Planning for the Break

[CruisingJJ]

Hello all.

We wanted to take a minute and let introduce ourselves and our plan. My wife and I are currently putting a plan in action that will get us in the water on our own boat within 3 years. We are very excited and scared at the same time. By the time we leave we will have a 3yr old boy. Hopefully he will make a good deckhand.

We are planning on selling nearly everything we own, including our home, and cruising full time. We have no sailing experience, so we will be looking to educate ourselves over the next few years through schools, books and message boards such as this. We are from the Missouri, so not much blue water cruising around here.

We are excited about our adventure and look forward to getting to know the sailing and cruising community.

[McKinneyYD]

That's a bold move, indeed! It would certainly pay to have the sailing experience (and be convinced you can all get along in a small, confined space that you can't walk away from) prior to selling out completely. OTOH, there are folks that have done quite a bit of this. I would recommend this web site for your perusal: Eastport Marine Press, Marine Publishing, books, scantlings rules, scantlings, boatbuilding, boat building, repair, design, yacht, construction. These folks did the liveaboard thing and raised a daughter aboard a Giles 25' Vertue class. They have good stuff.

[CruisingJJ]

McKinneyYD,

Thanks for replying with your advice.

Yes I know it sounds like a bold move, but my nature as an engineer is to make sure that I always have a plan. With that said, I also know that I will have to adjust that plan continuously being a full time liveaboard cruiser. So, anyway, we do have a plan. We are not just suddenly dumping our possessions and running away. We just want a change of pace and we both love nature and the water. Part of our plan is to get as much real world training (on the ocean) as much as is feasible and then slowly move to offshore cruising; along with doing some liveaboard cruising training. I am not going to sail 500 miles the first time we get on our boat. Considering we will have no significant experience on a sail boat, we realize that we'll need time to adjust and get comfortable with sailing, cruising and living aboard.

My wife and I have been together for 17 years, and we do almost everything together so hopefully we can manage. We are adventurous and we love to travel, so hopefully that works to our favor in this little journey. I fully expect that the transition may be more difficult for her than me, but she is totally on board with the idea. She will be learning everything that I learn. Based on what I have read, we are doing this for many of the same reasons that other liveaboards are doing it.

We hope it goes well, and we will continue to look for information and support from other successful liveaboards.

[remetau]

My wife and I did the same thing. We did take a lot of power squadron courses and bought a small keelboat that we spent almost every weekend on for one summer though. We then decided that this was the life we wanted to live, put our house up for sale, started selling everything in the house on EBay, bought our boat and moved to Florida. We love it. Good luck and I hope all the best for you.