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My Update

8K views 60 replies 26 participants last post by  Superpickle 
#1 ·
In case anyone is at all interested, I will give you my update. It has been a whirlwind.

WHen I posted my leaving thread, we decided to start interviewing realtors for the house. Like anyone else, I assumed in this market that it would take a while and give us time to finish my projects on the boat and business. Well...

We had the second realtor over. SHe loved the house. We were going out of town for a funeral and rushed her out. I jokingly told her that if she came across any buyers to let me know. We left for the funeral.

ABout two hours later, she showed up, unannounced, with a very nice young family. My kids were running around their house in their underwear while dad was trying to real them in. Needless to say, he was shocked.

THey were at the house a long time. THey left. I got called that night. THey bought it. They want to be moved in and closed before the 11th of November.

THis has gone so fast that I have been certain something would fall apart and have not told anyone but the mods at Sailnet. Needless to say, short of something unprecedented happening, I can officially tell everyone now. We are about to be homeless (at least for one that does not float).

So dad and I have been frantically at my boat trying to get her ready to cross the gulf and mom and Kris have been frantically packing the house. We have been in the middle of a redisign on my electronics and electrical (hope to post pics when done) and it is taking a lot longer than I anticipated, but the truck is supposed to pick up the boat on November 12th and ship her to Mobile, AL. We chose Mobile because the cost was almost the same as Kemah and it is a lot better sail south to Florida... avoiding the rigs. We plan to sail straight across the gulf to Fort Myers Beach, FL, and reside there for some period of time as we work through my business and office moves, etc. Mom and dad are slated to join us around March/April where we will duplicate our trip with their boat and head them south too.

SO, there's my update for the moment. Sorry for all of those I have not gotten back to, but I hope you will understand. We are crazy busy - but excited (and a little nervous) about how quick this is all happening.

We will try and keep you posted and get pics as we can. Thanks for all the thougts!!!

Brian
 
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#6 ·
In theses trying times CD it is imperative that one maintain one's coolness at all times. :hothead

I am excited for you.

Don't sweat the small stuff. (You will be relegating more and more to that category as time passes.)

You will be amazed at how things that once seemed very important are reduced to insignificance once the fenders are stowed and the watch set. ;)
 
#8 ·
HEHE! I hear ya! Better yet, I am going to bring the fishing pole and go buy a lure... lucky lure, I hope! A little bull mahi-mahi or Tuna would finish this run off nicely!

I am heading to SW Florida. I know you are NEast, but would lovre to meet some time either in Keys or Bahamas. Keep that in mind as you get closer.

Brian
 
#20 ·
Well, little bit of a bummer, but my ship date just got pushed by a week. It is possible it will even get pushed another week past that. It is really out of my hands now. Oh well. I just cannot get everything done I need to get done.

We close on the house on the 11th. Wow. That is less than a week. That will be the end of my owning a home that does not float. Maybe not forever... but for a very long time I suspect. The entire house is about packed up. I am now about to move to the garage and figure out what to take and what not to take on the boat. In all of this, I will try and keep notes to share with you guys on what worked and did not work for us.

I have been asked to kinda keep a running thread of our 'adventure' and discuss its merits. I hope that in dong so it would help others as they move to similar endeavors in the future.

Talk soon,

Brian
 
#26 ·
I have been asked to kinda keep a running thread of our 'adventure' and discuss its merits. I hope that in dong so it would help others as they move to similar endeavors in the future.
Brian if you do have the time to pop in occasionally and update such a thread there are alot of us here that would certainly get a real kick out of it.

Bon Voyage.
 
#21 ·
CD,

I was just out in the shop trying to reduce 5 tool boxes down to three. We are dividing the storage unit into 3 sections, dumpster, ship to the Philippines, and go on the boat.

Take the time it takes to get settled in, and BEST WISHES into sharing an anchorage with you........i2f
 
#22 ·
I have a nervous stomach just thinking about what your ridding your self of and its not even me.....It will definitely be may biggest hurdle to ever moving onto a boat full time....I am attached to my stuff I will admit.

I for one am looking forward to your updates Brian.
 
#27 ·
Years ago when I first graduated from college, I had an older coworker that always used to say "We are just slaves to our possessions".

He eventually sold everything he had, bought a small house and workshop with cash and followed his dream of building hand crafted furniture.

I was young then, and having few possessions at the time, couldn't understand his mantra or his quest to rid himself of the things that prevented him from following his dream. However, as time has passed, I've accumulated "mountains of things" as Tracy Chapman would say. When the weight of these things have demanded my time and/or financial resources when I'd rather have been doing something else, I've many times thought of his words and wondered if I'd ever be able to break the chains of my oppression and free myself of the "stuff" that I seem to "need".

Folks like CD gives hope to folks like me.
 
#23 ·
I2f,

Would love to meet you and the Mrs' I2F!! The plan, subject to change, is to wait in Fort Myers Beach until APril or so. THen momma retires and come down. We may, due to Hurricane season, hang there until October of that year and punch out. Until then, we will spend time in the Bahamas, Keys, SW Florida, and the Tortugas (one of my favorite places). In fact, we may spend Christmas in the Tortugas if you want to join us? We would head out on December 18/19.

Up to you and anyone else that wants to come! You bring the beer, we will bring Thomas the Train Engine (which may be upgraded to Transformers by then!!).

Scott,

Luckily I already have a bunch of duplicates on the boat, so getting rid of a lot of it will not be hard. I may also keep some of it in storage. Dad and I have a LOT of woodworking tools. He was a professional cabinet maker (owned a comapny), so we have a quite an array of different tools.

Brian
 
#24 ·
We don't have a date yet to leavem but I close the shop in less than 2 weeks. Imagine has sat pretty idle for 3 years+. She needs some attention to make her ready. Nov. 23rd I start in earnest on making her ready putting in 50 to 60 hour weeks on her. Most of the work is cosmetic. She needs to not only be ready to dance over the wave tops, but look good doing it too!..:thewave: ......i2f
 
#33 · (Edited)
Hi Everyone! Here is my update.

I am still in Texas, unfortunately (although I have some great news I will tell you below). My boat ship date is now the second week of December. Bunch of stuff beyond my control. Oh well. I am getting frustrated because the middle of the gulf is not a nice place to be in the middle of winter and I sure do not want to get caught out there in a Northern (been there, done that). But, like I said, it is beyond my control.

So, I am hanging around the forums this week or so trying to blow off some frustration. We closed on our house on the 11th of last week, so I am officially homeless. I was only planning on living across the street with my inlaws (I say I, I mean we, the whole family) for a few days, so we just threw some stuff in a suit case and sent the rest to the boat. Now here we are, stuck here for a few weeks, and scavenging for clothes. What is worse is that we permanently packed up almost all of our cold weather stuff, so we are washing things like jeans every couple of days!!! UGH!! So as you can imagine, I am very frustrated about living out of a suitcase and everything is a dissorganized mess.

On a positive note (1 of 2), this allows us to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with family. They were not expecting this (nor were we). So, we are all getting together for a great big shin-dig.... probably the last for a long while as we will be away. The timining also allows me to spend more time at the boat to do things to it which I might not have done otherwise.

So next week, after the holidays and some before, I will head to the boat and work on it some more. After the holidays, I will be there nearly fulltime. That would be the first week of December. I will also have her pulled, a new bottom job put on, start stripping her down for shipping, and somewhere around the end of that week or beginning of the next, ship her to mobile, AL. From there, we will re-rig her and sail her to either SW Florida or the Tortugas for Christmas.

NOW - THE VERY, VERY POSITIVE NOTE!!!

My son, Chase, got 6th place in UIL Public Reading! Now, that may not sound like a whole lot, but Chase has a speech impairment. He has been in speech most of his life (and still is and probably will be for a long time) trying to learn to speak correctly due to a mechanical defect he has had since he was a baby. SO, for any kid to make UIL is great. But for a kid with a speech impairment to place in UIL (1-6th place makes the team or whatever) that is really awesome! I am so proud of him. It really marks a great step forward in his progress. Only 2 kids in his school made it (4th grade), and he was one.

Pretty cool, huh???

Brian
 
#57 ·
NOW - THE VERY, VERY POSITIVE NOTE!!!

My son, Chase, got 6th place in UIL Public Reading! Now, that may not sound like a whole lot, but Chase has a speech impairment. He has been in speech most of his life (and still is and probably will be for a long time) trying to learn to speak correctly due to a mechanical defect he has had since he was a baby. SO, for any kid to make UIL is great. But for a kid with a speech impairment to place in UIL (1-6th place makes the team or whatever) that is really awesome! I am so proud of him. It really marks a great step forward in his progress. Only 2 kids in his school made it (4th grade), and he was one.

Pretty cool, huh???

Brian
Spoken like one GREAT Dad, a dad that is making plans to go sailing! Congrats to Chase and to the fam!
 
#35 ·
I ditto that...very cool indeed.

Sorry to hear of the delays..there is a sliver lining there..as you have more time to reflect on some rushed things.

Thanks for the update CD ..its going to be fun hearing from you more and more now as your adventure takes off.
 
#36 ·
Great stuff, CD, and definitely kudos to Chase.. Time flies, as we all know and soon enough these delays will be forgotten.
 
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