20091019 -- Tightening Ties Small Quarters and Sailing Give a Chance to Bond (1)

Tightening Ties: Small Quarters and Sailing Give a Chance to Bond

Living on a boat brings about big changes in the bach faimly

Inside the Bach home in Hampton, VA, it's just another late Wednesday afternoon with mom Lauren taking a break and most of the kids busy in their rooms.

It could be a scene from any place in the neighborhood. Then there's the indisputable movement of the wooden floor as their 75-foot-long seagoing home rolls up and down in the swells kicked up by a southwest wind. After more than 2,500 miles of sailing, however, no one pays much heed to the modest sway of the boat wintering in Hampton, VA, before continuing on a three-year, round-the-world journey. The Bachs and their kids have seen much worse, And thy expect they'll have to deal with many more challenges as they attempt to circle the globe together.

"After their first sail, they were all ready to get off - and some of them still get a little seasick," Craig Bach says. "But with each new place we pulled into, it just kept getting better and better. And now they're all in it for the long haul."

"My husband asked me if I wanted to do this with him... we've always wanted to raise our kids to be independent, self-sufficient, global-minded citizens," Lauren says. "We needed to do something more about the global part. And this was it."