Hello from phx, AZ

[sa_sailor]

Hi everyone - i'm not really sure where it came from but suddenly i have the urge to sail. in fact i have never been sailing in my life. I found this site with the hopes of reading about others journeys down the west coast of the americas (i.e. washington/oregon/cali to colombia/peru/chile).

I have been planning on quitting my 9 to 5 and taking an extended trip through south america, starting around late august. the intention was to fly to bogota and head south from there but recently the idea of going by sea was brought up. I guess i am just wondering whether or not it is unreasonable to expect that i could go from zero knowledge and experience to this being a (safe and reasonable) reality in the next three months or so or if i should just stick to my original plan.

Anyway... just thought i should introduce myself and see what everyone thinks before i start bombarding you all with further questions.

Cheers -

Ryan

[ausaviator]

Try reading this:

bumfuzzle | living, sailing, procreating (can't give exact link right now as the site is temporarily down)

Click on Archives up the top and start right down the bottom of the page to 2004? The bit where it mentions Caribbean.

They started with a $157k catamaran and the rest is history. They are now in a $50k monohull.

Good luck.

[rgscpat]

Ryan, Welcome to the Desert Sea. You are not alone as a sailor in the desert.
...
This Tuesday, the Arizona Yacht Club will be having a meeting and program in Tempe. The AYC folks sail dinghies at Tempe Town Lake (roughly every other Sunday afternoon, less in summer) and bigger boats at Lake Pleasant. If you go to the meetings, you'll be welcome and once you start meeting people you'd have a good chance of getting plenty of rides as long as you stay within your abilities and listen to your skippers. The AYC has a mix of racers, cruisers, and people who just love the water. The restaurant at the Rolling Hills Golf Course is near the Phoenix Zoo/Papago Park and where Mill Ave. north of 202 curves around and turns into Van Buren. (Mill doesn't really have its own exit so look up your best way to get there on a map... probably you'll exit the 202 for Scottsdale/Rural or Center Parkway and go north a bit to Curry Road.)
...more...
<<...He was a hit last July; now he’s coming back for a return engagement: North Sails designer Garth Reynolds will be our speaker at the AYC June meeting. His assignment: Light Air Sailing. Not that we ever have any of that.
Join us at 7 pm, Tuesday, June 12, at the Caddy Shack @ Rolling Hills Golf Course, 1415 North Mill Avenue, Tempe. Guests are welcome to attend.>>
Also, around the 4th of July, AYC members will be doing a bit of racing and cruising out of Marina del Rey, including a cruise to Catalina Island.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Ryan.

[captainKJ]

You might want to consider a Tall sailing ship for the summer or winter. Several are free to work on. I spent 6 months sailing on 6 of them on the east coast.

google search will turn up several opportunities

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Phoenix is one of my favorite airports to be stuck in. Best USO ever!
kind regards,

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by sa_sailor

Hi everyone - i'm not really sure where it came from but suddenly i have the urge to sail. in fact i have never been sailing in my life. I found this site with the hopes of reading about others journeys down the west coast of the americas (i.e. washington/oregon/cali to colombia/peru/chile).

I have been planning on quitting my 9 to 5 and taking an extended trip through south america, starting around late august. the intention was to fly to bogota and head south from there but recently the idea of going by sea was brought up. I guess i am just wondering whether or not it is unreasonable to expect that i could go from zero knowledge and experience to this being a (safe and reasonable) reality in the next three months or so or if i should just stick to my original plan.

Anyway... just thought i should introduce myself and see what everyone thinks before i start bombarding you all with further questions.

Cheers -

Ryan

Probably your timeline is too short. 3mo would be a very compressed time to acquire and outfit a boat to begin with let alone learn to sail also.

As far as learning to sail, if you have played on boats for a considerable portion of your life and are just coming to sailing you might be fine if you could dedicate 3mo to learning to sail. You could move to the coast, buy a starter boat, and go sailing for 4 to 8 hr 5days a week.

There are people that have gone from zero to over the horizon in 3mo before, but there was a fair bit of luck involved in not becoming a statistic.

Good luck either whatever you do.