since I was three feet tall

[sail_the_stars]

Hi Everybody;

I am shipwrecked in the desert. But in a year or so my wife and I will be sailing or building our own sailboat. Life is good but I miss talking to the like-minded. Where we live the only boaters are PWC and motorboat people. I wish I was sailing again. I grew up on the Great Lakes. But I can't wait to sail the Pacific.

Freedom isn't free. We sailors kind of understand that don't we? God bless America. POPS, "sail_the_stars"

[delmarrey]

When I got out of the Navy in 73 I took a little trip up to Alaska for a while then down to Phoenix in the late 70's. After 3 years in the desert I had enough of snakes and insects.
I had the same dream, go to San Diego and build my own boat. Well it turns out there wasn't any place to do that unless I had lots of $$$$. So ended up buying a Cal 2-27 and cruising the southern coast and Mexico for a while. It was great weather but every port cost to stay. Ended up selling the sailboat and moved onto a 40' sports fisher and spent most of the weekends diving, until the wife had enough of the expenses. Which cost me a good wife due to my obsession with boats.
To make a long story short, DO YOUR RESEARCH before making an attempt to build your own. You'll need a hunk of ground with enough room and access to the water with the local governments approval. Not to mention the TIME and RESOURCES $$$$+ tools to do so. Materials are not cheap anymore either. And what experience do you have building boats?
I got my experience repairing PBR's, Swifts and Tugs in Viet Nam and I still learn new stuff today. You may end up with an undesirable boat that only a Mexican fisherman may want.
Anyway, just a little advance notice to a dreamer like myself who's been there.

Regards, Delmar..................................._/)

[CaptJason]

Hi and welcome to this little peice of the sailing life. (Only peice I have right mnow myself)

What desert are you cast away on? I'm in Utah finishing the last 8 years of a 30 year sentence. No not jail. it's called earning a living I retire then and I am taking my boat to the Pacific Northwest. With this drought we are all suffering out here in the west My boat is on a cradle mostly because of the low water on the Great Salt Lake and also to get her 100% ready for liveaboard. I am looking at a small marina on the Hood Cannel. Well thats me in a second let me know what sort of plans you are developing.... Jim

[sail_the_stars]

Hi Jim;

My wife and I are marooned on a little "island" called Bullhead City. We are on the Colorado River very near the meeting of California, Arizona and Nevada. We are in a transition zone between three different types of desert. The drought is certainly all over the West.

My wife and I have the same dream: she wants to live all over the world so she can learn the languages and customs and cultures. Me, I want to explore. 70% of the Earth is water. Why waste too much time on the 30% land?

I don't have a lot of sailing experience and my wife has none. Neither of us is worried, though.

As for a plan it is kind of fluid at this point but the end goal is the same: travel the world and live all over.

My wife is from Brazil; were going there. Galapagos and Easter Island and Australia and New Zealand and Antartica. Round the Cape of Good Hope and the Horn. I am sure there are many places that we'll love that we never knew we wanted to see.

My wife and I love wood. The extra work would be a joy to us. But a steel hull would make Antartica possible or at least safer. We both like trimarans, too. Buy or build? Who knows? I have a name picked out but I don't want to risk bad luck renaming a boat.

Eight years left in "prison"; I sympathize but myself I am going for the breakout. As we speak I am tunneling with a spoon. A journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step.

PAUL "Sail_the_stars"

[sail_the_stars]

Hi Delmar;

Thank you and God bless you for your service to our country. Thank you especially for fighting in the Vietnam War; we were not only right to fight in that one but we would've been wrong not to. I have lost sleep many times in my life; BUT I NEVER LOST ANY SLEEP BECAUSE I THOUGHT OUR COUNTRY WASN'T PROTECTED BY OUR ARMED FORCES.

It all takes money to sail, doesn't it? You know what I think about though when I think about the cost? When in history was it ever possible for the average person to sail recreationally around the world? Never. Democracy and freedom give us that; and then only recently. We always pay a price for freedom. It's worth every penny.

As a cook in Bullhead City I'll never save the money to cruise. In a few months God willing I will be fishing in Alaska. On a factory trawler is safer than the fishing boats or crabbers; the pay is good enough. Thank God too that God created two cheap, penny pinching people when He created my wife and me; we can live off of nothing given the hardware.

I am blessed and cursed with the ability to learn anything exceptionally well and quickly anything I set my mind to. I know about boat building and repair; I am sure I can build my first boat as a professional would. It isn't like we are islands unto ourselves; someone is always there to help. And if you can't learn something new everyday what is the point of getting out of bed?

That said you are absolutely right. For instance, finding a place to build a sailboat is incredibly costly. If I were to build a steel hull here in the desert land to rent to do so is dirt cheap; it might even offset the cost of transport to the cost. I might go that route.

Wood, though, has to be done by the sea. I fear the wood boat bug has not only me but my wife. I will work for free if I love my work. The cost of wood......insane. But wood is beautiful isn't it. It loves you back like fiberglass never will.

And thank God my wife has the same dream and understands the realities. She loved your reply, too. She nodded her head the whole time. To dream is free; to live the dream is another story.

I can't help but appreciate your kind words of experience from someone who has obviously learned the hard way. Thank you.

PAUL

[delmarrey]

Hi Paul,
Thanks for the kind words. You sound like you must be in your 20's. If so, great! You have lots of time to acquire knowledge and experience. I use to sail small Inerlakes up on Lake Mead. Had a great time camping out on the shores.
Take some lessons and read lots of books. Get some of that Coast Guard training (courses). Buy a small (trailerable, but big enough for two) sailboat and start getting that valuable experience. Lakes are a bit differant from offshore but it's a good start.
As for building your own. Wood is becoming more economical these, again. With the new epoxy systems they're just as good as fiberglass/polyester rigs, if done right.
The best to you & yours on your adventures. And before you do that proscessing ship trip, personally talk to some people that have done it a time or two. It's a rough and tumble job with long hours. And make sure it's a worthy vessel with a seasoned Captian................._/)

Food for thought:
I find myself drawn to a definition of seamanship penned by Captain
Lincoln Colcord, a ship captain from Maine. Having spent his life at
sea, Captain Colcord defined seamanship as "an attitude and way of life,
which face facts, which deal in realities without evasion, which know
that the only failure is dishonesty and that error is truth betrayed."

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover"

- Mark Twain