Desperately Seeking the Sea

[Capt Phil]

Welcome, Dugandbeka... you'll find lots of good advice here on both sail and power also a few naysayers who will try and puncture your dream balloon. Hang on to your dream and make a plan. I've heard there are a few good deals on fairly large power boats in the New Orleans area, ex commercial fishing/shrimpers, with lots of room but needing work. Some of them were hurricane damaged but reclaimable with a lot of sweat equity. What you save on purchase price, you can put into fixing the boat up. Do some searching on the web to find examples.
One of the previous posters suggested getting a skipper to introduce you to cruising which I certainly agree would be a great idea.
You have your whole life ahead of you so dream big and go for it! Cheers, Phil

[Cap Erict3]

The tracking system on commercial and industrial comm domes ism't something you see on many private vessels but Hughes satellites are accessible world wide. Not cheap.

WiMax has been around for over a decade and is available many places.

A job in Marine Repair is a good way to learn about boats and get to know the marine community. It can also give you an inside track when it comes to buying a boat.

Best of luck.

[bobconnie]

What Capt Phil said is true! There are a lot of older commerical fish and shrimp boats for sale down here in Louisiana. It depends on what yall wish to have for size, and range at sea. They run from 40 ft to some as big as 100 ft all different shapes and useage! most all diesel with gen sets and air conditioning!! LOL something ya gotta have down here to ever sleep. Theres a few on yacht world.com, Theres also some on a site Louisiana Sportsman magizene.com under for sale boats offshore. Worth a look, some pretty nice boats for room to live, and still have room to carry a bunch of stuff!! Have fun

[Archyrr]

Doug and Beka,

Awesome introductory post, much better than my own. My wife and I have been struck with the bug as well, and are going through the same process. I wish you the best of luck in your journey.

[His 1st Mate]

Hi Beka,
My husband and I are on the same journey except that we have desired to live where we could breathe sea water our whole lives but have only had a handful of visits to either coast. I think this forum is a great resource in gathering information. Just your post alone and the responses have given me lots to look into today!

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!