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!
Tag Archives: Boat
Research Begins!
Image via Wikipedia
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…
