Hello from Phoenix

[Desert Dawdler]

Yes, that Phoenix, the one in the middle of the desert.

I’ve been lurking for the past year or so, and finally decided to register. My husband and I are planning to retire early (both in our late 30’s now, no kids) with the intention of full time liveaboard cruising in the next 4-5 years. He’s a helicopter pilot who grew up racing dinghies in England and was an RYA instructor, I grew up in New Mexico and just knew that sailboats existed.

For the last year, I’ve been working on learning theory and we bought a Snipe for me to learn in (Tempe Town Lake for those who know the area). Once Covid gets under control we intend to do several charters so I can get a better feel for the lifestyle, and if that goes well we’ll sell our house, head to a coast and find a boat.

I’ve already learned a lot lurking on the forum, and I’m keen to continue learning the ropes, er, sheets.

[Celestialsailor]

Welcome to the forum. There is some good information here.

[Dtm67]

Welcome to CF from another desert dweller! We started with the same dream in the desert 15 years ago, learned to sail in Southern California, chartered when we could for several years to build experience and finally cast lines two years ago on our own Lagoon 400 in the Med!

Never made sense for us to own a proper sailboat in expensive LA or SD because we didn't think we would use it enough to justify the high slip fees and so on. What did work well for us was to join a local sailing club (Marina sailing) and rent their sailboats for weekend Catalina sails and so on to build experience. They were our training wheels...from there we chartered longer trips in the Caribbean and then the Med, trying different boats and cruising areas the whole way.

Good luck with chasing the dream!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Dawdler.

You might be interested in this tutorial:
“Preparing and Sailing a Snipe” ~ by Peter Commette
➥ http://www.snipetoday.org/articles/t...iling-a-snipe/

[Desert Dawdler]

Thanks everyone, and particularly Dtm67. I will definitely look into the CA sailing clubs, we usually go to SD a few times a year anyway. That seems much simpler and more practical than chartering in the Caribbean which is what I’d initially planned.