Time to start my (early) midlife crisis!

[DelusionalMedic]

Hello everybody,

Short time lurker, first time poster! I've always had an interest in sailing and daydreamed about seeing the world. I decided that if I keep waiting for the right time I'll be waiting forever.

I'm starting by taking some ASA lessons here in Northern California. My hope is that over the next couple of years I can gain some experience chartering boats and crewing until I have at least some idea of what I want in a boat. My 5 year plan is to buy a boat, and after that I hope to work half time and sail half time!

We'll see how it goes! My wife is on board for the first part of learning to sail. She seems open to the idea of cruising...But I think she's skeptical I'll stick with it long enough to get that far. I'm glad I've got plenty of time to bring her around. In the meantime I'll keep sneaking sailing channels into her youtube subscriptions.

Thanks for having me! I'm happy to be here!

[JPA Cate]

Welcome aboard CF, Delusional Medic,

I can certainly understand wanting to get into sailing, having been doing it rather a lot for the last 35 yrs. or so.

It's an attainable goal. I don't think anyone has a very good idea how much loosening up of destinations borders we're going to see in the short term, nor, of course, longer term as well. However, there's a lot of sailing can be done out of the Bay Area, even if the Bay, itself hasn't many. Jim and I used to do ocean races out of the Bay, and in it, as well.

Ann

[Captn_Black]

All the best, hopefully your wife comes round to the idea. It would be a shame to have to leave her for the sea...

[DelusionalMedic]

The coronavirus situation has thrown a big chunk of uncertainty into everything that's for sure! The upside is that my timeline has a ton of wiggle room for things to settle down!

[chris mac]

Welcome to the forum, and to the dream. Just to give you some incentive, I joined here with a 5 year plan... 6 years ago. We bought a small lake boat to practice on. And last year(right on schedule) we bought our cruising catamaran.
We spent the winter in the Bahamas.
I retired mid forties after being focused on this plan for over a decade. So it is possible. But it is a lot of work and sacrifice.
The biggest advice I can give is follow YOUR dream. Every one of us is doing it different, yet we are all still here. So there are many ways to make it happen.
And most important , enjoy it! That is after all the reason you dream
Good luck

[DelusionalMedic]

Thanks for the encouragement Chris!