Out of the fog...

[Climbtoo]

Ahoy there!

I’ve been following this amazing forum for several years soaking up all the salty knowledge I can absorb. You guys and gals represent a terrific mixture of personalities and amazing array of seaworthy advice.
My willing wife and I are exploring living on board during the winter months at retirement in a few years. My work and passion for the past 35 year has been in snow sports but I’ve long dreamed of taking the trip around on a slow boat. Who knows, if my plan (she may say scheme) works out and after gaining experience in the Caribbean and/or Mediterranean for a few seasons, we may want go full time and sail west.


I have a good amount of landlocked sailing/boating experience. In the mid 80’s, I became one of the first certified board sailing instructors in North Carolina. We were selling Magnum boards in the ski shop during the summer and being a new sport, we had to create our customers. My experience teaching skiing for 5 year while in college was a huge help with board sailing instruction and we sold enough boards for a few years to keep the shop open in the off season. I went from there to a 16’ Prindle cat and then a wonderful little 23’ Paceship that we kept on a pristine lake in Eastern Tennessee. Summer weekends on ‘Moxie” with my wife were wonderful. There was an active club and with the sail handling help of an experienced friend, we were pretty competitive in the Sunday race league. It was a sad day when I sold Moxie but raising a couple of kids another adventure I did not want to miss out on. Our youngest will soon be on his own so it’s time to find another passion to share with my lovely and (hopefully sailing it is!

So, my sailing has been limited over the past 20 years but I have caught some day sails off the coast and a week bare boating out of Ft Lauderdale to the Bimini’s. My brother in law charted the boat and I went along to help with the sailing. I found the transition to the 50 footer in terms of sailing to be easy but docking and moving around other boats was quite unnerving. I’ve charted a Bahama’s ‘Learn to Sail’ week in April to introduce my wife to off shore sailing and thought it was time to step out of the fog so to speak.

Thanks to everyone here that takes time to share the knowledge and I hope to meet many of you on the water in the near future.

Climbtoo

[Jim Cate]

Greetings Climbtoo, aand welcome to CF. You sound like you are perched on the lip of a double black diamond slope, ready to take the plunge... so enjoy the ride. It's a great life, and there are lots of us here to help along the way.

Jim

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Greetings Climbtoo, aand welcome to CF. You sound like you are perched on the lip of a double black diamond slope, ready to take the plunge... so enjoy the ride. It's a great life, and there are lots of us here to help along the way.

Jim

My sentiments exactly! Glad that you are no longer lurking Sounds like we're all going to enjoy hearing about your and your wife's grand adventures.

[Climbtoo]

Hello again,
Well, my lovely and I just got back from a sailing week leaving out of Marsh Harbor and I’m happy to report the trip was a raging success. She’s all in! We spent the “Learn to Cruise” week on a Pearson 40 with a delightful couple that worked very hard to show us the lifestyle along with terrific sail and boat handling instruction. We sailed a good portion of every day and anchored in a different spot each evening. All of our meals were prepared on the on the boat so the immersion was complete and most days were topped off with evening walks on the beach or exploring nearby townships. There is so much more to learn but we are anxious and committed to taking the leap. I’m really looking forward to the boat search and will start looking now with a goal of owning in just over a year. Looks like we are going to need a lot more help and advice.

[CanadianCruiser]

Exciting news !!! Wish you all the best

CC

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Climbtoo

Hello again,
Well, my lovely and I just got back from a sailing week leaving out of Marsh Harbor and I’m happy to report the trip was a raging success. She’s all in! We spent the “Learn to Cruise” week on a Pearson 40 with a delightful couple that worked very hard to show us the lifestyle along with terrific sail and boat handling instruction. We sailed a good portion of every day and anchored in a different spot each evening. All of our meals were prepared on the on the boat so the immersion was complete and most days were topped off with evening walks on the beach or exploring nearby townships. There is so much more to learn but we are anxious and committed to taking the leap. I’m really looking forward to the boat search and will start looking now with a goal of owning in just over a year. Looks like we are going to need a lot more help and advice.

Ha! told ya so!

Good news on the outcome... you are now sliding down the fall line, gaining speed as you go. No doubt that you will reach the bottom unscathed and with big smiles on your faces.

Enjoy the boat search, and remember that some brokers lie and all POs seem to forget deferred maintenance and grounding incidents when they tell you about their boats!

Good luck, and tell us about the search as you progress.

Jim

[gamayun]

How wonderful!! Very happy for you both and the start of a grand adventure