Midway while sailing across the Pacific with just his cat named Phoenix, Oliver Widger reflected on why he thinks his many followers — more than a million on TikTok and Instagram — are drawn to his story of quitting his 9-to-5 job and embarking on a journey from Oregon to Hawaii.
“The world kind of sucks and, like, I don’t think I’m alone in how I felt with my work,” Widger, 29, told The Associated Press on Wednesday via Zoom. “You can be making $150,000 a year and you still feel like you’re just making ends meet, you know what I mean? And I think people are just tired of that and working really hard for nothing and want a way out.”
He abruptly quit his job with “no money, no plan” and $10,000 of debt.
He liquidated his retirement savings, taught himself to sail mostly via YouTube and moved from Portland to the Oregon coast, where he spent months refitting the $50,000 boat he bought.
That son of a cat actually did it!!
$10k debt, buys a $50k boat… Yeah this dude has some other savings account or social safety net
I mean, to be fair, most of us are way more in debt to our mortgages… But there’s clearly something more to these stories than just “man quits the rat race, lives more simple life. So can you!”
I actually did the same thing as this guy. Once you sell your home, vehicle(s), 401k etc you can certainly buy an old sailboat. Unlike this guy, I turned around after realizing the sailing lifestyle wasn’t for me. What they say about the best days of boat ownership is true.
Once you sell your home, vehicle(s), 401k etc you can certainly buy an old sailboat.
Fucking lol.
Cat convinces human servant to provide transport across the ocean
I’m annoyed about this whole story, the guy claims to never have sailed before and is crossing the Pacific ocean in like a 25 foot boat. The ocean isn’t forgiving. A single storm would be more than capable of capsizing his vessel in the open ocean. What he’s doing is reckless, dangerous, and inconsiderate of his close friends and family.
