good day all

[chuckr]

Hey all -- currently living in Miami and sailing a Jeanneau DS40 that i purchased new about 3 years ago. the day i turned 60 i was fired from my job and as i had planned to quit work at 62 anyway i am put my house up for sale and getting SoulMates ready for some cruising. By the way, not a great time to sell a house. I have only been sailing about 5-6 years but did a lot of mountaineering before that.
looking forward to learning from all of you have the real experience.
chuck and soulmates

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Chuck,
Welcome aboard! You'll enjoy this forum. Sounds like you are following your dream and you have the proper boat for it. There is a lot of good advice here about gear and sailing so ask away.
Regards, --JohnL--

[Sunspot Baby]

Welcome aboard! I also dropped out of the work force at about age 60. Took 2 years to sell the house, but have been spending winters in Bahamas aboard 38' Prout catamaran.

Sounds like events similar to what your going through. Anyway I can help, just send a message.

George

[chuckr]

George -- it sounds similar -- glad to hear someone is doing what i plan on doing. my goal is to sell the house this year and head to the islands after hurricane season - that will allow me time to get a ham license, add a couple of more toys, add some parts for repairs, and learn to live aboard.
then come spring head north up the east coast and be at both newport and annapolis for the shows before heading south again to spend some time with my insurance agent to redo coverage before heading east and south.
but first the house must sell.
by the way - what is the one thing that you wish you had with you and what is one thing you wish you left behind (probably more than one thing each).
by the way at this time it looks like i will be singlehandling.
chuck and soulmates

[Sunspot Baby]

Wish for a good helm chair for the ICW. It would be in the way when sailing, so I would then wish I didn’t have it once I started the crossing. I have a folding bar stool that works acceptably well, but is not to be trusted in bumpy water (like when a sport fisher leaves a 3’ wake in the ICW).

We carry SCUBA gear but wish we could use it more. With only two of us, we hate to leave the boat unattended to dive. This will be an issue if you are single handing and want to dive. Our plane is to team up with another crew and have one couple in the water at a time. Have talked about this with several divers/cruisers, but haven’t actually done it yet.

Small things I know, but it is hard to pick anything big either wish we had or hadn’t. We definitely carry more “stuff” than we need, but have been able to make repairs. When needed. The only spare I wished I had was an alternator, but being a catamaran, I figure I have an entire spare engine and accessories.

Thanks for the private message.

George