Greetings all,
I wanted to take a mnute and say hello as I am in the extremely early stages of planning (dreaming) for my
retirement.
Last week it was 14 years and counting. But after this crazy week it's down to 9 years, or 3 bad days in a row, whichever comes first (LOL)
Seriously, just got married last year to an awesome gal who has the same likes, dislikes and long term goals as I do. This includes the itch to get out of
California and
head somewhere farther north when the
kids are finally out of
school and we decide it's safe to retire. We had both been talking for some time while we were dating about settling up north, but it wasn't until our honeymoon
cruise to
Alaska that we figured out how far north was far enough. Seven straight days of rain or
fog and we loved every minute of it! You might even say we thrived on it.
Perhaps it's the the fact we have both spent our entire lives in sunny southern CA where rain seems to be as rare as a driver who know how to use their turn signal. Or perhaps it's that we have come to judge the changing seasons by what color the plants are on the side of the freeway... Green? - it must be December/January. Brown? - it must be one of the other 10 months.
However, up until a few months ago it was all talk of building a home somewhere along the
water up around OR/WA and enjoying life at a much slower pace. And then I made one of those off the cuff, almost joking comments about how we could cash it all in and buy a
boat and spend the rest of our days exploring the waterways of the
PNW. Without even flinching she said that sounded like a whole lot more fun.
So... here I am, reading and
learning what it might take to seriously do 6-8 months on the
water with perhaps the
winter spent holed up in a small apartment. Obviously I have a long road ahead of me, not to mention a huge
learning curve.
I've laready figured out that I'm a
trawler guy at heart, and the likes of Nordhavn, Selene or Krogen seem like they would fit the bill nicely. Although, the more reasearch I do the more I'm finding myself drawn to the new expedition
power cats like the folks at Pacific Expedition are building.
I have no idea where the next 9 years will take me, nor could I even begin to venture a guess at how things will evolve during the remaining time that I'm tied to land. Laws will surely change. Gas, marina
fees and just inflation in general might very well
price everyone off the water. Not to mention
boat designs will obviously continue their march forward leaving us with who knows what new bells and whistles at our disposal.
But hey, I've already got a great partner. I mean, you can't help but love a girl who not only changes her own brakes and knows the difference between metric and SAE sockets, but takes one look at a picture and says "I could handle
anchoring there for a day or two"
Brett