Greetings

Hi there. My husband is returning to sailing after a 20 year hiatus and I will be joining him on the decks very soon. We are currently shopping for our first boat with plans to spend the next year cruising the Carribbean and Gulf Coast with a 9 year old girl in tow. Should be interesting to say the least. I really have appreciated the wealth of information offered here and the friendliness with which you welcome newbies.

My previous sailing experience is rather limited. I spent a year many moons ago nannying for a sailing family out of Annapolis. I may not know how to sail but I am very adept at keeping toddlers from throwing themselves overboard. Friends have wondered how I will adjust to sailing but I figure my years of roughing it by camping (sleeping in the dirt, not RVs. RVing is not camping), growing up on a working farm ( having to do hard labor no matter the weather) and my love of water (I will miss running Class V rapids while out on the ocean) should prevent me from going insane the second month we are out. At least I hope so... some think my willingness to cruise is evidence that I am already nuts. Ah well.

I am starting my ASA courses this month and my husband is going with me as a refresher. We plan on spending the summer doing a lot of daysailing and weekend trips to get familiar with everything. Hopefully if my husband's job ends when expected to, we will be able to take off around November 1 or so.

Thanks for being patient with me as I know bubkis at this point in time. Hopefully the learning curve won;t be too steep!