Hi John,
You asked for anyone in a similar situation to yourself to respond. Here it is.
Well I had been a reader of Cruising
Skipper (now defunct I believe) and other cruising magazines for many years. I had read so many stories of people selling up,
buying a yacht and going cruising. It was also my dream to eventually sell up and
head out on the ocean. I had long loved surfing, snorkelling,
fishing and everything to do with the ocean, and my dream was to
live aboard and travel. I had owned
power boats, but had never even been on a sailing yacht.
In 2001 my father passed away, he was in his 80's so I considered longevity was inherant in my genes, then 2 months later my older brother, then aged 54 dropped dead from a blood clot. This quickly made me take stock and decide if ever I was to be a
live aboard cruising sailor, I needed to get out and learn to sail. I bought my first sailing yacht, a
Catalina 250. She was the perfect yacht for me to learn. Over the next 4 or 5 years I learnt to become a reasonable bay sailor, but having never raced I still felt I have missed out on a lot of experience. I should mention that my wife never shared my enthusiasm for sailing, especially after a couple of bad storms, and eventually, not having the same dreams caused a divide between us and we separated and divorced. A few years later my
employment ceased due to the effects of a drought in Melbourne,
Australia where I lived. I was 57 and with no foreseeable opportunities for work, as the industry I was employed in certainly wasnt hiring. I
sold my house, as I still had a mortgage which I now couldnt afford, and set myself to move to
Asia where the cost of living is much cheaper and also to eventually search for a suitable yacht.
I travelled most of the time through
China (also worked teaching English), spent a lot of time in HK and the
Philippines, While I was in HK I met a British lawyer who had been living in HK for the past 12 years. He had a Tayana 55' which he invited me to sail with him and his
family from Boracay in the
Philippines to
Singapore. From June to September 2008 I had the most amazing experience sailing Palawan, Philippines, Borneo, Sabah and Sarawak,
Malaysia before finally arriving in
Singapore.
My search for my own yacht continued after that. I came to Phuket and Pattaya in
Thailand and also to Langkawi,
Malaysia in my search. Finally I found the yacht I am now
living aboard in Langkawi. She is a small
Beneteau Oceanis Clipper 331. I spent time antifouling and doing minor
repairs before sailing off to Phuket in
Thailand. I spent 3 months there before returning to Langkawi which is where I am now. I will stay here until the sailing season begins again, when I will then head north again and explore Phang Gna Bay before rounding Phuket again to visit the Similan Islands.
I would love to have a house to go back to, but at least I know I have lived my dream. It was never my intention to sail alone, and sailing solo does bring about some difficulties that would be much easier if I had someone else on board. I am still more than 3 years short of receiving a pension, and at the moment my
money isnt going to last that long, so I will be needing to sell up my yacht before things get too desperate. But I am ok with that as I know if I died tomorrow, or had a stroke or something that disabled me, I did live my dream.
My father spent the last 2 years of his life lying prostrate in a hospital
bed unable to move. I swore that if something similar ever happened to me, I would hate to be lying there with those regrets.
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