Like their parents, the Lloyd-Mostyn children are barefoot. It was only when the family arrived back in London, the city they used to call home, that their mother, Jess, says she realised the older two of their three youngsters didn’t own ‘a proper pair of shoes’.
‘They’ve never needed them,’ she explains. That’s because the Lloyd-Mostyns live mostly at sea. Their ‘back garden’ might be the Pacific or the Caribbean, or a cosy cove in Bora Bora, depending on whether or not it is hurricane season.
The eldest children learned how to walk on a boat deck — with those tiny toes having left fleeting imprints on beaches from Mexico to New Zealand. They are a flip-flop sort of family.
James and Jess Lloyd-Mostyn with their three children: Autumn, Rocket and Indigo
Toddler Rocket on the deck of the Adamastor. James says: ‘If Rocket was at school in England... would she know as much about whale sharks?'
Many of us dream of quitting the rat race and heading into the great blue yonder. But few are brave enough to start a family on the high seas — and then have more children while circumnavigating the globe. But this is what the Lloyd-Mostyns have done.
It all started in 2010 with a jokey comment from Jess about how she and partner James could ditch their planned house extension and instead spend the money on a yacht.
Hard-a-starboard, crew! Rocket, aged three, takes the wheel in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand
A year later, the couple — then unmarried — rented out their house and set off on what they thought would be a time-limited adventure before they settled down.
Two years in — and rather enjoying their shoeless new life — they started talking about having children.
In time, Jess gave birth to daughter Rocket, now five, going into labour during a six-hour bus journey in Mexico. ‘That wasn’t one of the highlights,’ she admits. ‘Rocket was three weeks early. I remember being on all fours, thinking: “This cannot be happening.” ’
Son Indigo’s arrival was easier — in a birthing pool in New Zealand.
Then a second girl, Autumn, now four months old, entered the world in a more conventional manner while the family (Dad, by the way, is a descendant of the Duke of Wellington) were back in London for a short visit.
I meet the family as they prepare to head to Indonesia, where their boat, Adamastor, is being made ready for the next phase of the extraordinary adventure. It has seen them travel to 36 countries and cover some 26,000 miles.
The family has travelled to 36 countries and covered some 26,000 miles across the world. Map shows where and when the children were born
While Jess breastfeeds Autumn, her elder siblings are eager to share their experiences. ‘Tell about the time the bat ate the papaya,’ urges Rocket. Indigo goes wide-eyed at the memory of meeting a Komodo dragon.
They recount tales of scuba-diving in Tahiti and swimming with dolphins in the way other children would talk about a trip to the park.
Waterbabies: Jess breastfeeds Indigo off Northland New Zealand
Clearly, it’s been a challenge to raise three children in a boat the size of some of their friends’ kitchens. ‘Our washing machine is two buckets,’ says Jess. ‘Or we dock and find a laundrette.’
James explains that they often wash their clothes in rivers alongside local villagers. ‘People think that what we are doing must be quite isolating. In fact, it’s a very sociable thing. Our whole life is about meeting strangers.
‘In some of the remotest areas, such as islands around Papua New Guinea, they never get boats visiting, so people invite you into their homes. It’s incredible.’
Their way of life is meticulously budgeted and relatively cheap, all things considered. Costs vary depending on geography, but average out at £20,000 a year.
‘It’s basically caravanning,’ says Jess. ‘People think it’s posh, as there’s a yacht involved, but our boat is rough-and-ready. And we are fair-weather sailors, so there’s not as much derring-do. If the weather looks questionable, we’ll stay put wherever we are. Our journey is more of a pootle.’
It’s still risky, though. The couple admit that, since their children have arrived, they’ve bought a satellite phone, a liferaft (James describes it as ‘one of our biggest expenses — and we’ve never had to use it’) and a first-aid kit.
‘We carry antibiotics and anti-malaria medication, everything really. But the only thing we’ve had to use is nit lotion.’
Jess, now 36, and James, 48, are unlikely travellers. Both studied architecture and met while working for the same
