My wife and I are going to retire to the
Caribbean or
Central America in the next few years. We are looking at a 38-42 cat to travel around. We would
live aboard while we travel but would be based out of a land location.
Our problem is two-fold. One, neither of us have sailed anything larger than a 16' hoby cat. We are both
power boaters but want the freedom of being able to sail to any location. Second, we are on a fixed
income and can not afford many locations.
We want to be based out of a land location. We are looking for getting the most for our
money, yet still have a good location for sailing adventures.
We lived in St. Thomas for 5 years and grew to love the island life and the endless opportunities of the
water. We really enjoyed seeing other island from our house our when on the
water. It was like living on a lake instead of the ocean. We owned a 25'
power boat and used it almost daily.
We love to dive, but got tired of just looking
diving. We enjoyed
diving for lobster and spearfishing. We also enjoyed diving for bottles,
china and other items. This mostly took place in St Thomas harbor. Visibility sucked but found many great historical items.
We are on a fixed
income from Social
Security and VA disability. We are able to spend around $4,000-$5,000 per month. This limits our ability to choose anywhere in the Caribbean/Central America. We are not opposed to the Pacific side but would prefer the Caribbean/Atlantic area as we already know and have friends in this area.
Are we crazy about taking on such a larger change? Is the
learning curve fast for cats? We would not do
blue water sailing until we were very confident in our
boat and abilities.
Any help or advise would be great.
Mark