Young Blood from Ottawa, ON

[CanadianRedneck]

Hey everyone,
my name is Tyler. I am 19 with no real sailing experience (been on my grandparents boat when i was much younger). I've been finding university life just isn't for me at this point in my life. I've always led an active, adventurous lifestyle but i've never really been able to pursue it, which is my goal now.
While in the bahamas recently i met a couple liveaboarders (in Joe's Sound, Long Island, Bahamas). It seemed like a life I would love to try for a while, which is what brings me here. I've started looking through the forums and hopefully I can learn enough from everyone here that I can go after the dream too.
Ideally i'm looking to work for a while, buy a sailboat (maybe fix one up a bit) and then sail from Ottawa, along the coast to the bahamas and liveaboard there for a number of months, sailing around from time to time.
Anyways I will be all around here soaking up what wisdom I can.

regards,
Tyler

[Hud3]

Welcome aboard, Tyler!

Try the Google search function in the "Search" pull-down menu (upper right on the page). You'll find lots of past threads about buying and fixing up boats. Good luck finding the right one for you.

[knottybuoyz]

Stay in school Tyler. That's the very best advice I can give you and it comes from experience.

[Artful Dodger]

Well if your looking for a fix for your interest, head to the Nepean sailing club on Friday nights until the season starts and look up Gene the manager or Randy, or Scott, and if by chance you meet a Doug Paterson, you are on your way these are all great mentors for someone interested insailing. Just tell them that Patric from Artful sent you and trust me you will have a great time, oh I must mention there are lots of nice young ladies around the sailing club as well.

[CanadianRedneck]

Hello guys, thanks for the replies!
to Knottybuoyz: I will be returning to school, just taking some time off. I'm not ready yet to settle into the pattern of school/career and i feel like if i don't take the opportunity now, i may not get a similar chance at it. I'm sure there's so much I could do while young and able.

to Artful Dodger: Thank you very much for the name drops! I will definitely head over there at some point to see what I can pick up there. Currently I am in North Bay, ON for university but once i'm back home (late april) I will be devoting much more physical time & energy (as opposed to forum browsing) into learning what I can.

Again, thank you for the replies, nice to meet you

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Tyler,
Welcome aboard!
This is a forum where you'll hear lots of opinions and advice. Some will be good.
Sometimes its good to take a break from school to mature. I wasn't ready to head for University when I got out of high school and my folks couldn't afford it. I was a terrible student and there were no scholarships. I went into the Navy instead. It matured me very quickly and made me appreciate what an education is really worth. I earned my degrees while in military service and had the opportunity to attend Southwestern College (SD), San Diego State, University of Maryland and a semester at Stanford plus do correspondence courses all parttime after working hours. Even parttime I was able to make the Dean's list. All of it would have been so much easier had I just stayed in once place, buckled down to studies and had a parttime evening job to pay for it.
Never count on the funds to be there if you intend to go back to school later unless you are independently wealthy and in that case just disregard what I've said and go sailing.
Good luck in whatever direction you choose to go.
Kind regards,
JohnL

[CanadianRedneck]

Hey John, thanks for the welcome. I'm in a similar situation. I got by easily enough in high school, made honour roll more years than not and didn't generally have to push myself too hard, but now in university i'm finding that I don't have the skills to perform at this time. It's comforting to hear a similar story as my own. I am lucky in that my parents have been very understanding and even have shown approval of my decision based on the reasoning behind it (this is the decision to work for a while, haven't really brought up sailing ideas yet). We'll see what happens but I am confident in the choices I am making.
Thanks again for the welcome and for sharing

[saltyspringer]

Doing basically the exact same thing Tyler except I'm from British Columbia, studying at UBC. I'm taking a year out of school to get some legit life experience. Me and a couple friends are hoping to fly down to Mexico late September and backpack across to Florida. Then we'll buy a thirty footer and get it in shape and sale over to the Bahamas and around the Caribbean a bit. I don't have much experience; I've been on a two-week sailing trip of the Gulf Islands this past summer with a couple guys, and a couple more little boat trips. But my friend Liam is basically as experienced as you can be if you're not even 19. He's sailed on the tall ships from Japan to Vancouver, and Scandinavia to Africa to South America as well as many other sailing trips. I'm still a little worried about our experience levels though -- what happens for example if Liam gets knocked out somehow? I think we'll probably take some sailing lessons in the summer if we're actually serious about doing this.

If anyone reading this forum has been to the Bahamas and the Caribbean I was hoping I could get some kind of gauge of how dangerous (storms, reefs, pirates etc.) it would be, and how much experience on the water we would need. My mom doesn't seem to think it's the brightest idea in the world which I can understand. But right now it is my biggest dream to be anchored in a harbour in the Bahamas, talking with my friends, diving for spiney lobsters, and exploring the islands.

Thanks and good luck on your adventure Tyler

Daniel

Daniel

[CanadianRedneck]

thats awesome, definitely missing the diving for spiney's that I was able to do when I was south last. And I know what you mean about the parents not thinking its the best idea but in the end there are some decisions that are left for me (us) to make.

How's the weather out there? I used to live in Port Coquitlam. I have a few buddies at UBC from out this way, and a former teammate of mine playing on the men's volleyball team (Rex).

Anyways, best of luck to you to Daniel, I'm definitely interested to know how things work out for you and your friends.

Here's to possibly crossing eachother's paths in the future!

[BBQ Jerry]

Welcome aboard Canadian Redneck. You have to follow your heart and dreams. You can always go back to school later. I went to college right out of high school on a football scholarship. All I did was play football and party. After two years quit and went to work. Went back to school 20 years later and finished up. Now all I do is go sailing, or talk about going sailing. Good luck with whatever you do. Have fun!