SailNet Community banner
  • SailNet is a forum community dedicated to Sailing enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about sailing, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, repairs, reviews, maintenance, and more!

Your Sailing Dream ...

2K views 11 replies 12 participants last post by  travlin-easy 
#1 ·
We haven't had a thread here in a while about what people are looking forward to with sailing. What are you excited about, what are you working towards, are you going cruising someday, getting a new boat, trying to learn something new ? It's winter soon (in the north), a good time to think about next year! Let's hear it! One of the things I enjoy most of all is hearing what other sailors are doing.
 
#2 ·
Near term: Week long cruises around Lake Michigan: Door County, Michigan ports, North Channel.

Future: 1-2 year voyages in Carribean, South America, Europe, etc. I like to think of going on long voyages, rather than casting of the lines and never returning.
 
#4 ·
Near term - Hoistin' the colors and playin' pirate (wife thinks I am immature). Actually...cooking steaks at anchor on a warm summers day in Potter's cove (Narragansett bay) rafted with the rest of my pirate pals...LOL

Long term - I am trying to get my wife sold on eventually going to 40-50' and cruising up and down the coast once retired. Winters in warm water and summers up here...the ultimate retirement.

Cool thread...
 
#6 ·
Second THAT. PaulinVictoria!:D

I look towards cruising the N. Chessie this coming season and fitting out the boat for long-term live aboard. Year after that...off to the ICW and South for the winter of '14. Who knows after that? ;)
 
#7 ·
Next year I would like to take a 3 week vacation and sail up to Newport R.I. non stop, have the wife meet me there then day sail our way back to the Bay with a stop in Martha's Vineyard of course.

Long term I would like to sail the boat to St. Martin, have the wife me me there and then cruise the islands.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Wind Magic, this is a very good topic. It's easy to get lost in the uber-technical sailing threads or to believe that the only sailing to be done is full-time cruising. While I lap up all of those kinds of threads, as a newbie sailor neither applies to me directly (at this time, anyway.)

At first blush, I have already accomplished my original goal which was nothing more than "learn how to sail a sailboat." It was always on my bucket list, although since I made the list when I was a kid I had no concept of running out of time to accomplish my goals. At forty, the reality of that is only getting more clear.

As a kid, I thought of the most exciting things that I wanted to do someday. I wanted to shoot guns, jump out of airplanes, scuba dive, have big muscles, and learn how to sail a sailboat. Ha, it's funny when you think about it. But when you are eight years old these things sound pretty darn cool. At forty, I still think they're cool. So I did all those things as time went by- all except learn how to sail. I just never had the opportunity, or rather, never created the opportunity until last year. I finally did, and I kick myself for wasting twenty years not sailing.

Now that I am sailing, I have goals and I have dreams.

My goals are to increase my ever-expanding coastal cruising range. I am now to the point of cruising up the west coast of Florida, then anchor for the night and cruise back the next day. I don't get very far, but with a typical two day weekend it's what I have available. I have learned how my boat acts in various winds and swell and, thanks in great part to this website, I have been broadening my skills to handle a wider array of conditions. My next goal is a three day trip, then a four day, etc.

What are my dreams? RHR1956 took the words out of my mouth. "I want a boat that I can stand up in. One with a shower and a flat screen TV and a gas grill and a bimini for shade and a genset for the A/C to make a cool breeze on a hot Texas, (err... Florida) afternoon."

I have the bimini, which I cannot imagine not having. It's more important than sails on some days...

I love my little Morgan 22. But lately everybody and their brother wants to go sailing with me (and I'm happy about that) and this thing isn't exactly a cruise ship. Something in the 33-37ft range would offer a quantum leap in living space although I would deeply miss the ability to sail in two feet of water. No more sailing right up to the beach and hopping off in waist deep water.
 
#11 ·
I'm planning do do bermuda in 2014. Lots of fitout of my father's old boat between then and now...

I do NOT have the bigger-boat-itis though. Until I am some day financially ready for that circumnavigation I will stick with the smallest boat I can fully enjoy, which is about 25-27'. I might get a faster boat in a few years, but def not a bigger one.
 
#12 ·
I'm living the dream. I'm currently in Marathon Florida's Boot Key Harbor, docked at the City of Marathon Marina, living aboard a 33-Morgan Out Island. The beam is 13-feet, draft 4-feet, and fully equipped. It has everything you need, full galley with a 2-burner gas stove, gas oven, mid size refrigerator/freezer, big stainless sink, hot and cold running water, head with a shower, flat screen TV, AM/FM/Stereo/CD player, heat-pump/air conditioner, bimini, dodger, new rigging, new roller furler for the jib, new jib sail, and the only thing missing - a genset, will likely go on next spring.

Best of all, the boat sails like a dream, it's fairly fast, very comfortable and cost less than $20,000. The only bad thing is I have to leave the palm trees and sunshine on or about March 1st and be back in Maryland by April 13th so I can go back to work and support this wonderful habit. ;)

Cheers,

Gary :cool:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top