Meet Captain Mom—The Woman Who Sails the World With Her Kids
This seafaring mother of three — and Airbnb Experience host — is taking her family on the adventure of a lifetime.
Photographs by Balazs Gardi
Every morning, Captain Heather Richard wakes up to waves knocking against her home: a 43-foot sailboat that’s currently somewhere off the coast of Baja California. The rest of the crew sleeps nearby in their bunks aboard Carodon. There’s Heather’s daughter, Ava (16), and sons, Julius (14) and Sawyer (4). In the past few months they’ve sailed south from their houseboat community in Sausalito, California, learning to fish for their dinner and sustain themselves for months at sea. The family is in the middle of what Heather calls “a true shakedown trip,” in preparation for longer sails that will take them around the world.
Heather has raised her children on boats since they were born, but this is the first time they’ve spent months away from their home harbor. The trip is also one that few moms have attempted. Heather wants to change that. “I don’t see any role models of women who are running their own boat with a family,” she said. “I hope this trip will inspire others to go cruising, or just to follow a dream and not wait until you’re retired to do something big.”
Heather’s own dream started at a young age when she learned to sail a Sunfish on a lake in Northern Indiana during summers with her grandparents. Back in Boston, she sought out sailing opportunities at community boating centers and continued to race in college. By the time she moved to San Francisco in 2000, she’d captained boats in the Caribbean, built a recreational sailing program at a U.S. naval base in Japan, and run 50-passenger charters for spectators during America’s Cup races.
Heather moved to the Bay Area to coach at a yacht club and pursue art in the off-season. She never anticipated she’d live aboard a boat, but it was the most affordable option. “It was really hard to find a place to live. I bought a boat, because it was cheap housing and I knew boats. It made sense.”
All three of her children have lived on boats their whole lives. By day, Heather charters cruises for Airbnb Experience guests while the kids are in school. At night the family docks at a maritime co-op in Sausalito.
“It’s small living, but it’s a beautiful life,” Heather said. Although she and her family have access to power and a sewage system at the harbor, they opt to live completely off-grid, relying on solar power and using saltwater to wash dishes and flush the toilet. They have just enough clothes to last between weekly laundry runs onshore, and store all of their books and media digitally. “I don’t feel like we’re deprived of anything, either,” Heather said. “I mean, it would be nice to have a bathtub and take a soak. But it’s okay. We go swimming.”
In between her charter business and planning the family’s global sailing adventures, Heather works to make local access to the water more affordable. She’s spent the past five years establishing the Sausalito Community Boating Center, which broke ground this spring. The marina hub will hold hands-on sailing classes for youth, using locally made wooden boats. It’s modeled after the nonprofit community boating centers in Boston where Heather learned the ropes.
“Heather has a vision that you don’t have to have high-end yacht clubs where you have to pay a really steep membership, or have a fancy boat or fancy friends to get on the water,” says neighbor Ray Gorum, a local artist who also volunteers at SCBS. “She’s committed to getting people on the water and in touch with it so that they can also become stewards of the environment.”
Heather will return to Sausalito this summer to see the center open, and to run charters for another season on the San Francisco Bay. She gets a range of guests, from travelers who’ve never sailed before to local tech industry workers. The experience helps them slow down, Heather said: “I like to see the transformation of how much people calm down when they’re out on the water. They stop trying to do things and just get to reflect and absorb what’s happening around them. We don’t do that much as a culture.”
Heather often runs several charters a day. Her favorite cruises are at sunset, when Julius often joins to help crew. It’s hard work, but she never tires of the experience. “There are days when I get too much sun, but I sleep better at night when I’ve been sailing.”
The shakedown trip taught Heather and her family that they need to take their time and invest in bigger sails for the next long adventure. The kids, who are homeschooled, are finding their way at sea. Heather’s son Julius now wants to be a professional sailor and Ava has become the chef on board. They’re currently planning their next long sail, which will likely take them to Hawaii, Alaska, and potentially around all of North America. Follow their travels on Instagram @finedayforsailing.
About the author: Marguerite McNeal Carter is a writer and editor based in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in EdSurge, Wired, and Marketing News. She’s currently a creative at Airbnb.
