Help talk me off the cliff!

[Tacky]

While I still work I got rid of everything 2 years ago and bought a boat and have never been happier. As you say being homeless is an amazing feeling. Freedom to pursue a more meaning life long term.

Fair winds!

[robert sailor]

It's a two edged sword. Cruising is not for everyone. In our travels over many years I have seen more failures than successes actually but how will you know if you don't give it a try. The beauty of life is that there are no guarantees so you just give things a go and see how it turns out. The success rate is much higher in the one foot in one foot out type of cruising where you only cruise 6 months of the year and return to being a dirt dweller for the other 6 months. So being a part timer is a good option and one that the bulk of cruisers choose. Full time cruising is a completely different kettle of fish and takes a much deeper commitment and has a much higher failure rate but those that make it work seem to love it at a deeper level than the part timers. Some thing to give some thought to. Good luck.

[FollowingCs]

I'm on the cliff with you. We list our house this week (well, probably really Monday next week, no way we will be ready on Friday like planned).

We can't wait to get free of the house. Lots of good memories, but we are travelers at heart, and we've been stuck for too long with spot vacations. We just remodeled our master bath at the cost of 2.5 family vacations (i.e. 5 people flying to the Caribbean and staying for 10 days). No way we'd spend that money if we weren't selling.

Our plan is to buy a friend's catamaran, and live-aboard while we work toward retirement, and gain more sailing experience on the week-ends. Hopefully cast off the lines soon enough. But if that doesn't work out for some reason, we look forward to being able to travel more regardless.

~ Following Cs ~

[a64pilot]

I'm getting very nervous. I have bought the boat, sold the house and lots of stuff.
Wife is obligated to next year teaching, my job will end next year, and then we go.
I'd go now except I have to get the youngest in school
Worries the heck out of me that one or both of us won't like it, and then what?
I have by all accounts enough money set aside that it with my Retirement ought to be enough, but what if for some reason to be happy, takes us way more money than others?
Money I have planned on to cruise is roughly half of what I make now, but a tremendous amount of expenses ought to go away when we cruise.

A lot of unknowns, I was nervous Retiring from the Army, but glad I did, I hope this next life change works out the same way.

A HUGE concern is boredom, what are we going to do with ourselves once Retired?
I'm really hoping Cruising will keep us busy.

[Saleen411]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I'm getting very nervous. I have bought the boat, sold the house and lots of stuff.
Wife is obligated to next year teaching, my job will end next year, and then we go.
I'd go now except I have to get the youngest in school
Worries the heck out of me that one or both of us won't like it, and then what?
I have by all accounts enough money set aside that it with my Retirement ought to be enough, but what if for some reason to be happy, takes us way more money than others?
Money I have planned on to cruise is roughly half of what I make now, but a tremendous amount of expenses ought to go away when we cruise.

A lot of unknowns, I was nervous Retiring from the Army, but glad I did, I hope this next life change works out the same way.

A HUGE concern is boredom, what are we going to do with ourselves once Retired?
I'm really hoping Cruising will keep us busy.

Cruising and Boredom...maybe a good title for another thread.

As a person that intends to cruise part time in the near future ( will continue chartering til then) I've also given the subject of boredom a great deal of thought. I'm guessing for many or even most, this is a non issue...I've no idea.

I travel A LOT and have many land based interests and activities. Personally, I would find full time cruising limiting. BTW, In no way am I being disparaging....I've been told by MANY full time cruisers that it is not for everyone.

In your case, hopefully cruising will be all that you expect it be in your retirement.

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I'm getting very nervous. I have bought the boat, sold the house and lots of stuff.
Wife is obligated to next year teaching, my job will end next year, and then we go.
I'd go now except I have to get the youngest in school
Worries the heck out of me that one or both of us won't like it, and then what?
I have by all accounts enough money set aside that it with my Retirement ought to be enough, but what if for some reason to be happy, takes us way more money than others?
Money I have planned on to cruise is roughly half of what I make now, but a tremendous amount of expenses ought to go away when we cruise.

A lot of unknowns, I was nervous Retiring from the Army, but glad I did, I hope this next life change works out the same way.

A HUGE concern is boredom, what are we going to do with ourselves once Retired?
I'm really hoping Cruising will keep us busy.

Well I can help you on the boredom side. This is the 4th boat that we have outfitted and gone cruising on, it's not boring getting a boat ready to go.
I closed the book on offshore cruising 13 years ago and now back at it. Before we left we had just completed a large project that kept the two of us going with very few breaks. As the project was ending I started to have time on my hands but my wife was still putting in 12 hour days. When we decided to go cruising my wife told one of her friends that I had been getting bored but now I had 42 feet of problems and I was happy again.
Next step is how you choose to cruise and for us this is a big deal. I don't mean for any of my comments to be taken as a put down on other people's choices, only as what works or doesn't work for us.
I have run businesses pretty much my whole career and I get bored easily. If I chose to stay in one geographical area and just sail back and forth like folks in Mexico or the Caribbean I would get bored. I need to see new things and new cultures. So we do sail a lot more than others and our boat expenses reflect that as the more you sail the more things are breaking down. The more things break down the busier I am fixing them. Now a days I look forward to a few days of boredom, it's a good life and we have had some exciting times. My wife tells me we have visited 37 countries so far so. Your an ex pilot and sailing should be a natural as well as weather and navigation. I'd put money that if you and your wife are adventurers at heart you will have the time of your life.

[ol1970]

So I am really not worried on the financial side at all, the boat will be paid for and the cruising kitty is large enough to last 50 years or so as long as I don't develop a hooker or blow habit. I do agree with the suggestion of taking some breaks in between. I'm planning on flying back for a month or two at times to get some snowboarding or family visiting in. I'm also keeping my wakeboard boat here in Michigan for summer visits. If any of you haven't spent a few weeks on the water in northern Michigan it should be on your to-do list.

Boredom...that is an interesting one. I think that is part of the reason I'm at this point is that it would be far more boring to sleepwalk through life and a career where you just continue on doing the same old thing. I love my friends and family, but really you can only go to the same restaurants/bars/parks/lakes so many times. I plan on giving it 18 months to know if its for me or not...I know I'll sure the hell have some good stories to tell if nothing else!

[BothFeet]

Ol1970, I'm 51 and separated 5 months. A lot of my life is in turmoil. The one thing I know and have been dreaming for years and actually planning and looking for 2 years is this: I will live aboard. I will sell my 5000 sq ft house. I will live simple and deep.

I'm in the middle of negotiations on the purchase of a 2000 Leopard 45.

I'm doing this! Come on!! Jump in. The water is FINE...

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[JPA Cate]

ol1970,

After you and your good lady have been doing it for a while, you WILL know whether it has turned out to be a good fit for you both. We've seen a number of water soluble marriages, that is one risk, and it really depends on the two parties and their relationship whether separation is the best answer.

Boredom: We handle it by reading and playing internet: like writing here. Other people, whom I must say I admire, get involved in hobby-like projects: knitting rescue pouches for baby marsupials whose mothers have been killed by cars (road kill is common here); knitting toy bears for children in hospitals --"Care Bears"; knew a Canadian woman who also knitted, and sewed up a storm. Every new area they went, she bought local fabric and redecorated their saloon with them. People play board games together, and cards, and write and play music. We knew one guy to cut cane lengths of entwined tropical vines, sanded and varnished them, and gave them away, handsome works of art.

People support local activities, helping others fix outboards--A 64 pilot could certainly do those sorts of help-the-villagers' activities. Sometimes the schools in backwaters have need of yachties' many skills. Once you're over the initial stage of freedom bliss, your focus opens out more, beyond just your own simple pleasure, and you get more involved with strangers, unless you've allowed yourself to become part of a clique before you've gone very far from home. Those folks seem to hang together rather than being inclusive. At any rate, you change, you develop side interests--some yachties developed a little hydro scheme for village electricity in Vanuatu one year, for instance. Some areas abound in side travel opportunities.

Your chances to entertain yourselves and to help others are endless, once you start to look for them.

Ann

P.S. Why would you want to help strangers? Well, it developed for me, from receiving the hospitality of people who had far less material stuff than me. I'd invite the village women out to the boat for a cuppa, having already received a meal with them, and it was I who had electricity, running water, and a "water closet" in my "house". It was a huge lesson for me that people with so much less did not feel "poor", and in fact value generosity with goods above the goods themselves. Attitudes of other cultures, lots of different ideas out here about how to get along.

[a64pilot]

I want to travel, the Wife has already said she doesn't like overnight passages, which of course will mean she either gets so that they are OK or maybe she stays and flies while I do the passages with some crew. But I do worry about weeks at sea, 96 hours of so has been as long as we have been out so far.
I figure if I get to go to the South Pacific, that is how that will play out.
But when I first took her flying, I figured she would never make it, just a slow gentle standard rate turn would have her near panic, but not too many years later I found ourselves in the middle of a line of level 5 thunderstorms over water on the way to San Salvador Bahamas. I was worried, there is no level 6 and nothing flies in a Thunderstorm. When I looked over at her expecting to see her terrified, I noticed she was reading her Kindle. Talk about going from one extreme to the other

Anyway, I have become to hate my job, the Company owner is an egotistical idiot, that I am sure will lose the Company.
My wife is a Middle School teacher, and she is done with that too, but what has always worried me about Retirement is I have to always be doing something, and usually my hobbies aren't cheap, but I have to be busy.

Time will tell, but the closer to launch day, the more worried I become as when I quit, there is no going back to work.


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[daletournier]

A complete mind shift takes place or it doesn't. I come from a type A business background and needed to be distracted every minute of the day, had to feel productive! It's intetrsting this western mind set of needing to be productive, not all the world has it. Being able to sit and absorb time, enjoy time is something we seem to not have learnt. The only thing that is trully finite is our time ,yet we piss it away as if there is endless amounts. Excess time has given me room to think, and with that I've changed my views and values for the better I believe. Eg. Ann mentioned villages with less not feeling poor....my whole view of affluence has changed , in many ways us westerners are the poor ones. Robert the sailor is correct, cruising isnt for everyone, infact its for a small minority, if you are that minority its a life worth living. But a perspective shift must take place.
You won't know if its for you unless you try it and if it doesn't workout you change directions, its that simple. I find it quite common that it is the mans dream and the woman comes along, often this ends not so well, if that happens you deal with it, things have away of working out.
For me its much better than " the creeping death of sameness "I experience at home for some that sameness is the comfort they want. Don't let fear get in the way of trying a direction change, let go of the bank and see where you drift. Good luck.
Cheers Dale.


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[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I want to travel, the Wife has already said she doesn't like overnight passages, which of course will mean she either gets so that they are OK or maybe she stays and flies while I do the passages with some crew. But I do worry about weeks at sea, 96 hours of so has been as long as we have been out so far.
I figure if I get to go to the South Pacific, that is how that will play out.
But when I first took her flying, I figured she would never make it, just a slow gentle standard rate turn would have her near panic, but not too many years later I found ourselves in the middle of a line of level 5 thunderstorms over water on the way to San Salvador Bahamas. I was worried, there is no level 6 and nothing flies in a Thunderstorm. When I looked over at her expecting to see her terrified, I noticed she was reading her Kindle. Talk about going from one extreme to the other

Anyway, I have become to hate my job, the Company owner is an egotistical idiot, that I am sure will lose the Company.
My wife is a Middle School teacher, and she is done with that too, but what has always worried me about Retirement is I have to always be doing something, and usually my hobbies aren't cheap, but I have to be busy.

Time will tell, but the closer to launch day, the more worried I become as when I quit, there is no going back to work.


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Typical guy,over thinking and over analyzing stuff. There are all kinds of cruisers out here. I've mentioned part timers, there are cruisers that spend 10 years going back and forth in the wind wards and leewards, sort of like a metronome. They travel with cruising buddies that they have been traveling with for years. They will never cross oceans and that's OK with them because none really want to. It's a form of retirement that many sailors really enjoy. Same thing going on in the Med and Mexico. There are voyagers that are not satisfied going back to the same spots over and over, they are wanting to see what's on the other side of the horizons and are willing to cross oceans to check it out. There are those that seek out high latitude sailing and the challenge and solitude it brings. There are just so many different ways to cruise. You may start out thinking of sailing around the world and never getting more than a few hundred miles from your countries coast but so what if your having good times. Or like some you may plan on just spending some time in the Caribbean and end up circumnavigators. I can tell you that your partner has to be completely bought in to whatever plans you have or it probably won't work. The happiest married cruisers I know are a cohesive team and think, plan and work together like a fine tuned watch. When we first meet a couple we can almost tell how they are going to do. You have a good solid boat, great background with your flying and some dreams, sounds like a good start to me.

[solarbri]

I go with the planless plan.
Don't over think it.
Buy a boat, any boat, and get out there.
The plan will make itself.
If the boat needs to be sold and upgraded later because you want to sail further than you thought, do it!
If you want to go back to land or end up doing a 6 month on 6 month off program, it's all there available!
I bought my first boat, a one of a kind folding trailerable 36'x24' catamaran 5 years ago.
Spent damn near all my money on the boat. Didn't know how I'd afford to go sailing. Didn't have much skills...etc.
After only one summer of sailing the boat up on high alpine lakes (2 one week trips), I signed up for the 2011 Baja Haha.
I'm currently sitting on my beloved cat with about 6 weeks left of my fifth winter cruising up and down the coast of Mexico.
I sail everywhere and often. I've sailed over 3,000 miles each year. This year will probably be over 4,000 miles.
I'm only 44 now, and have been pre-tired for 5 years. I have no retirement account. I work construction in the summers.
Last fall I sold my house. I'm owner financing (which is good for me-I'm terrible with money) and getting monthly payments for the next thirty years! This is the first year on the water that I'm not going home totally broke with credit cards being racked up just to get back home. Now, the only thing keeping me going back to land is to see and hang with my kids.
I couldn't have dreamt up a more satisfying lifestyle.
I'm sure the $ struggle and my trust in the magic makes this way more fulfilling than someone with everything planned out and with the $$$ to deal with anything that happens.
Rock on!!!



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[hoppy]

Originally Posted by ol1970

So I am really not worried on the financial side at all, the boat will be paid for and the cruising kitty is large enough to last 50 years or so as long as I don't develop a hooker or blow habit.

What's the point of living another 50 years if you can't enjoy yourself?

Packing up and leaving for a life adventure is much easier than packing up from the adventure to return home. On the adventure you know that if it doesn't work out you can always return home, but when you decide you are heading home then you start to worry that it has changed so much since you left and what will you do if it doesn't work out for you

[In Training]

We are planning to sell everything over the next two years and hope to be in your spot soon. The best part of liquidating everything is the freedom it will bring. Then, when and if we ever stop cruising, we could live almost anywhere. Lease a house in another country for a year to really be absorbed by the culture of the other country. You can truly look at so many possibilities. I read about one couple that rv'd across Europe in the summer and cruised in the Caribbean in the winter. They had been doing it for 8 years or so already. We get tunnel vision and only think of living one way.