One year ago, Oliver Widger quit his management job in Portland, liquidated his 401(k), and began preparing for a journey across the Pacific Ocean with his trusty crewmate, a 7-year-old calico cat named Phoenix.

In one week, they plan to set sail from the Warrenton Marina and chart a course to Oahu, Hawaii.

The itch for adventure began around four years ago, when Widger was diagnosed with Klippel-Feil syndrome, a rare skeletal disorder characterized by the abnormal fusion of one or two spinal vertebrae. He said he runs the risk of becoming paralyzed from the neck down.

“That diagnosis just kind of made me realize my mortality, and that I don’t have the luxury of, you know, saving for retirement, getting to retirement, and doing the things then that I’m going to be doing now,” said Widger. “It shook me up pretty bad, because I was super young too.

“At 24, I thought I was made of, like, steel, you know what I mean? And then, all of a sudden, you realize that you’re not. And then I just spent the next three years just completely spiraling at work, and I just grew to completely despise the corporate machine and finally just got a boat.”

After Widger saw a YouTube video of a man sailing from California to Hawaii, he was hooked on the idea of setting sail himself. He joined TikTok, where his very first video was a documentation of his frustrations with corporate life and his desire to quit.

“I didn’t know how TikTok worked … I thought I was putting it in as a draft, and I accidentally posted it twice,” he said. “And apparently TikTok syncs with everybody in your contacts, so everybody, all of my bosses, the vice president with the company, saw it.”

Widger was informed that he wouldn’t be immediately terminated from his job, but that he’d have to attend a meeting and the higher-ups would decide what would happen from there.

“I was like, ‘I’ll make it easy for you,’ and just left, which was the best thing in the world to have happened, because who knows how much longer that would have dragged out?” he said.

“It was that impulsive decision, where I just, like, jumped over the edge, which is what gave me the engine to get to this point where I am right now.”

After buying a boat in Portland, Widger began refitting the vessel so it could withstand the rigors of offshore sailing. He moved it to the Warrenton Marina, citing more affordable moorage fees. It’s been an intense process; on average, he spends about 10 hours a day, seven days a week working on the boat.

“The past five months, I’ve been in total isolation,” he said. “I haven’t seen anybody, talked to anybody. I haven’t done anything but work on this boat.”

But Phoenix has kept him company through it all.

Widger found her as a kitten in a dumpster seven years ago, though he said it’s more like “she found me in a dumpster.” He’d never considered having a cat before, but once he saw Phoenix, he knew he couldn’t leave her.

“It was the best decision I’ve ever made … it’s been nice having her around, because I have, like, full-blown conversations with her,” he said.

Though Phoenix has been instructed to stay in the boat’s cabin on their voyage, Widger knows most cats don’t take orders from anybody. Retaining a few feral tendencies, Phoenix is no exception, and she certainly wouldn’t take to a little cat-sized life vest. So he covered the sides of his deck with thick netting, just to be extra cautious.

“It’s just not worth the risk to let her go out there,” Widger said. “That’s why I put the netting up there, so if I get tired or I fall asleep up there and leave the cabin door open, the netting will catch her.”

Their journey across the Pacific Ocean will take anywhere from 20 to 30 days, and Widger’s followers — 40,000 on Instagram and over 20,000 on TikTok — will be able to watch their favorite duo via Widger’s Starlink connection as they sail.

When he began documenting his life on social media, Widger said a lot of people online — and in real life — thought he was crazy. But as his videos began to reveal the intense work and effort he put into his new boat, he said, they realized he wasn’t just messing around. Now, his followers are excited to see what comes next.

Widger expects to stay in Hawaii for six months to a year, and plans to start working there temporarily to pay off debts accrued by everyday expenses and sailing equipment. After that, he said, he and Phoenix want to follow the wind to French Polynesia, and a voyage to Australia is also on the horizon.

“I just love the freedom,” Widger said. “I mean, I’m completely off even right now, not plugged into any shore power. All of this is coming from solar, and I could just leave right now if I wanted to … My only boss is mother nature, which is cool.”

When asked if he had any advice for those looking to follow his lead in setting out on a new adventure, Widger said not to think too far ahead.

“Otherwise you start thinking about all these issues, and you don’t think about solutions; you just think about these issues and you get overwhelmed and it just kind of crushes you,” he said. “Whereas, everything I’ve done, I’ve just fired from the hip, and I tackle it as it comes. That’s the mindset I’ve used, and it’s gotten me this far.”

Widger plans to set sail May 1 on his vessel, dubbed Phoenix in honor of his favorite crewmate.