SLO County Coast Guard veteran, family set to sail around the world on a catamaran
When U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Adam Leggett retires after two decades of service next summer, it’ll be the end of one chapter of his life — but not the end of his time on the seas.
Leggett, a native of Arroyo Grande who is now stationed in Washington, D.C., said that while retiring from the Coast Guard is bittersweet, it’ll allow him to pursue his dream of circumnavigating the world in a sailing ship full-time.
“I’ve been dreaming about sailing and surfing my way around the world since I was probably a freshman in college,” Leggett said. “The plan was I was gonna do my five-year commitment to the Coast Guard, buy a boat, get out and then just take off solo, but my senior year, I ended up meeting my now wife, and plans change.”
Since then, Leggett has expanded his dream to bring his family along with him, he said.
Now, Leggett, his wife Brandy and children Aria, 12, and Harbor, 6, are excited to embark on the first leg of their multi-year, globetrotting adventure later this year aboard the SV Kaikoa, a 46-foot catamaran, Leggett said.
“I think it took me over a decade to convince (Brandy) this was a good idea, and probably the last five when she really got excited about it,” Leggett told The Tribune.
Coast Guard veteran puts experience to use
Leggett mastered sailing over the course of a 20-year career in the Coast Guard, during which he served on six ships across nine locations, including San Diego, Detroit and Cheboygan in Michigan, as well as Homer, Alaska, and Stuttgart, Germany.
Initially, the former surfer joined the Coast Guard right out of high school for the benefit of a free education, taking a role that would keep him close to the ocean.
“I pretty much tried to spend as much time on ships as possible,” Leggett told The Tribune. “It was really what I loved doing, and I was passionate about it, but it was hard work — oftentimes, it was thankless. I was gone from my family quite a bit. I sacrificed a lot to work on ships.”
Leggett said over his career, he got the exposure to the sea he was looking for, accumulating more than 11 years of total time spent on the water.
Leggett’s first assignment in the Coast Guard wound up being his longest to date. Over the course of six months, he circumnavigated the globe, albeit from the relative comfort of a diesel-powered vessel, he said.
Once the journey is underway, Leggett said he hopes to revisit some destinations he passed through during his service, but with far more time to visit on his hands.
Family gets its sea legs ahead of long voyage
Now, Leggett is preparing to transition his and his family’s lives into their vessel, the Kaikoa.
Leggett said he bought 20-year-old Dolphin 460 in 2021 when he and Brandy decided to commit to a long-term journey, and he has since worked to refit its interior into a home on the ocean, naming the ship in honor of his late dogs, Kai and Koa.
The coming voyage won’t be anything like Leggett’s six-month trip of the world in the Coast Guard, he said.
One of the endeavor’s earliest hurdles will be adapting the family to life sharing the Kaikoa’s three staterooms, two restrooms, bunks, and small office, Leggett said.
As part of this transition, Adam and Brandy are selling most of their possessions, cars and home and will take advantage of technology such as Starlink’s internet satellite service to keep their kids connected to school.
So far, the family has taken a pair of short trips from the Eastern seaboard to the Bahamas in the Kaikoa, conquering seasickness and getting their sea legs, Leggett said.
Leggett said he’ll personally have to adjust to being a full-time navigator, sailor and teacher to his kids, all while keeping the boat together as the only member of the family with significant sailing experience, but he thinks he can handle the increased responsibilities.
At a minimum, the family could be on their journey for the next five years, but could stretch as long as eight years depending on their enthusiasm for the lifestyle, Leggett said.
As part of that journey, Leggett said he and Brandy plan to document and broadcast their international adventures online, as a means of keeping friends and family in the loop on their travels and generating some side revenue to support the journey.
“We get a lot of flack (for bringing our children),” Leggett said. “People hear about what we’re doing and ask, ‘Why would you do that? Why would you endanger your kids?’ Your kids are more likely to die in a car accident on the way to school than they are to be injured crossing an ocean.”
Where is the Kaikoa headed?
The family will move aboard the Kaikoa on May 1 to sail north up the Chesapeake Bay to learn to live on the boat together. In November, they will depart for the Bahamas to kick off the journey itself.
In the coming years, Leggett said they’ll try to visit as many unique locations as is feasible but listed Japan, India and parts of the African continent as some potential destinations.
Speaking to The Tribune on Dec. 30 — the family’s last day in Leggett’s hometown before returning to Washington, D.C., to serve his final six months before retirement — Leggett said he’ll miss the Central Coast in the years to come.
“This will probably be our last trip here for an unknown amount of years,” Leggett told The Tribune. “Our goal is not to get around, our goal is just to go voyaging and see the world — to want to make my kids people of the world.”
The Leggett family’s adventures can be found at their website, svkaikoa.com and on Instagram at @svkaikoa.
This story was originally published January 4, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
