Going to Cruise for One Year !

[Conwaysailors]

I've been following Cruiser's Forum for a year now, getting lots of advice and learning a lot. Well, today we close on our boat and it's official: we leave July 1, 2012 for a one year cruise with our 10, 9, and 6 year old children!!! Still lots to buy and lots to plan, including homeschooling, itinerary, and provisioning, but we are so excited. Starting to tell friends and family and everyone has been extremely supportive.

We will head to Maine from New Jersey on our 2006 Beneteau 473 and go down the east coast. Head to Bahamas next November and then the Leeward and Windward islands, time permitting. Now to come up with a boat name....

Thanks for all the information I've gotten here. I'll take any advice, from general philosophy (I love one person's suggestion: write all your plans in the sand at low tide.) to what kind of lifejackets to get (I can't find Type I life jackets for children except for the emergency orange ones. No one makes a more comfortable one? The poor kids will be living in them for a year!) to what the best places are along our route.

I look forward to using CF to find boat kids to meet up with along the way. Skal (cheers) to all of you having a sundowner in the Caribbean right now. We're on our way!

-erica

[Hi Ho]

Congratulations, keep us posted!!

[barnakiel]

You know, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing ...

Fair winds,
b.

[SaucySailoress]

Erica, welcome aboard!!

I am so excited for you... since we will be on a similar time scale (hopefully we leave late Summer 2012). Just the thought of letting the 'things' go has always been a weight on my mind, until a week holiday just unexpectedly turned into a 5 week holiday (!!!) and I realised all I really need is a laptop and some clothes!!!!

Gonna miss the dog, though!

[ShaunJ]

I think "Skal" would look good on you Beneteau's transom.

Good luck to you

[Conwaysailors]

Thanks Saucy! I've particularly gotten a lot out of your posts and replies. Just checked out your blog. Very cool writing. I was a teacher, too, and I'm a yogi, so we have quite a bit in common. I hope your plans include hopping over to our side of the Atlantic next year!

Definitely ready to leave the "stuff". I've been cleaning out, donating, and simplifying for a month now. But I have some other aspects of regular life I'll miss. My blog is www.ericaconway.wordpress.com. I started writing about the experience of deciding to do this trip from the beginning, but am only starting to post the journals now, since no one knew about our trip until this month.

[SaucySailoress]

Cool, I'll go check it out. Can I suggest that you link to your blog in your signature? It avoids the need to post it every time you refer to it (which excites our spambot!), and allows more people to see it.

[VirtualVagabond]

Originally Posted by ShaunJ

I think "Skal" would look good on you Beneteau's transom.

Good luck to you

Maybe like this?

[ShaunJ]

Originally Posted by VirtualVagabond

Maybe like this?

Something like that VV
Thats not your boat is it?

[VirtualVagabond]

Originally Posted by ShaunJ

Something like that VV
Thats not your boat is it?

In my dreams, Shaun.
It's a Mikelson 50 for sale in Guatamala. William Garden design and very similar to the Hudson Force 50 'Venice'. Probably better finishes.
This particular one has everything that buzzes and ticks with a listed price of $267,000.
It's the style of boat we'll end up with, but a much lower budget version. Good for live aboard downwind sailors.

[Sailchick]

If you are leaving in July, you may want to head only up to the Cape Cod area, especially if you're day hopping and sightseeing with the kids. It starts getting cold up North early. Its no fun waking up in the low forties or cooler. My friends on their boat in VA are expecting 37 tonight. I recommend heading south sooner. There are so many great spots to stop with the kids in the Chesapeake and ICW.

[Conwaysailors]

Originally Posted by VirtualVagabond

Maybe like this?

Skal would be perfect. My family heritage is Norwegian, so I've been toasting with Skal my whole life! The top choices right now are:
Three Little Birds (a little Marley reference plus we have 3 kids)
Namaste (the idea of telling everyone we see "the light within me shines upon the light within you" is lovely to me)
Patronus (it's an animal protector created by the powerful spell in Harry Potter that protects you from danger. Our Patronus would be a dolphin. All 3 kids vote for this one.)
Vision Quest (the native american rite of passage whereupon the seeker embarks on a great odyssey to find him or herself. Also a cool 80's movie. I also thought Rite of Passage would be cool, but the husband won't abide by puns.)

[Conwaysailors]

Originally Posted by VirtualVagabond

Maybe like this?

By the way, just copied and pasted half the quotes on your blog into my "favorite quotes" document. Love them all! I, too, love Mark Twain and his "twenty years from now" is the signature on my email. When it's not "I must go down to the seas again." funny!

[VirtualVagabond]

Originally Posted by Conwaysailors

By the way, just copied and pasted half the quotes on your blog into my "favorite quotes" document. Love them all! I, too, love Mark Twain and his "twenty years from now" is the signature on my email. When it's not "I must go down to the seas again." funny!

Glad you like them.
They keep the dream alive for us too.
I'll be taking a look at your site too in the next few hours.

[Jim Cate]

G'Day Erica,

It seems like only a short time ago... how excited Ann and I were as we exited the Golden Gate in October of '86, turned to port and headed south with no plans to return. Well, actually we had one year leaves of absence, but we fully expected that at the end of that year we'd be in some exotic port, call our respective bosses and say those hallowed words: "take your job and shove it".

Well, after 9 months of doing ok we fell into the hands of the French in the Societies, and soon found that our cruising kitty was a bit anemic. Actually, we were broke! Sailed back to SF, worked another 18 months and left again, happily retired. So, we've been going around the South Pacific Eddy ever since, happy as Larry, and despite the odd medical issue, we wouldn't care to be anywhere else.

Point of all this nostalgia is -- welcome to the cruiser's ward of the world wide loony bin. Enjoy your year of freedom and plan for the next few decades.

Cheers,

Jim