Ahoy from an East Coaster in Kansas

[mjfbinks]

Yes, I said Kansas. It's a wonderful place to visit and the people of Kansas are terrific. I'm originally from the Jersey coast, as in New Jersey; that's where I got the bulk of my boating experience. I also spent a few years in Florida; both East and West coast, as a matter of fact, I spent a year a formal study in Stuart, Florida preparing for my Master's Ticket which I took and received when I got back to New Jersey. After growing up nearly being born at sea, or so I'm told, I spent my childhood Summer's on my Dad's boat. After growing up the "bug" had long since bitten me and there was no turning back from "the life" Long story much shorter, I spent about a dozen years cleaning up offshore oil spills which was brutal; think about it, heating oil moves in the dead of Winter when people need it, well where was I in the dead of Winter? You guessed it, freezing nearly to death cleaning up a spill. Thew point I'm trying to make is that when I saved enough money and the time was right, I bought my own boat. Incidentally, not sure if I mentioned it but all those years on boats were spent on power boats so when it was time for me to own my own boat what do you think I bought? A sailboat of course and I loved every minute of it. Very much looking forward to talking with all of you, especially offshore cruisers especially because I will be returning to the life and it will take a lot of planning. You should also know, I'll be 60 this August, I left Jersey nearly ten years ago for a love interest that unfortunately didn't pan out in the long run. Anyway, I'm planning to come back; it's going to take a couple years because I need to get my debts paid down and when I do get back, I'm bringing a new "old" boat with me (minimum of 28' - 30' and maximum 40' and under that can be single handed, yes, funds are a factor) and I plan on cruising, at least a transatlantic if not circumnavigating. Lots of details to fill in but I refuse to let the one most important dream of my life go unfulfilled. Please help me make my dream a reality. Any help and or advice is greatly appreciated.

[Diesel Bill]

Greetings mjfbinks, Welcome to the forum.

[neverstop]

I'm originally from Kansas I spent quite a bit of time sailing on Melvern Lake and a few other lakes there. Good wind and plenty of days of it.

[Don C L]

Welcome aboard! Give us a few more hints about your boat preferences, home base and destinations and you are sure to get a lot of good info here. You'll be looking in the 30 to 40' range? That's a lot of options. What price range? and don't forget to figure the cash flow needed too. Good luck!