Published Articles:
We Did It! The Attainable Dream
Published in "Living Aboard" Magazine
September/October, 1999We've been in Luperon on the north coast of the Dominican Republic for over two months, waiting out hurricane season. This has given me a chance to reflect on our change in the last few years from land-based people to actual cruising people (finally), with no land ties except some family back in the States.
I have imagined traveling by boat for so many years that I can't even remember when it started. I know that over 20 years ago, I was reading whatever books I could find in the library. I would get excited every time a new one would come out - Dove, Maiden Voyage, even Trashman. The beauty of the movie "Dead Calm" made it one of my favorites, even though the subject matter was something I wanted to avoid. In the early 1980's, I started taking trips to different parts of the Caribbean by Windjammer Cruises, private sailboat charters, diving cruises and timeshare vacations. Each time, I would return home feeling depressed that I wasn't able to spend more than a week in these incredible places. For every island I was able to visit, even for a day, I knew that I was missing out on so much more that there wasn't time to explore.
It was in St Lucia about 7 years ago that we were looking at the cruising sailboats anchored in gorgeous Marigot Bay. The home port of one of them was Anna Maria, Florida, just about 20 miles from where we were living at the time. That sparked a conversation about actually selling everything and going cruising. At the time, it seemed like a dream never to be realized; an idea so totally alien to our world of jobs, houses, cars and the stuff of civilization that traps us to our land existence.
It was over a year later that the first concrete steps were taken toward this goal. We started looking at boats to buy since we decided our 25' Hunter was definitely not the right boat. One of my favorite things to do was go down to the main marina in town and walk along the docks and just look at the boats, imagining the places they'd been. Visits to boat shows in Miami and St Petersburg were anticipated almost as much as vacations.
We finally found a 35' Charlie Morgan design that was in our price range, although we had been looking for something in the 40' range. This boat had not been heavily used in the previous ten years, but still needed lots of TLC. We brought her home on a foggy day in February about three years ago and started work. About the same time, we decided it was time to divest ourselves of some of our earthly belongings. I still haven't figured out why two people need a three bedroom, 2 bath house with a pool; I guess it's just one of those things you do when you live on land. And between us, we had four vehicles! The first thing I did to prove it was really serious was putting my 1966 red convertible Mustang on the front lawn with a FOR SALE sign. By the second day, I had a serious buyer who didn't even quibble about the price (I probably should have asked more for it). This really started things going and we had giant garage sales about every other month. My favorite sayings were "make me an offer I can't refuse" and "it won't fit on the boat, so it's gotta go". We unloaded unbelievable amounts of things, but it still seemed like we had tons of stuff. It reminded me of comedian George Carlin's old routine on "Stuff".
About that time, one of my tenants decided to secretly disappear into the night. After being annoyed for a few days, I decided this could actually help move things along. The rental house was smaller, no pool, so we moved in there to enable us to sell the larger house without living there. We were so busy with the boat and garage sales and our jobs that we didn't spend much time cleaning around the house. It sure seemed like a great way to keep it presentable to sell. As a bonus, it gave us a new location for even more garage sales!
I obtained information from all the mail forwarding services and selected one that I planned on using. Since we would be getting mail at both houses until the larger one sold, it gave me a chance to cut down on all the junk mail that we were getting. I didn't think we would need those compact disc membership offers or the weekly offers for low-fee credit cards and definitely not the tons of catalogs and sale flyers. I certainly didn't want to pay a mail service to forward all that junk. Instead of letting the post office forward everything, I sent out address changes to only those people and businesses that we would need to keep in contact with. All the other junk finally got the "Moved, left no forwarding" on the envelope. Whatever junk mail that got to us and had a postage-paid envelope got it back with a note to take us off the mailing list because we were leaving the country, that always gave my spirits a boost. I also got my finances simplified and made them easy to take care of from afar. Just in case, we had new wills made out. Checkup visits to dentists and doctors were made well in advance.
By early 1996, we moved on the boat for a few months before we left. I planned on keeping a duplex and the small house we were living in because they would provide us with a good income while we were traveling. I signed a management agreement with a local real estate company to take care of the two properties and I started the mail forwarding service. In July of that year, we set sail down the west coast of Florida toward the Keys. Our plan was to sail the Keys until after hurricane season and then head for the Bahamas and points south. We had a nice summer sailing to the Dry Tortugas and around the Keys until each time I got mail forwarded and found out what the real estate management company
had in store for me. By October, we pulled into Marathon and had a decision to make - either go back and give it up or sell those properties. There was no reason to keep them if the management company and their "fix-it" people were going to be the only ones making money on them. After coming so far, I was not going to let this stop me, so I contracted with a different real estate agent to list them for sale.Meanwhile, we both got jobs, since we figured it would be a while before they'd sell. We ended up staying in Marathon over a year, not only to sell those properties, but to add things to the boat - like refrigeration and a watermaker. By January of this year, we finally got away from the dock to head for the Bahamas. We were going to be real cruisers and not "dock potatoes", a phrase coined by a good friend in Marathon.
We finally made it across the Gulfstream to Bimini in mid-February of this year. Although the weather this year was colder and stormier than usual, we were just happy to be on the way. We spent almost four months cruising the Bahamas, including a month's stay in Georgetown in the Exumas, which is a final destination for some cruisers before they head back to the States for the summer. We then spent a month in the Turks & Caicos, which included Provo, Grand Turk and picturesque Salt Cay.
So far, I've decided that if I were to do it over, I would have moved onto a boat years sooner. Instead of "wasting" my money on houses, furniture, lawn mowers, pools and other "stuff"; I could have been paying a mortgage on a larger, newer boat. I just figured cruising was an unattainable dream until retirement, and that seemed a lifetime away. It's actually closer than you think!! We've met so many people who work 6 months and then go cruising for 6 months or a year at a time. That seems to be a better alternative than never going at all. I've heard of too many stories of people waiting for retirement to go cruising, only to find that their health fails or something else happens, and then the dream remains a dream. Instead of waiting until the time is right, I think you can create the circumstances to make the time right.
I don't know how long we'll be able to cruise until we need to stop to feed the "cruising kitty", but at least we're out here now. The dream is attainable as long as you are serious about it and determined, although it is alot of work to get it started.
If you're already living aboard, you've already taken a huge step. You won't have to go through the trauma of selling (or giving away) prized possessions that you thought you couldn't live without. As for me, I wouldn't trade the cruising life. I don't really miss my classic car (or driving in traffic) or my antique furniture (or polishing it) and I really don't miss having a television (with or without cable)!!
Last updated by darrensmith@hotmail.com
