Any early retirees turned cruisers with big careers have regrets?

[sailorboy1]

Been to most of the places mentioned that “i haven't been to”. After all i travel more than 20 miles. Other than a couple days at Hampton 4 years ago have never been to a Chesapeake marina. Think i have been to all the museums and maritime museums accessible from the water in the whole Chesapeake incuding up the Potomac to DC. Interesting at times, but for sailng very over rated.

[sailorboy1]

Of there are numerous swamps to anchor near and feed the bugs

[Jim Cate]

As far as the cruising, I haven't spent enough days on the boat in a row to make a final judgement as to whether it will work for me but I do know one thing and that is that I do enjoy early morning sails coming back to my marina.

Perhaps true, but ya know, I used to do just that myself, but I found that early morning sails where you were heading to another anchorage, one new to us and perhaps even in a different country or on a different ocean... well, they were better yet... WAY better. The same sailing experiences, but with the excitement of a new adventure added.

Jim

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

People who haven't been elsewhere can cry about it all they want, it changes nothing.

Now for some beach cat story I bet.

Well, that's just the thing, I have been else where and have basically covered the entire territory of the so called cruising you have done.

From here to New Orleans but I know New Orleans much better than you since I spent weeks there.

Then there was the North Carolina Coast, Gulf Coast, Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers as well as Senators Wash new Yuma Arizona where I actually did see a Hobie 16 sailing on it......plus the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

When we were in High school if we didn't catch any fish on "bayside," we'd load the boats up go to a ramp on the other side and fish "seaside" for a while.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by chris mac

I just spent 2 months aboard in mobjack bay, mostly up by mathews. It was nice
But it doesnt even come close to any part of the bahamas.
Of course I havent seen as much of the Chesapeake as you and I'm sure there are some nice spots. And I havent seen all of the bahamas. And I'm sure there are some bad spots.
But from my point of view there is no comparison

I can understand your point.

When I first got to the Gulf Coast and saw the Caribbean blue/green water, I thought it was totally beautiful as I sailed out under the Destin Bridge.

Later that day I "parked" the boat and dove overboard and tried to tough bottom off Ft Walton Beach but what looked like 10-15 feet was probably 30'.

A couple years later my son and I sailed under the same bridge at maybe 0730 in our first 100 mile beach cat race. This in 1997. This time though we were on our Nacra 6.0 which back then was a beast of a beach cat

82 boats started that day and we had to be all setup and ready for the white flag offshore a ways (off Leeside Park, Ft Walton Beach) at 0700 regardless of how late we stayed up the night before and no matter how hammered drunk we got

we just had time after setting up the boat to grab some orange juice and donuts to make the start line. Beer for the hangover was already loaded as were crackers, potted meat, and vienna sausages

Then living in Pensacola for about 12 years you couldn't help but see how beautiful those white sand beaches were. Also got to enjoy Ft Walton Beach, Destin, and Panama City as well as races to the islands off the Mississippi Gulf Coast both Ship and Horn Island..these races started out of Ocean Springs, MS

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sh...!4d-88.9641261

Also did the 'round shell Island' race off Panama City a couple times.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sh...!4d-85.6833457

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/24910604166006004/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/8725793003421295/

[theDangerz]

Originally Posted by thomm225

I can understand your point.

The colors around/under that bridge are nice... I remember the first time I saw them as well.

But if you're trying to compare the waters of gulf shore and parking under the bridge in any way to experiencing the Bahamas (much less the rest of the Caribbean or anything beyond)...

then Im actually not sure you can understand his point at all.

[Mook1e]

My wife and I are oh so close...I think:



- Retired 55 or earlier - meaning zero paid work, only living on investments
I'm 46 and I plan to semi-retire in 3 years working maybe 2 months a year with full retirement in 5 years. (I could stop now, but we're trying to take care of some of your additional items on the list first)



- Highly compensated in their profession (arbitrarily picking $250k or higher)
Check. We'll leave it at that.


- Enjoyed their career, loved their work/people
Love the people I work with. Might make some temporary changes. Who knows.


- Substantial assets that allow for a comfortable life at sea
I guess this depends. I have military COLA adjusted pension and disability plus Tricare, my rental home, and some stocks and TSP (401K) which all equal enough for my net worth to equal the 98 percentile (top 2% in US). Mostly my military benefits, but we have a pretty good cushion of savings and stock investments.



- Paid for boat, no other debt
We will probably finance a boat and pay the loan payments with our rental property rent. We will close out the mortgage for the rental property before retiring.



- Meaning $100k or much greater budget that is not a stretch
$100K after taxes passive was/is my goal. We'll be there in 3.



- Means to transition back to land life no problem
We'll have the house (Will have to wait for renters to leave) or we always planned to retire to Penang, Malaysia, which is well within budget.



- Ability to park the boat and take a 3 month break or greater
This is the plan. If I have to, I can do short-term consulting to supplement income, but we shouldn't have to.

- Married happily with no underlying issues (basically extremely happy already)
Married my Highschool Sweetheart, who is an independent go-getter ready for adventure. Adult kids are blazing their own trails.

So, right now our only question is, do we have enough for totally comfortable full-time cruising on the cat we want? We're prepared to compromise to a point, and I can work the full 5 more years (yuck) to ensure we finance our dream cat fitted out with a substantial cruising kitty (we're planning for $100K in reserve for the yacht)

[jtsailjt]

Since the subject of this thread is supposedly about retirees turned cruisers with big careers who do or don’t have regrets it seems odd that about half the recent posts are by someone who been neither a full time cruiser or retired so has no idea whether he’d have regrets or not. We all think we’ll know how we will feel about it once we’re retired but like most things, until you’ve actually been there and done that, I think it’s pretty hard to know. Maybe we need a separate thread called “Anybody still working by choice rather than retiring to go cruising” so Thomm and similarly minded folks can discuss that lifestyle choice and we can get back to the subject of this thread.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by theDangerz

The colors around/under that bridge are nice... I remember the first time I saw them as well.

But if you're trying to compare the waters of gulf shore and parking under the bridge in any way to experiencing the Bahamas (much less the rest of the Caribbean or anything beyond)...

then Im actually not sure you can understand his point at all.

He was saying he liked the Bahamas better than the Chesapeake Bay.

But even though I did enjoy the beauty of the Gulf Coast by the time I left in 2009, the heat in the summer was simply terrible.

We have a few hot weeks here, but it's usually cool enough at night so I do like it better up here and we also have the seasons to enjoy which is nice.

As I was sawing, since I was lucky enough to have visited all these places during my working life, it will make it much easier when I do retire to know where to go and when.

I don't plan to visit the Bahamas.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by jtsailjt

Since the subject of this thread is supposedly about retirees turned cruisers with big careers who do or don’t have regrets it seems odd that about half the recent posts are by someone who been neither a full time cruiser or retired so .

Yes, so i think it is time to let him just have the thread and he can put i down in his book as another cruising related he side tracked to death. Why the anti cruiser likes to do this on a forum about cruising is a mystery.

[thomm225]

These type threads tend to have positions that are so one sided that it would simply confuse the average reader into thinking YES! retiring early will be a life in utopia!

When in reality, it simply isn't that way.

I was able to observe folks that had retired early and I saw what they did. I also have family members that retired in their 40's and I saw the good and bad in that.

Best thing though was the Gulf Coast. I remember one guy that just wanted to make his boat perfect! He wasn't a RTW wannabe sailor. Problem occurred after his boat was perfect. No more work .......dream completed. He didn't seem to know what to do next.

Then there were the ones that sailed for 6 months and came back because back then in the 90's retired "cruisers" didn't have the internet at their slips where they could go back to doing what they had always done which was virtual cruising!

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by thomm225

These type threads tend to have positions that are so one sided that it would simply confuse the average reader into thinking YES! retiring early will be a life in utopia!



When in reality, it simply isn't that way.



I was able to observe folks that had retired early and I saw what they did. I also have family members that retired in their 40's and I saw the good and bad in that.



Best thing though was the Gulf Coast. I remember one guy that just wanted to make his boat perfect! He wasn't a RTW wannabe sailor. Problem occurred after his boat was perfect. No more work .......dream completed. He didn't seem to know what to do next.



Then there were the ones that sailed for 6 months and came back because back then in the 90's retired "cruisers" didn't have the internet at their slips where they could go back to doing what they had always done which was virtual cruising!

Yes, we’ve all observed others and formed our own opinions about their choices and their situations just like you have. But this thread was supposed to be a chance to hear from those with firsthand experience, not just opinions about how some people who haven’t actually done it think it’s going to be. You seem to have very strong opinions and also think you’re the only one who has noticed other people and how they dealt with retirement. Since you haven’t actually left a “big career” to go cruising, I’m not sure why you think you know any more about having regrets OR good feelings about having done that than anyone else who is still working and not cruising. Why don’t you wait until AFTER you’ve retired and gone cruising if you ever choose to, and THEN weigh in on how it feels to you, rather than completely taking over this thread telling us all about how you think it’s going to be IF you ever get around to retiring or going cruising for more than a few days at a time?

[Group9]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Yes, so i think it is time to let him just have the thread and he can put i down in his book as another cruising related he side tracked to death. Why the anti cruiser likes to do this on a forum about cruising is a mystery.

All his posts seem to be written like he is trying to convince himself that he made the right choice, by trying to convince we who have retired and gone cruising that we have made the wrong one.

Strange, for sure, in a thread that specifically asked for feedback from people who had actually retired and gone cruising, not those that hadn’t and never will. But, I’m like you. I don’t think there is any answer that any of us here can give that will fix his problem (or, even get him to admit that he might have one). I will not try any more.

Hopefully, the OP got what he was looking for from the rest of us.

[theDangerz]

Originally Posted by Group9

All his posts seem to be written like he is trying to convince himself that he made the right choice, by trying to convince we who have retired and gone cruising that we have made the wrong one.

That's because he is...

[theDangerz]

Originally Posted by thomm225

These type threads tend to have positions that are so one sided that it would simply confuse the average reader into thinking YES! retiring early will be a life in utopia!

When in reality, it simply isn't that way.

If by "one-sided" you mean that there is a string of actual experienced cruisers and early-retirees writing in and describing from first-hand experience they are actually living the lifestyle and have no regrets - each post then followed by a string of posts from you droning on about your beach cats and how you've traveled "all the good parts" of the world (despite the fact you've stayed between the Chesapeake and the Gulf) and talking about how bad it is "out there on the other side" even though you've never seen it... than sure, it's one-sided.

Denial is a beautiful thing Thomm... but maybe, juuuuust maybe we arent all making it up and photoshopping smiles onto our faces.
Maybe there is actually more to life than a job and a bay you know like the back of your hand.

Originally Posted by thomm225

I was able to observe folks that had retired early and I saw what they did. I also have family members that retired in their 40's and I saw the good and bad in that.

Best thing though was the Gulf Coast. I remember one guy that just wanted to make his boat perfect! He wasn't a RTW wannabe sailor. Problem occurred after his boat was perfect. No more work .......dream completed. He didn't seem to know what to do next.

Then there were the ones that sailed for 6 months and came back because back then in the 90's retired "cruisers" didn't have the internet at their slips where they could go back to doing what they had always done which was virtual cruising!

I don't know how many times we have to explain this to you Thomm... but the simple fact is that you're "observing" from the wrong side!

OF COURSE if the only people you ever get to talk to or observe are those who never left and those who returned because they didn't like it... than that's all you'll hear or think or have to report.

Those that sat home back in the day and watched the boats leave the harbor had a pretty easy time believing that the world was flat because they only talked to others who also thought the world was flat and didn't leave the shore...

You seem to not understand or be able to grasp (or maybe admit to yourself) that there is a VERY large number of us out here actively living our dreams and finding that it is indeed very much what we thought/expected/hoped it would be... our own version of an early retirement, cruising from island to island utopia (yknow, with some hard work, constant learning, squalls and boat repairs sprinkled in to make sure we also don't get bored)!!