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Cristina · 12-06-2012, 14:25

Hi there, we are (one more and happy) couple that just started our sailing world journey. Pieter lives aboard a 40' fountaine pajot catamaran for about three years and I joined him last january.
I'm brazilian and Pieter is from Holland.
If you wanna listen some nautical/land tips about cruising on coast of Brazil and about liveaboard lifestyle, Pieter just gave a interesting and useful interview for The Sailing Podcast.
Here is the link where you find the audio...
Ocean of Dreams: interview

Fair winds,
Cristina.

surfzombo13 · 12-06-2012, 15:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by S/V Blondie-Dog

And after enthusiastically reading every book on sailing in the local library, including "The Henry David Thoreau Approach to Sailing".....

I just took that as a recommendation and bought the book on Amazon. THANKS!!!!

HueyHuey · 14-06-2012, 02:43

Well I guess I have been around boats most of my life since one day getting home from school and finding dad had bought a brand new shiny runabout, excitedly we went to the local ramp that saturday to launch it, in it went and down she went, dad knew nothing about boats and the salesman hadnt mentioned anything about the bung plug.
Since then I have owned a multitude of powerboats. More recently(8 years ago) I wanted to get back on the water after being boatless for 3 years. I thought about a house boat but it had limited range and I wanted to travel up the coast of Australia to the Great Barrier Reef. That year an opportunity arose when several of my kitesurfing friends deciding to charter a yacht at the Whitsundays, so off we went, what a blast. Amongst our group was a good friend who had built his own Catamaran and was living aboard while he was finishing it ( its till not finished but he doesnt care he's off living the cruising dream) and a guy by the name of Brett Crowther, some may know him and his late father as boat designers. Well obviously each night the conversation would turn to boats particularly catamarans.
The first thing I did when we reached shore was buy a copy of multihull world, then cruising helmsman and the search began......
I found a 40 ft catamaran designed by Derek Kelsall that had been on the hard for some time bought it, installed 2 new 9.9 Yamahas repainted the hulls,etc...
Launched it and sailed it back down the coast to my home just north of Sydney with the help of a delivery skipper ( I had never sailed such a big boat on my own before). Over the next 8 years I renovated the boat rewiring and replacing just about everything, getting it ready to head north again. Meanwhile we still used it regularly.
At the time I owned a take away shop (fast food), and when ever I spoke to customers about my dreams of sailing off to the islands my wife would add afterwards that I will be doing it on my own! That was a major disappointment as I wanted to do this as a family with my kids, but how can I do that if she wont be coming?
Well things turned out ok, well kind of, when during an argument I asked where did she see us in 5 & 10 years time, guess what I wasnt part of it! And she asked me to leave( it had been pretty rocky for a long while). So I left with a couple of garbage bags full of clothes on my way out to my boat I stopped at the shop( which was on the beach next to my boat). When I told the staff what had happened one of them picked up a short post and stuck it into the knot and placed it on my shoulder and said now you look like a real hobo! That wasnt really the sympathy I was looking for. But I got the last laugh! That girl is now my wife of 6 years and with a 3 year old gorgeous daughter we are living our dream of cruising the islands. We sold the shop after some health problems and moved onto the boat and set off, my wife didnt even know the first thing about sailing, that was
9 months ago.
So 3 weeks ago I heard a Perry 43 was going to be auctioned so I checked it out best I could with only a few days to the auction, and spoke to people who had seen the boat, registered for phone bidding and thats it, I had the highest bid, so off to the owner for some convincing and 3 long hours later they rang and congratulated me, I owned the boat sight unseen.
So here I am mid way through cruising and I now own 2 catamarans.....so we hired a car and drove down to the Gold coast and picked it up, loaded our provisions for a weeks sailing and tried to leave, but its abit hard when one of the motors wont start....several hours later I traced it to faulty relay. Next day installed 2 new relays and off we went, a few problems of course but I got a boat that I could never have dreamed about. So here I am anchored next to my old boat swapping all the good bits over then sell the othe one and continue this cruise.......such is our confidence now that this is the lifestyle that we want, just need to sell the other one, I love boats but dont want a fleet!
I am now 47 and hope to still be doing this when I am 77. 360 degree water views and can change the view anytime I want, what could be better?

S/V Blondie-Dog · 18-06-2012, 02:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by surfzombo13

I just took that as a recommendation and bought the book on Amazon. THANKS!!!!

Enjoy the read and good luck to ya!

IolantheSF · 25-06-2012, 15:59

My husband was working in the SF Bay Area and our home was in the Central Valley. It was cheaper to buy a boat (his lifelong dream) than to rent an apt. I followed about 6 mos later. 10 years later, we have FINALLY upgraded from the original 32 ft woody to a 43 ft Fiberglass boat. The living space is HUGE compared with our little bitty Atkins Thistle.

River Cruiser · 28-06-2012, 09:14

I just stopped going home after the weekend when I retired.

Freedom45 · 28-06-2012, 09:36

I had a boat and a wife.
We decided to go our separate ways, she kept the condo, I kept the boat, some land AND my pension

The land was sold for a tasty profit

, bought the boat I have now, have been liveaboard for 5 years and loving it.
I am now retired at 53, plan to take off next spring for South Pacific.....livin' the life of Riley

pennelopesmom · 28-06-2012, 10:10

We are really really just starting as a liveaboard by making plans and goals to get there in the next couple of years. What pushed us in that direction is the realization that we don't want the 'normal' life. My husband has worked in the same job for 8 years with no benefits or vacation. We live paycheck to paycheck and briefly saw ourselves as 'successful' when we purchased our first home 2 years ago. Our income abruptly changed last year and our house is now in foreclosure. We realized that what we are doing is not the way we want to live. We want to travel, we want to live simply, we want to spend quality time with our children, and we want to have a little adventure! So we just found our starter boat that we will be practicing and learning on and we are SOO excited to make this first step towards our goal!!

ArtM · 28-06-2012, 10:21

I took a job in new orleans, and purchased a 34' hunter by selecting a boat and broker online, and made the offer before I arrived. I hired an inspection ("survey") on the boat, and when I arrived I did a brief walkthrough and was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the boat, and it's quiet inexpensive location on the North Shore of Lake Ponchartrain.

I envisioned myself spending quiet evenings refinishing the teak rails, touching up the non-skid paid, and fixing up the electrical system, some of which was put together with little more than duct tape and plastic zip-ties!

So I drove across the causeway every morning, and though my boat scarcely moved in the short time I owned it, I made interesting new discoveries every day. Basically, I have a funny story to tell at parties for virtually every day I was aboard that boat.

Sadly, I was only aboard it a few weeks before one beautiful Friday morning when I got on a plane to visit my kids, looking forward to coming back the next Monday and feeling fortunate to miss out on the minor tropical storm that was making it up the Gulf.

When I got off the plane, people were standing at the gate anxiously asking about the "Hurricane". I was like "What hurricane? Katrina? Are you kidding? That storm is nothing."

When I got to the house, that small storm had covered the entire Gulf of Mexico, and I never saw that boat again! It was fortunately undamaged, and I sold it a year later at a small loss, but it was nothing compared to the extreme devastation that millions of families along the Gulf Coast experienced!

Lagoon4us · 30-08-2012, 22:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cristina

Hi there, we are (one more and happy) couple that just started our sailing world journey. Pieter lives aboard a 40' fountaine pajot catamaran for about three years and I joined him last january.
I'm brazilian and Pieter is from Holland.
If you wanna listen some nautical/land tips about cruising on coast of Brazil and about liveaboard lifestyle, Pieter just gave a interesting and useful interview for The Sailing Podcast.
Here is the link where you find the audio...
Ocean of Dreams: interview

Fair winds,
Cristina.

Great blog, a lovely life :-)

impi · 30-08-2012, 22:54

I had no choice ... either I was going to take Ana sailing, or she was going to leave me for another skipper

impi · 30-08-2012, 23:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cristina

Hi there, we are (one more and happy) couple that just started our sailing world journey. Pieter lives aboard a 40' fountaine pajot catamaran for about three years and I joined him last january.
I'm brazilian and Pieter is from Holland.
If you wanna listen some nautical/land tips about cruising on coast of Brazil and about liveaboard lifestyle, Pieter just gave a interesting and useful interview for The Sailing Podcast.
Here is the link where you find the audio...
Ocean of Dreams: interview

Fair winds,
Cristina.

Yes, a very nice blog and nice photo's!

I would love to get some tips about sailing Brazil ... we did part of it and particularly the NORTH COAST ... I still can't get Ilha dos Lençóis out of my mind ... very special place to have sailed to!

I want to do Ilha de Grande but was advised by friends not to do it as a first leg of our world cruise as getting up to the north from the south is VERY UNCOMFORTABLE! In the end I agreed with Ana that although it is one of my dreams we will do it on our next circumnavigation ... probably 2015.

Lagoon4us · 30-08-2012, 23:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by impi

I had no choice ... either I was going to take Ana sailing, or she was going to leave me for another skipper

Somehow i think you aren't joking, good on you Ana

TamariskRTW · 31-08-2012, 23:46

My brother and I (34 and 35 years old) decided we were bored of our working lives in california, so we quit our jobs, combined our savings, and bought a boat to go sailing around the world. We never saw the boat before we bought it and it was in the opposite side of the world from where we lived (turkey). We had only a little experience sailing so we just went for it and so far we have no regrets and are loving every minute. There are too many boring people out there living dull lives, so we thought best to just go for it and worry about other things later, and that was the best decision we ever made.