I am looking for a bit of preparation
advice from the group.
About us: We are a military
family that is currently in Okinawa,
Japan and readying to retire in 2019. There are three of us, including our son (6 yo), who we will eventually home
school. We are going to move back to
Florida (my original residence) …still considering several locations, but probably in St. Augustine. We have been reducing our footprint over the last three years and only have 4k lbs of “stuff” that we brought to
Japan. We are hoping to sell most remaining items here prior to our move.
We haven’t lived on a
boat before and we haven’t even bought one yet. I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to find “the one” at the exact moment we need it, so we’re probably going to rent an apartment for six months while we search. I’ll be searching up/down the eastern seaboard once we move back.
Questions: My questions for those that were in a similar situation are:
1) How did you prepare your
family two years out for the transition?
2) how long did it take for you to find your family
boat?
3) Did you find the boat near your original location?
4) did you use a boat dealer to help with the search?
5) What are the recommended “must haves” for my family?
We will have a
budget of $75k and would like a great condition vessel (40-44ft) that has a comfortable
cockpit w/ potential high resale value for sailing the
Caribbean. Not asking for boat recommendations yet (but I like the idea of a
Gulfstar 44) …probably too soon for that.