In 2010 the Rigneys bought a boat.
by Richard Lieberman
On Saturday, May 19, the Kandu a forty-two-foot sailing vessel returned to the Ventura Yacht Club at Ventura Harbor after a four-year journey around the world. The trip for the Rigney family began at the Yacht Club and ended on Saturday at the place where it began just over four years ago.
Asked about what it is like to live on a boat for four years Eric Rigney said “It’s a very big adjustment, we actually moved onto the boat a year before we left” said Rigney.” We started learning lessons right away because you don’t quite know what it is you own until you pack it away, we let a lot of things go and the cathartic thing that happened is that when you let possessions go there is a free feeling that happens that I didn’t expect.”
“The dream started for me when I was fourteen, I was sitting with my uncle and he started me on this journey when he built a boat in his backyard here in Ventura, once completed he put it in the water and that was in 1974 and he decided to sail it to Hawaii with me and on the way back I felt so much more mature and I felt I had grown up so much more with all the responsibility of navigation and the like.” He said.
“I met Leslie my wife in 1989 and in 1990 I sailed my uncle’s boat to Polynesia on the way back stopping in Hawaii I asked Leslie to join us and she sailed with my brother and a friend all the way to California and at the end of that I said if you are willing to do this and sail around the world then we can stay together if not then we need to go our separate ways. She said yes. It was sort of a pre-nuptial agreement that we sail around the world. All of our decisions were focused on making this happen.”
In 2010 the Rigneys bought a boat and began refitting and preparing it for their upcoming around the world adventure. “We weren’t escaping” added Rigney. “We were going to have an adventure together and so my sons grew up knowing this would happen their entire lives.” He said. “They never knew otherwise, they knew someday this would happen.”
His wife Leslie left a 12-year career as an opera singer and Eric left his job of more than 20 years as post-production executive with Sony Pictures. Their sons Trent and Bryce dropped out of school for the duration of the voyage. They were homeschooled during the voyage in subjects like science and math, Spanish, French, history geography, and more.
During the voyage, the family slept in shifts so someone was always manning the cockpit and watching out for any possible difficulties.
As far as provisioning the ship Leslie Rigney was in charge “ As things go away I write a list of what we have consumed and I wherever we are going I know what generally is available and I wanted to get the local food and experience that and learn how to cook it” She said.
“We ended up spending two years in French Polynesia and another year in the Marquesas. We enrolled the boys in school there. We became certified residents and we became involved in the community, it was very rewarding,” said Eric.
“Our boys were the first Americans to attend school in Marquesas, and both have learned fluent French” he added. “We had so many wonderful experiences that were beyond our expectations.”
Now that they are home the Rigneys are going to re-boot their careers and get their boys back on the school track. “Were both super excited about what comes next?”
Bryce, the oldest at 17, was asked upon returning what he would have done differently and he contemplated the question for a minute and said: “I would not change a thing I loved every minute of it.”
