Backing Into Cruising ...

[TomandAnitas34]

I followed Don's, "Pulled the Trigger" thread. I think I've read 2000 posts, by liveaboards and cruisers. I read " Retire onto Your Boat". I've read a dozen Cruising Logs, many of which simply end one day, alarmingly, without explanation. (Those are the spooky ones.) All the data I could ask for is here. I still can't figure out if I want to cruise. I suppose the answer is simple. You cruise until you don't want to or you cannot physically do it any more. Then you stop. It can be three months, it can be 20 years... Seems straight forward enough.
I'm about three years away from retirement @ 62. The facts are laid out pretty clear to me. My current lifestyle costs about $100 per day, my retirement income is about $60 per day. I can't do what I'm doing now and retire. I will have to change my lifestyle. Cruising seems like a good move 'cause living on a boat can be inexpensive. I even have a mostly organized exit strategy. It's well enough thought out in fact, that cruising is not really necessary. I'm beginning to off load the junk I've accumulated over the last twenty years. Getting ready to slow down or stop the excess expenditures one gets used to. Setting up my house to rent. All that kind of stuff. But Human Beings can rationalize anything. If I've learned anything, it's that even with air tight reasoning, a point of view is not wisdom. I guess I'm wondering if I'm really up for the challenges I claim that I'm craving. I will finish the overhaul of my boat spring 2013. I will be able to sail around for two weeks at a time, most of the summer of 2014. I will get about two solid months of water time that year, all together. I guess I'm so caught up in what I'm doing now, that I have difficulty visualizing being on the water indefinitely. It's not like there is nothing to do. Bank accounts must be managed, blogs and e-mails must be dealt with, groceries and water must be acquired, bills and insurance must be monitored. All the usual stuff made more difficult because of remote locations. Weather to evaluate, routes to plan, repairs to make.... I'm tired just thinking about it. Do I really want to cruise or am I kidding myself. I wonder.

[daddle]

Sounds to me that you want to. Definitely. Slow down on the thinking about it. Find an excuse to just do it. Even if its just for two weeks.

[Dhillen]

You can intellectualize all you want but you won't know 'till you go.

My money is on that you will like it.

Dhillen

[ShaunJ]

Give it a try, only then will you really know.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by TomandAnitas34

................... I guess I'm wondering if I'm really up for the challenges I claim that I'm craving..............

Keep in mind that you have a great control over the degree and duration of these challenges. There is a great variety in description of liveaboard cruisers and no one plan is more proper or valid than another. It may be that you find yourself following several different plans over time. Here are a few common scenarios for those that liveaboard and cruise:

1- Many establish a "home port" with a permanent slip. They often have a part time job and a vehicle. They may frequently take short cruises and on occasion cruise for a month or two.

2- A large number of retired liveaboard cruisers on the East US Coast have two "home ports" where they maintain some presence of community. These seasonal cruisers are underway, north or southbound, for two to four months out of the year and at the dock for a majority of the time at their two communities.

3- Another pattern is to cruise seasonally like those in group two, but have less time in any one location. These liveaboard cruisers may spend a month or two at one spot, but they are underway for the majority of the year.

4- While those of groups 2 & 3 are coastal cruisers adjusting their latitude with the seasons, snow, and hurricanes; others are the longitude cruisers that are crossing the oceans.

I know I've made huge generalizations here and many would not clearly fit one of these "pigeonholes", my point is that you have a great ability to manage and adapt to your challenges.

[foolishsailor]

Captnforce has nailed it.

Many people come to this forum with an either or attitude to their cruising dreams. Either I am crossing oceans or I am sitting in my armchair. It doesn't have to be like that. You can gradually up you adventure and distance level until you find your comfort zone.

You don't have to cross the Indian ocean or round the capes to be a cruiser, gunk holing down the east coast or the ICW is cruising. Doing the Caribbean is usually enough for most. If after upping your game you decide to make the jump then do so, but don't let the big passages define your vision of what cruising is or could be for you.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Have a plan B - or at least half a chance of one financially.

FWIW today is meant to be the start of my great liveaboard adventure, delayed for technical reasons:-

a) it's a bit chilly.
b) I haven't put the washboards back yet (see above).
c) she doesn't float for another week .

I blame da Gubberment .

[wingNwing]

Also agreeing with Capt Force (again!) Actually, you couldn't plan cruising in detail even if you wanted to. Keep an exit plan, then just start. What you learn in the first weeks/months will help you decide what you want to do in the next part, and so on.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by TomandAnitas34

(...) .... I'm tired just thinking about it. Do I really want to cruise or am I kidding myself. I wonder.

All that before actually going?

b.

[TomandAnitas34]

I gotta quit posting after midnight and after opening a second beer..... LOL. I'm a coastal type, have no desire to cross oceans, which is good as I'm sailing an old Irwin 34. I think that my anxiety is based on the loss of mentors. All the men I used to value for their wisdom and insight, my best friends, are dead. I am now the mentor to younger people. While I could share the vision of the men I've lost, I find none of the younger folks I know share my vision. I feel very alone and I think I am posting that sense of isolation in a forum of people who share my image of the future. Just have to keep the vision clear, the course true, and the confidence that I am answering my own purpose. I feel a little foolish. Good sailing to all.

[Hud3]

When we lived in the States we were members of a small yacht club made up primarily of sailors. We did a lot of club cruises on the Chesapeake, and a lot of socializing at the clubhouse. The more experienced members freely shared their expertise with the newbies and intermediate sailors in seminars and workshops, as well as on the water. We had three racing fleets. The club also had a youth sailing program with opportunities teach the kids and participate in the annual youth regatta.

Perhaps, if you could find something like that, you'd find the "connections" you've lost.

[knottygurl]

3 years is a long time to wait to pull the trigger. Try weekending and a couple weeks at a time over the next few years and when it does come time to retire, then evaluate and proceed to pulling the trigger, doing so now will just muddle the works and become a part time job.
Enjoy your time out now, it only gets better and better

[Cheechako]

The more ties to land you cut, the simpler paying those bills etc becomes.... Keep a car? Why? Magazines? let 'em go, Leave no forwarding address except for the ones you select, etc....