Never Been Sailing

[WannaBeWanderer]

Greetings,

I am a complete and utter virgin. I don't even know if I am prone to getting seasick.

I have had a calling to take to the sea for most of my life. A calling I have been trying to listen to, but life has a way of distracting you from the things you "want" to do. I am seeing far too much of my life go to waste through the automatic daily grind...

A little about myself:
I am married to a wonderful woman (19 yrs and counting), we have three children two girls and a boy ages 17, 14, and 8 respectively.

I am a U.S. Military Veteran of 15 years of service. (Marines, then Army, then National Guard) I worked/work on Military Helicopters for about 20 years. I have an FAA Airframe and Powerplant license.

My goals are to get into a catamaran and circumnavigate with my family. I would love to journal our experiences and turn them into a blog/book. My family of five is fairly adventurous, and they are coming around to the idea of seeing the world with their own eyes.

I am looking forward to learning as much as possible from all of the experienced folks here on the Forum.

Cheers,

William the would-be-wanderer

[Travelnik]

Welcome William!

I know what you mean about life distracting you from what you really want to do.

You need to take your life back and live your dreams, before the life is sucked out of you!

Get out and sail with someone, take some lessons...whatever...and see if the dream is real.

You'll find a lot of experienced people here that have gone through the same things, so fire away and learn all you can!

[Cheechako]

welcome! Go charter for a couple weeks....

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, William.

[Wavewacker]

Welcome! As an aviator type you have a keen eye toward safety issues, they will serve you well I'm sure. Train for the mission! Your dreams can be a reality.

[JerseyMermaid]

Welcome William!! My family shares your dream too! My husband is currently AD Coast Guard with 19 years in and another 11 to go before he retires fully. We too want to circumnavigate and despite being on ships his entire career and being a fabulous helmsman, he's never hoisted a sail and neither have I. We are developing our four year financial plan to buy the "big" boat but in the meantime I've convinced him to stepping stone our way there with a 22' sailboat that we can learn on and enjoy with our kids (my son is 10 and my daughter is 5).

I'm SO EXCITED to start on this leg of the journey finally. I've been listening to way too much Kenny Chesney singing about the good life down in the BVI and I'm a saltwater soul anyway. It's great to feel like I can jump off the dock in a small way to start.

Chase that dream down and make it your own, however you can!! There's also a thread about cruising on military pensions. Don't miss that one!

Fair winds and following seas,

~Danielle

[WannaBeWanderer]

Thank you all for your warm welcome.

I am hoping my aviation related skills will crossover to sailing.

I am planning on doing a weekend catamaran charter/education trip soon...any recommendations?

Thanks,

William

[jaxfishgyd]

I have meet 3 families who wanted to do the "round the world trip" with young kids.... All had bought a boat (all were sailboats) and 2 of them gave it up within 3 months as the kids (in their cases, all were under 10 yrs old).....
My feeling is.... GO FOR IT....... It's better to at least try and give it up than to never to of even tried...

[Dennis.G]

My recommendation:
Buy a couple of fun sailing dinghies, such as a pair of Lasers, and spend lots of days just learning to sail the things. These are great fun, will teach everyone in the family how to sail, and will go far in creating a passion for sailing with all the family.
Once everyone is a sailor, then get a boat where everyone will sail together as a crew.
Reasoning: Learning as a novice crew on a larger boat will be full of tensions and not nearly as fun as sailing on small dinghies. Top priority is to get everone in the family to enjoy sailing and build basic skills.

[Dennis.G]

Originally Posted by WannaBeWanderer

Thank you all for your warm welcome.

I am hoping my aviation related skills will crossover to sailing.

I learned to fly after knowing how to sail. It helped me a great deal, and many skills are similar. For example, knowing how a sail performs close to the wind made understanding stall prevention and recovery in an airplane very easy for me. And of course weather and navigation skills are very transferable.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Retired Navy here and I thank you for your service.
Good to have you here on the forum.
kind regards,