I forgot to add that the experrience of cuising with our kids for the four years has made our family extremely closs knit. We are still close today even almost 20 years later. Also, the kids were at an age that we were able to impart an excellent set of value to them. They also learned to take responsibility at an early age as by the time they were 10 & 12 they were standing night watches. Today the older son is a project manager for a software company and the younger is the captain of a Swan 53 in the Caribbean. We are extremely proud of both of them and they both love and are proud of their lives.
We bought the boat we sailed on in 1982, because we had always had the dream of taking the kids off sailing and the perfect boat for us (a Valiant 40) presented itself at that time. It gave me 5 years to adapt it tour own needs and to update the windvane self steering,
SSB, propane
stove, and many more upgrades etc.