Another Step Ahead

Our quest to pack up and go is still moving in the right direction.  Sometimes it seems like things are at a stand still but then other times, when I’m in the right frame of mind, I see progress around every corner.

The boat show last weekend in Annapolis, Maryland was incredible!  Not only were we able to meet up with my niece, Jaycie and her family for the afternoon on Thursday but on Friday, we were able to take a quick sail on two different Catamarans after a brief lecture in the morning and quickly eliminated one of them from our list of boats to look at as a possible home someday.  It was way too small to even consider living on day after day.  It was fun though.  The rest of the time, 2 more days were spent walking around the docks climbing in and out of various boats of various sizes, shapes, brands and price ranges.  We looked at everything there was to look at.  Even the ones we could only dream of affording.  By the time we left, we had one particular boat at the top of our list, the Leopard 39, a brand new model this year and a beautiful Cat.  By the time we’re ready to make a purchase though, this will be an old model and something even better will take it’s place so this is where we’ll start.  As an added bonus, we were able to meet, in person, the infamous Bob Bitchin.  An author in many of the sailing magazines we’ve subscribed to and a sailor as well.  He and his wife did just what we are wanting to do…sell everything and live aboard a sailboat.  It was a treat to get the chance to meet him.

Jon & Bob Bitchin

I’d really like to go to a strictly “Multihull” boat show now, or even just a Catamaran show.  I’m sure the opportunity will present itself in due time.  Until then, we press forward in Missouri.

On a more serious note, we got a call the other day from Jon’s dad.  Tiny is back in the hospital.  This time, she got dizzy, passed out and fell straight backwards, hitting her head.  He couldn’t get her to her feet so-called for an ambulance.  Come to find out, she had been in the hospital last week for 4 days for the same thing, the dizziness.  We had no idea.  The most frustrating thing for me though is not that they didn’t call and tell us then, but #1, the fact that they are going through all of this, basically on their own and #2, when we ask dad questions about what the doctors are doing with her, tests etc. and what they might be finding out, he doesn’t know or remember what they’re telling him.  He will always say that they can’t find anything wrong or the cause.  Then, they’ll let her go home for the same thing to happen days later.  Now, why would they let her go home if they don’t know what the problem is?  Is he just not telling us everything or do they really not know?  In addition to all of this, dad is having some problems with one of his eyes swelling up and full of fluid so he’s dealing with that as well.  He told Jon on the phone the other day that it took him an hour to get home from the hospital when they live only about 15 minutes away.  I’m sure he got lost again.

This process of selling the animals and the farm can not happen fast enough for me.  I want so badly to be down there now and be able to help them out.  They need someone, and advocate of sorts to sort out all the medical mess for them and get it relayed to the rest of the family as well.  Just another set of ears, eyes & hands would be a huge help.

Since I wrote last, we have had another couple come to see the alpacas we are selling and after some phone calls and emails back and forth, they want to buy our trailer and two of the girls.  Taylor & Summer.  Taylor has a male cria (baby) Cooper, that will go with her.  The last email I got from them started out with the words, “SOLD!”  We didn’t have enough time to get signed contracts or a deposit from them before they left for 10 days to Italy, so, we’re waiting for them to return next week to finalize everything.  I’m reluctant to say we’ve sold the girls & trailer until I have a signed contract and/or deposit but I’m inclined to do so.

Until next time…

Our First Boat Show

As of yesterday, we are officially registered to attend our very first (and huge) sail boat show!  We have flights, hotel, and a car booked for October 7-10, 2010 and I don’t think I could be any more excited.  We’re taking a “Take the Wheel” workshop all day on Friday, the 8th which includes half the day in a classroom type setting and the second half of the day on the water, on a catamaran!  We’ll be learning very basic stuff of course but this will give us an idea of what size boat we think we can handle and what size we might need to be comfortable and whatever else they’ll teach us that day.  We’ll also spend the weekend using what we learned in the workshop to scout around the different boat builders, dealers, etc at the show and maybe narrow down our choices to a particular brand or two and a size.  Once we get moved to Florida, we’ll take a more detailed and in-depth course for sailing catamarans and living on board, from the ASA (American Sailing Association).  Anyway, the boat show should be a lot of fun and educational as well.  We’re planning to meet my niece, Jaycie and her family Thursday afternoon and spend the rest of the day with them.  They live less than two hours away from Annapolis so it’s going to work out great to get a chance to hook up with them while we’re there for the boat show.  We haven’t seen them in 7 or 8 years!  I can’t wait!  What a great long weekend!

The Wait

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Ok, so…it’s really hard for me right now to wait for all of the details and puzzle pieces to fit together and float around till things start to fall into place.  There are things we need to do before we can even THINK about embarking on this “Extreme Dream” of ours.  We need to scale back on all of our “stuff” which I’m in the process of doing.  I’ve been going through the house, room by room, and collecting things that we haven’t used in a couple of years, things that we’ve collected just because they were given to us, things that have no sentimental value whatsoever, and things that would not fit into an apartment.  Our next step, after consumer debt is paid off and the alpacas are sold, and the house is sold…we’ll find a nice apartment, deck it out in whatever ‘western” decor that we have and live the remainder of our lives on land as we knew it.   Savoring every bit of the country life and the cowboy/cowgirl that we can.

We’re planning to sign up for the ASA (American Sailing Association) 101 Sailing class that starts up in the late spring of 2010.  They will let us make payments so that by spring it will be paid for.  Not that it’s THAT expensive but with applying as much as we can to consumer debt and paying for our upgraded wedding rings for our 25th anniversary and the cruise, extra cash will be at a minimum.  Paying a little at a time will help tremendously.

Typically, I’m not one to look forward to fall…because I know what comes next…Winter.  Ugh.  I do love the fall weather, but do not like winter even in the least way.  THIS year, though, I’ll be looking forward to New Year’s day.  By then, We’ll be packing and getting ready to leave for our cruise to the Eastern Caribbean for our 25th wedding anniversary!  That will help me through the dead, brown, cold days of winter.  When we get back, it’ll be full throttle ahead looking forward to our sailing class in the spring!  I hope the time will fly by like I think it will.

Still reading the book, “All in the Same Boat” and getting more and more excited about this idea.

Until next time…

A Catamaran for Me

Like I said before, we’ve been spending countless hours on the internet, in bookstores, reading everything we can get our hands on regarding coastal cruising and living aboard.  We visited a shop in town that sold small to large sailboats and even offer sailing instruction!  The boats we looked at were traditional sailboats, single hulled boats, two sails etc. and the two largest ones they had on their lot (mind you, this is Kansas…all we have here are lakes) to be quite honest, seemed a little bit too small if we were considering making this our next home.  The prices were pretty reasonable but could we really live day in and day out in such a small space?  These were large boats if you’re sailing around on the weekend on a lake but could we be happy on the ocean for long periods of time?

The more we read and studied and talked about what we thought would work and what may not work, we have finally settled on a Catamaran.  They’re a bit more expensive but you can go with a smaller length because there are two “hulls” with living space in both rather than just one.  I’ve attached a photo here.

I’ve started going through every room in the house and boxing up things that we can sell to squirrel away some money in our “Soggy Bottom Adventure” fund to be used on who knows what?  Sailing school?  Trip to Florida to look at REAL boats…not just in pictures on the internet and in magazines?  We will sell through Craigslist or Ebay if we can and plan a garage sale at the end of September to hopefully, get rid of most of the excess “stuff” around here!  The clutter makes me crazy anyhow.  It feels good to be actually making some progress toward our goal even though it’s still a ways off.

I’ve also put together a few package deals on our alpaca herd that will hopefully spark interest in some buyers.  We have a show in Topeka, KS in October so I’ll get busy making up Herd Dispersal flyers to pass out there.  I will miss raising alpacas, that’s for sure.  But, I will not miss the endless backbreaking work and the outflow of hard-earned dollars that goes towards feed, vet bills, supplies, hay, etc.  We would like to get moving on this as quickly as possible but not rush into something we know nothing about.  Before we built our farm here in Lathrop, we knew nothing about farming or raising any type of livestock, so I know the time will come.

Until next time…

Research Begins!

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We’ve been spending endless hours pouring over websites, reading magazines and books about people who live aboard boats and sail the waters of the world.  We’re still convinced that we can do this and that we WILL do this someday.  Neither of us are interested in circumnavigating or blue water sailing.  These are two new words we’ve learned the meaning of recently…to lose sight of the shore and disappear into the horizon for days and days without seeing land.  Somehow, that just doesn’t appeal to us.  Maybe because we don’t know a thing about sailing.  There’s lots of reasons…fear being one of them.  I don’t want to be buried at sea.  Seriously though, what we want to do is what’s called “Coastal Cruising.”  Makes sense.  You cruise on your boat using sail power when there’s any breeze and the motor when there’s no breeze and you want to keep moving.  The majority of the time would be spent in port…visiting different islands.  You don’t have to pay any fees to anchor offshore and you take your little dinghy into shore when you want or need to be off your boat.  I can envision spending several months at a time at one place, REALLY getting to know the culture, the people, everything about it.  When you get tired of that place you pull up your anchor and move to the next island.

We’re not quite sure how this will all work itself out or when in our timeline of the foreseeable future this new dream might take shape but we do want to move forward.  We should start planning and preparing for this now like, paying off debt etc. so we can start planning for the purchase of a live-aboard boat someday.  This would be our house, so we’re not talking about a “spend-the-day-at-the-lake” sailboat here.  Then there’s the small detail of income.  Hmmm…so much to consider.

I bought a book at Boarders the other day…it’s a travel book about all of the Caribbean Islands!  It’s full of details about each and every island.  Facts, what to see, climate & when to go, history, maps, culture, arts, cinema, literature,music, the land, food & drink, details on various towns/villages on the islands, emergency info, internet access sites, laundry, medical services, money, tourist info, dangers & annoyances, sights, activities, festivals & events, and so much more!  It looks like a wealth of information!  It’ll even help us decide what to see and do on the islands we’ll visit on our upcoming 25th anniversary cruise to the Eastern Caribbean in January 2010!  Counting the days!

Until next time…