The father and son duo, however, have different plans.

"We actually just launched what we call a 'sailing and boat live training experience,' where people who want to live this lifestyle and have no idea where to start, just like we didn't back then, they're going to come and join me and my first mate on the boat this summer," said Brandon. "They're going to join us on the boat for a week at a time where we teach them all the things about boat life and sailing, so we're kind of excited about that."

If you'd like to learn more about the Morse family, click here.

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