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115 days to go

2K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  HuskerDave 
#1 · (Edited)
We're planning on retiring in 115 more days. One more big step down - we bought a boat!

We bought a Beneteau 423 on Lake Texoma. We'll get the survey done hopefully next week and close by April 1st. Then we'll spend weekends on her until the big day when we no longer have to go to work.

The plan is to stay on Lake Texoma for the summer - get lots of practice with the new boat - skills that we know in theory but have less than optimum hands on practice - like anchoring, using the dinghy - stowing it and getting it out in the water safely and soundly, and just more time sailing. Texoma is a pretty big lake so we should get lots of good time on the water.

Then, in October - when hurricane season has passed - haul her out and ship her to Houston. From there, head east via the ICW to Florida and by winter be in the Bahamas.

We've still got to sell the house, sell the business (getting close on that I hope), and do a million other little things before we're ready to leave land and become full time cruisers.

Thanks to all of you that comment on this forum - we've gained lots of insight into a lot of the areas that we know we'll face. 3 months practice time on Texoma will hopefully give us enough skills to handle the ICW and then coastal sailing around to our goal of winter in the Bahamas.

Oh yeah, here's her picture:
 
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#5 ·
I wish you well...
Hope the survey and resulting sale goes with out a hitch...sounds like your close no matter if its this boat or not though
 
#7 ·
Good luck on the survey and sea trial.
 
#8 ·
I've got the survey and sea trial set up, have a couple quotes on insurance, think that financing is set up, so we seem to be on a course that has a lot of momentum. One of the insurance quote requests was answered by a thoughtful reply requesting our sailing resume's. It's not very long, but highly motivated - hopefully that will get us a good rate!
 
#9 ·
Best wishes! We retired last summer and have just completed our first winter in the Bahamas. Living aboard, and cruising, is better than every fantasy you've imagined of this life ...
 
#11 ·
IMHO, get to the Gulf as soon as your schedule permits. Practice your basic skills along the way. By the time you get to FL, you'll have far exceeded whatever skills you'd learn on a Texas lake.

If you aspire to cruise the Bahamas, the longer you wait in the year, the longer you'll wait for weather windows.

As far as hurricanes go, once you get past the FL panhandle, western FL , unlike the Bahamas where I keep my boat, rarely faces any significant hurricane threat.

Good luck and fair winds!
 
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