EXCLUSIVE: More than 600 nautical miles off the coast of California, 29-year-old Oliver Widger is reinventing his life with his cat, a sailboat and a dream.
“What would I tell myself before embarking on this sail? Man, you got an insane amount of work ahead of you. You’ve got an insane amount of work ahead of you,” Widger told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
“Even if you scroll down to when I first started posting on TikTok, that person is completely different. And that person had already quit, but that person’s completely different than the person I am now,” he continued. “I am unrecognizable in comparison to who I was a year, a year and a half ago. A completely different person.”
Widger – also known as @sailing_with_phoenix on social platforms – gains tens of thousands of followers every day as he actively documents a once-in-a-lifetime voyage from the Oregon coast to Hawaii with his cat, Phoenix.
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About one year ago, Widger made the decision to quit his 11-year career at a tire company, liquidate his 401(k), sell all his belongings to buy a sailboat and travel the world. He claims he was tired of running the corporate America “rat race,” and a chronic neck injury catalyzed a longtime aspiration.
“I run the risk of going paralyzed. I’ve got, it’s called Klippelfel syndrome. And so I found out three years ago, I got diagnosed with it. And so all of my cervical vertebrae are fused, and they’re missing all of the disks,” Widger said. “The way the doctor described it is, I have a spine of somebody who’s like 115 years old… hearing that kind of just shook up my world.”
“Once I got rid of the idea of money being an equation, and not caring about money, everything kind of worked out,” he said. “I’ve made every single bad financial decision you could possibly make. I liquidated my 401(k). I basically funded this on credit cards with just a shady plan, as far as how I’m gonna pay it off, but it worked out.”
He purchased a circa 1990s sailboat and has lived on it for the past year, warming up his captain skills before embarking out into the open ocean. As of Tuesday, Widger is 13 days into his journey and expecting to reach his destination by May 25.
“I didn’t know anything about how to sail. I didn’t know anything about how to maintain a boat, I didn’t know anything about social media, and I did all of it, and I learned all of it at the same exact time,” he reflected. “So I just neglected every single corner of my life and only focused on those things, and I ate rice and beans for a year straight just to save money.”
“I went viral on the same exact day I set sail. So the past nine days have been just absolutely insane, you know what I mean? ‘Cause I’m crossing an ocean, and then I also went viral at the same time. And it’s like these two crazy things,” Widger added. “It’s just a weird feeling, but it’s incredible, man.”
Widger’s family and friends have supported him since he made the sailing decision, and now, so are TikTok users around the world. He started a GoFundMe with a goal of $10,000 to pay off credit card debt, but has more than $30,000 in donations today. Internet strangers have even created accounts to track Widger’s coordinates day by day.
“It’s the modern-day American dream.”
“I anticipated being in debt by the time I get to Hawaii, and spending six months to a year working there to pay down the debt… So all I gotta do now is get to Hawaii,” he said.
“It just feels so good to put positive energy out in the world,” Widger expanded, “like people finding inspiration in it too… I think a lot of people feel trapped and a lot of people can relate. And they just see it, and they see it is possible.”
The newfound captain hopes the worst of the passage is over, after facing a broken rudder during a volatile ocean storm. Widger claimed it was “the most violent thing” he’s endured, with the sailboat taking on some water on its sides amid waves as big as “a two-story building.”
“I am in the middle of the ocean, you know what I mean? And I can’t put my guard down and kind of just relax… my guard has to be up… something about that’s really cool, and it’s terrifying. The ocean’s absolutely insane,” Widger noted. “Right now I’m not terrified, but like when my rudder failed… it couldn’t have happened at a worse time.”
“I was getting thrown from one end [of the boat] to the other, constantly,” Widger continued. “I definitely came out of that situation a different person… but there’s no option, right? It’s like, I either fix that problem, or at some point the boat capsizes or the rudder snaps off or something crazy happens, and I sink and that’s it…. you just have to do it. You have to figure it out. And it’s so pure.”
“There’s no time to worry about useless things when you’re literally on the edge.”
When he reaches Hawaii, Widger pointed out that he’s most looking forward to taking a shower, doing laundry and enjoying a burger with a cold beer. But for now, he’s living his “modern-day American dream.”
“All of this was impossible to me, like every single thing I’ve done, in my mind, was completely impossible and unattainable. And somehow, I did it. So you don’t need to be the smartest guy in the world, and you don’t need to know everything or have everything figured out because it’s possible… to chase your dream. It is truly possible. And even if you don’t think it’s possible, it’s possible.”
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