A Hearty Hello

[CurtisM]

My name is Curtis and I'm married to a beautiful woman named Kimberly (52 and 47 respectively). We're (I mostly) looking to buy a sailboat in the next year. We both have some disabilities (nothing horrible) and bring in a little over $4k a month between the two of us after our house and other payments. I talk about sailing and such and she listens and supports the idea (she's getting excited too).

I used to live in San Diego from 85 to 90 and would sail with my neighbor once a month at least. I fell in love with the O'Day 37 back then and still like mid cockpits. Since then, I've sailed a couple times on smaller 22's. In fact, we just sailed the other day on a Capri 22 in San Diego harbor, which was her first time, and she really enjoyed it and started asking more questions about living a board long term.

After our sailing day, we went aboard a Hunter 38. She now sees why I'm looking at something about 45 feet like a Hunter Legend or a few others I've run across. She felt claustrophobic on the 38. We're looking at spending around $50k more or less (finding quite a few at that price range). I'm looking at desalination, solar and wind power generation also.

We're planning on living in and sailing the Caribbean for a couple years and then decide if we want to do the Pacific or Mediterranean later.

The things we're wondering (mainly to comfort her) are these, which I'll look around for on this site.
-prescriptions/medications. Easy to get or PITA?
-income. Are we going to be comfortable money wise?
-group sailing. Do people get together in groups of sailboats for open ocean crossings? Seems like it'd be safer with more boats.
-safety equipment. When is it too much or too little?
-good to learn old school navigation in case electronics dump?
-redundancy. Good to carry engine parts and other gear the boat needs?
-food storage. Large cold storage ability. Seems the tiny refrigerators wouldn't be large enough (I'm vegetarian and don't even eat fish) so carrying food is important.

I'll be looking reading around and asking around as time passes.

Curtis

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
I thought I responded to your post already but maybe not.

[CurtisM]

Thanks John!

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[JPA Cate]

Hi Curtis,

Welcome aboard.

"-group sailing. Do people get together in groups of sailboats for open ocean crossings? Seems like it'd be safer with more boats."

Ask yourself why you think that? Are you already planning on bailing out even before you've bought the boat? Or imagining yourself rescuing others?

Let me explain my point of view. One time, Jim and I were asked to go to the aid of a brigantine. Questions we considered: where to put the people? How to safely get close enough to rescue them? Fortunately, they got their leak under control, the weather got less fierce, and they reached shelter before we reached them, but, in the meantime, had piled on sail, and broken our windvane in our efforts to reach them. We had an autopilot, but used the windvane at sea on that boat.

Now about these here now group cruises.... IMO, it is mainly an illusion of safety that they offer, because when conditions are difficult, each must take care of their own boat, primarily. It is a seductive illusion, but to test yourselves on it, if the weather isn't good, don't bloody go, unless YOU, not some rallye organizer, thinks it's okay, and so on. What the rallyes do is to some extent encourage folks who are not really ready yet to go to sea. Or they purport to make "it" easier for you.

Part of the fun of cruising is in dealing with the foreign countries and their ideas of what's right (often different to USA). If you join a "flock", you're one of the sheep, and I think it's a poor deal for any skipper to cast off his autonomy.

It can be a seductive lure, but I do not for one moment believe it makes you safer.

Ann, cruising too many years to brag on, but only in kindly places

[skipmac]

Hi Curtis and welcome to the forum.

Originally Posted by CurtisM

-prescriptions/medications. Easy to get or PITA?

Depends on the prescription and where you're traveling. Have not had to deal with this long term myself but there are several previous threads on this forum on this exact issue. Try to search function.

-income. Are we going to be comfortable money wise?

If you're asking if $4K/month is enough then yes it certainly can be. Monthly living costs will depend greatly on your style. Stay in fancy marinas in expensive cities then you will run out of cash fast. Here's another previous thread to look at, "Cruising on $500 per month"

-group sailing. Do people get together in groups of sailboats for open ocean crossings? Seems like it'd be safer with more boats.

I'm with Ann on this. Not a big fan of group sailing in general.

-safety equipment. When is it too much or too little?

None is too little. You would have to go pretty nuts to have too much but choose wisely what you spend your money on.


-good to learn old school navigation in case electronics dump?

Absolutely without a doubt. At the very least you need to be able to get from here to there with a chart and a compass.

-redundancy. Good to carry engine parts and other gear the boat needs?

Absolutely yes again. What parts and how many depends on how far from civilization you plan to go. Basics like belts and pump impellors if not far. Add to that as you go further afield.

-food storage. Large cold storage ability. Seems the tiny refrigerators wouldn't be large enough (I'm vegetarian and don't even eat fish) so carrying food is important.

Also a veg. You shouldn't get too carried away with a giant fridge. Lots and lots of options for food that stores well without refrigeration. Also lots of options to restock in most places.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Curtis.

[CurtisM]

Thanks for the welcomes and such. This is a very informative place for sure.

On the group sailing, I'm looking at it from experience. I've been into rock crawling for years, which takes you out into the middle of no where (probably not as middle of no where a boat can take you though). It's something that is part of our mantra. Never go wheeling alone. Because if and when something goes wrong, having others there can actually save your life. It seems (of course I've not done it) that if you're going to sail from San Francisco that it would be safer if others were part of a group. Then once you get there, go your own way and only join up if you want to go back or on at the same time they do. If not, hook up with another group for the crossing.

Our plans right now are to purchase a boat where ever we can but hopefully in San Francisco since it's our closest point to our home. Sail the boat around this area (up to a year) until we learn what quirks the boat has We'd then sail hoping down the coast and into the Carribean. We figure this type of trip could take years because we have places we'd want to revisit and am more than sure we'd find magnificent spots where we'll want to spend time.

Anyway, search helps find a lot of things around and I've found more I can digest in a few days. I look forward to getting into this part of life :-)

Curtis

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