An Introduction

[waterdog]

OK. OK. I've been lurking around for a full day and I can't take the harassement anymore. There is some electronic prompter who keeps telling me to post. So I've been outed.

My real name is Steve, not waterdog. I've been sailing for 28 years ever since I went sailing with my girlfriend on her father's Snapdragon 26. So I married her, we bought the Snapdragon, had the kids, bought the house and upgraded to the Catalina 34.

Now my secret plan is to sell all the assets, buy something a little more offshore oriented and go cruising. Since we live in Vancouver that would suggest down the west coast to Mexico, but why pay way too much for a boat and run into fog and 3 gales before even making it to San Francisco? So I figure buy the boat in Mexico or the Caribbean spend our days rebedding deck fittings in a decent climate.

OK. Now just need to share the plan with the rest of the family and convince the dog Scupper that he needs to find a new home.

I'm sure I'll find lots of guidance here in this forum.

Cheers,

Steve

[Ex-Calif]

Everything sounds great except I'd take the dog and leave everyione else in Vancouver.

[waterdog]

Hmmm. The idea has merit.

The dog is a Portuguese Waterdog. He loves the boat and the sea and has webbed feet to swim with. Scupper will go anywhere with me in any weather and never complain. I've heard there are countries that won't welcome him though.

There is a downside to leaving the family at home. I won't be able to liquidate all the assets and sail a Fast Passage 39 or Mason 43 or whatever. Instead, I will have a budget of $200 a month to feed myself and maintain my 1970's vintage ferro cement ketch while I handstitch 30 year old sails.

Maybe it's possible to keep the family and the dog...

[Ex-Calif]

There are lot's of threads about cruising with pets. I'd do some research.

Women. Can't live with 'em and thy're too expensive to trade in - LOL

Seriously though it sounds like scupper would be happy to cruise - I hope everyone else is as well.

I wouldn't keep that plan "secret" too long - My plan is to retire on a ~40 cat and cruise Asia Pacific. The Admiral, however, continues to insist that she is a General and should keep the army ashore ;-(

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Steve and Scupper,
Welcome aboard!! Good to have you here and I really like your plan except the part about leaving Scupper behind. How about keeping the house and using the Catalina to cruise down the coast until you find that really wonderful off shore blue water cruiser and then trade up?
Oh well! Lots of options when you are dealing with secret plans. Hope your family doesn't snoop on your computer.
Kind Regards,
JohnL

[imagine2frolic]

WELCOME,

How about looking in the Southern Ca. area for your boat. Drive down with Scupper, and then getting him into the next country won't be such a hassle. You will have all summer to rebed everything, and then leave in Oct. with Latitude 38 in the Baja Haha?

[waterdog]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

Aloha Steve and Scupper,
Welcome aboard!! Good to have you here and I really like your plan except the part about leaving Scupper behind. How about keeping the house and using the Catalina to cruise down the coast until you find that really wonderful off shore blue water cruiser and then trade up?
Oh well! Lots of options when you are dealing with secret plans. Hope your family doesn't snoop on your computer.
Kind Regards,
JohnL

You know my Catalina came up from California a couple of years ago. I bought it last year and put about $15K into it. It's a beautiful boat. But to take it down to California, I need to put another $18,437 into it (not that I've really thought it through with any degree of precision). For whatever reason it's worth about $20k more here than in California. So unless I take it all the way, I don't think South is the right direction. And it's not the right boat to go all the way.

So there are a couple of major decisions to make. 1) of course there is the whole give up our shore based life sell all our belongings and go crusing decision. In my mind that's a fairly easy decision, but Tracey may want to consider this for a bit. Assuming a positive outcome, there are a number of other choices.

a) buy boat in NW and refit for a year or two - this is an expensive option boats here are big bucks compared to California, Florida, Caribbean or Mexico and selection is limited. The first passage is not necessarily a great family introduction to cruising.

b) buy a boat in BVI or Mexico or someplace and alternate refit work with afternoon snorkel trips. (I don't actually believe in the big bang make everything perfect and then you are ready to go sailing. I believe in make everything seaworthy and perfection is something to be pursued forever.) I like working on boats. Drawback of this approach is how do you get all your gear to the destination, what is availability of parts and gear in Tortola or PV? I have no idea. This is my preferred approach.

c) if b) above has too many drawbacks, then buying a boat in California and refitting there and doing the Baja Haha or Florida followed by the Bahamas would be a great way to go.

Then of course there is the boat choice. The list of eligible bluewater boats is growing. We would be looking for something around 40ft. There are many choices that I could be happy with. I see some in the 80k range that might be lovely older boats that need a lot of work and some around the 130K mark that look modern and reasonably complete. With a total budget around 150K we ought to have something very seaworthy and comfortable, but not luxurious. I prefer to do all my own work - engine, electrics, cabinetry, canvas, whatever - so I'm hoping its all reasonable.

There was a small hickup ten years ago. I took Tracey to see Perfect Storm and she said she would never go offshore with me. I think she's past that now, but if not, we might want to just kick around the Caribbean or Mexico and not do long passages in which case a young Beneteau out of a charter fleet might be a good choice over a Crealock 37 or something salty.

I'll just be happy sailing full time and will be happy to let the rest of the family help steer choices around where we go and what boat we go in.

[waterdog]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

Aloha Steve and Scupper,
Welcome aboard!! Good to have you here and I really like your plan except the part about leaving Scupper behind. ...Kind Regards,
JohnL

In truth, leaving Scupper behind is not an option. He is one of these unbearably cute lovelable dogs. If I framed the choice as "It's him or me" I am pretty sure I would be on my own. So maybe we never go to NZ or those places where they want to quarantine your pet for six months. I'm sure we can work around it.