Just wanted to introduce myself and highlight some plans for what we hope to be a new life.
Neither my wife nor I have ever sailed (well, I was on a sailboat once but don’t remember it, b/c it was in college…). But both she and I are ready for the next phase of our lives and both are beyond excited at the prospect of cruising. First things first we want to learn to sail. After reading through this forum for a while I got some really good ideas. I think we’ll hold off on the official
ASA 101 and 103
classes for a little while, but hope to take some
classes with a local
boat club as well as a local community college. After that, and hopefully meeting some people who we can sail with (as well as help them with any
repairs, etc. on their boats), we’ll probably take some
certification courses. From what I’ve read it makes sense to have some
experience under your belt before taking the more expensive 101, 103, etc.
We are relatively young couple at 34 and 31 years of age with one small child and plans for a second (and final) child. In approximately four years we want to
head down the coast and do some cruising in the
Caribbean. About three years ago (prior to the cruising dream) we began paying off all debt (only mortgage debt now, yay!) and saving a pretty good chunk of
money every month. We’re still doing that and would like to save more to buy a
boat outright as well save for the kitty over the next four years. We moved from DC to the Gaineville area about five years ago and live on ten acres. None of our friends or
family thought two citified, white-collar twenty-somethings would make it on ten acres away from Starbucks, etc.. We have done fine and have learned how to maintain our house, grow our own
food, use chainsaws,
power tools, etc. and have done quite a bit of remodeling on our own. We try to save
money where prudent by doing things ourselves and being as self-sufficient as is feasible.
Between the
sale of our house and the money we will have saved and will save we plan to have enough for 80-140k (yes, I realize that is a huge range; see below) boat and be able to
cruise for several years due to some passive
income we’ll have that is as close to guaranteed as you can get (i.e. not equities, etc.). We are also looking for ways that we can make money either while we’re cruising or by coming home for a few months a year, such as AC/refrigeration courses for me and massage therapy
school for my wife.
At this point, and I realize some of you may laugh at this because I’ve only been on one sailboat my in life, we are thinking of 35-40 foot Cat. This is getting way ahead of ourselves of course, but I’m just laying out our thoughts now, so that all of you can just see what I’m thinking and can offer any
advice you think is warranted. I hope that we’ll be able to buy a solid
monohull for 80-90k or a solid Cat for 130-40k that won’t need too much refitting. Obviously, if we went the monhull
route, we could bump that figure up some and still leave us more in the kitty for cruising.
For now, we are reading
books, magazines and going through this forum (which is unbelievably well-maintained and informative) and keeping our eyes on the prize.
I know this dream may seem naïve to many, b/c we don’t have sailing
experience, but I can say nothing to convince anyone that this dream is real. I can only do it. I know my wife and I know myself. We aren’t whimsical and this type of lifestyle has been building in us for years. That we are now starting to plan for it is exciting, and that’s an understatement.
If any of you have any insight on the above I’d be extremely grateful. If you know of anyone in the Gainesville or Jax/St. Augustine areas who you think I could contact about helping them on their boat either with
repairs or just as a crew or whatever, that’d be great too.
I apologize for the novel-length first post.
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