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WillSailForBeer · 29-03-2021, 09:48

Good day to you all and greetings from the landlocked Midwest! I've used this forum as a reference for previous trips and am excited to join the community.

My husband and I got into sailing when he started watching the myriad of YouTubers in 2017. He had the idea that we'd sell our house, move to Florida, buy a catamaran and live on it. At that point I'd never even been on a boat with a sail. But I was intrigued and after discussing it for a while, I agreed that we'd give it a try. Then on the day he was to fly to Florida to meet with the boat broker, Hurricane Irma hit. As lots of you know, boat inventory and specifically the catamarans we were interested in, was wiped out. It was a terrible time for all those impacted and I felt like it was a sign that *perhaps* we should reconsider our plans.

So we did. We took a learn to sail class on a tiny lake in Kansas City, MO. Then we took another. Then we went to FL and took a 3 day ASA 101 class. It was entertaining and educational, but I'm not crazy about the lean and we wanted to try out a cat. So we kept after the education and signed up for a week long class in the BVIs to finish up 103, 104 and 114. That settled it for us - we are catamaran people.

Now sailing a large catamaran in Missouri isn't terribly practical, so we bought a little 15' Potter that is older than both of us to sail around here. We practice sailing her on nice days. We spend most of our time tacking in our mini lakes. We are absolute novices and as such, really appreciate this forum as an opportunity to hear from the salty folks with more experience.

In 2019 we took 4 friends and chartered a 40' cat from Cruise Abaco in the Bahamas. It was the vacation of a lifetime, and our friends loved it also. We planned to charter another cat with those same friends in the VIs in 2020, but obviously the world had other plans. Our new plan is to bareboat charter later in 2021.

I want to express my appreciation for all the people on here who spend time responding to questions from people like me. The sailing community has been so welcoming and kind. Cheers!