I should have done this years ago!

[eos2voyage]

Hello Everyone - all you lucky people out there,

I am new here and new to cruising. I started last April on other peoples boats and have travelled from Australia to NZ to PNG and onto Indonesia. Now back home (Blue Mountains, NSW Australia) and am desperately trying to sell the house to buy a liveaboard and take off myself.

That is how much I loved the cruising lifestyle. I have been sailing all my life. My dad owned a 40ft timber sloop and i started out on dinghies in the UK where i grew up before moving to OZ. Much better , warmer place for sailing and no where near so crowded as in the UK.

One thing that has really surprised me. I cannot find anyone willing to teach me celestial navigation!! Where have all the old skills gone. Everyone I ask is too scared to attempt it anymore and they simply say WHY? Well I want to learn and not in a school but from a real sea salt who knows his stuff. So if there is anyone out there willing to share their knowledge please don't hesitate to contact me. And, Yes I did do a celestial course but i want a hands on experience.

So here I am about to embark on a massive change in my life from my beloved mountains to the sea to live aboard and cruise to places unknown in no hurry and with no time committments. Looks like I will be doing this solo at first. Hopefully I might meet a sea tuned Damsel along the way. I had talked about sailing around the Pacific with my German ex wife before. She even bought me a book on how to do it and where to go but sadly we split up some years ago now and so my dream got shelved until now.
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I have a 4 year old daughter who sadly lives in Germany with her mum. When I went cruising last year I wrote her childrens stories about sailing and the sea which I sent from every port to her. Now she knows what a sailing boat is and what lives under and on the oceans. She wants to go sailing with me already and I am sure as she gets old enough this will happen and my daughter will be my crew. I just had a holiday with her and she can paddle her own seakayak already and ride a horse on her own and has already been rock climbing with me and she is only 4 yrs old. Tough little girl.

I will tell you one last story about her. She was the child I did not know I had. I found out about her when she was already born and 8 months old. I had just returned from my celestial navigation class in Sydney where we had been learning some of the 21 stars of first magnitude and especially Antares. Well would you believe it that night I got that fate full call telling me I had a daughter and that she had been named Antara after the guiding star, Antares. Wow! This blew me away.

I am a very proud dad ( despite being over 50 ) I am just so happy that I have her. Somehow I knowthat she has been born to be part of the sea. She has all my traits: explorer, climber, is healthy (lives with no TV or junk food so far) and can swim and kayak and so much more.

What boat am I getting. well looks like it may be a Spray design or an Offshore 44 or an Adams 40, Salar 40 or an Endurance 37. They are all on my short list and there are just so many boats to choose from in the 40ft bracket that I am bamboozled by it all. Any suggestions folks. Like do I really need steel or is good seamanship better rather than complacency? Deep stable keel or shoal draft? ketch or cutter? big diesel guzzling engine or just enough to get her home type? Is 45ft too big for one man or is 40ft too big? I want to have room for crew to join me and be comfortable.

Looks like my first trip will be to Japan then the Phillipines. Anyone sailed the Japan Sea? My Aussie friend there tells me it looks like a great coastline to cruise just a little cold in the water that's all.

No doubt I will get to meet some of you along the way. By the way i am a qualified mountaineering instructor so if any of you need brushing up on your mast climbing skills drop me a line. Also I do sketching so would be happy to sketch your boat or your favourite pet or child etc.

Take care, Fair winds and calm seas to you all.
Colin