Its amazing how fast things can change!

I have updated the stuff for sale page if anyone is interested.

 I did my best bee imitation and agreed with what she was saying and added a little input about potential cost savings (which is what it’s really all about anymore anyway!) then I settle back into my chair and soon I am thinking of my soon to be friends on Zero To Cruising and they are spending the day doing never ending boat maintenance and how Mike thinks he needs 3 arms to do some soldering, Looked like he had a pretty good handle onit to me.

Phew made it meeting over, I head out to meet up with Jac for a few minutes before she heads to work and when I get home I realize that the first of 2 showings is going on and no one is home so I head to Starbucks to waste some time With Jac, Garrett and Celina over a Mocha and a Frappuccino and some green tea thing that taste like grass.

The house just relisted yesterday and we had a tour of agents from 9-1 today and 2 showings this afternoon, let’s hope this is a good sign, we are getting close now and it would all feel better if the house was sold.

Now I am practicing a soon to be perfected art of using free wifi to do blog entries, this is actually pretty fun for me to find free internet as it can be a bit challenging but I am sure as we do it more we will get better at it.
Well almost time to go home the second showing should be wrapping up.

86 More days I can make it (thats my new montra)

Heres the link to the MLS, boy she shines up nice!

http://www.wvmls.com/property_single.asp?ID=650811

A quick post about our weekend in Newport, Oregon.  We love Newport and the Surrounding area!  If you have been there then you know what we are talking about.  Beaches, Shopping, Historic areas and the Ever popular Dungenous crab!

This weekend included NFL Playoff games, Drinking, Jac turning into a Rasberry when she had an alergic reaction to some unknown food(we think) followed by a Bennidryl induced Coma and a Nice relaxing dinner out.

Heres some other pictures from this weekend.   Check out some of those sunset pictures, great huh?

Next »

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Most people think I am crazy after they hear what I have to say about this subject, let me start with the formality part;

I hold a Master 100 GRT near Coastal Coastguard license

I have been through many classes at the Clatsop Community College that covered;

Rules of the road, Marine navigation, Celestial navigation, Seamanship, First Aid/CPR, Fire response, Marine Safety drills, Radio Communication, Hazwoper, Visual Communications, Vessel stability, Coastal Navigation & Voyage Planning.

For 5 years I ran a Guide service named “Fish On Adventures” that specialized in salmon and Sturgeon fishing on the Columbia river in Oregon.  I gave this up when it got so busy guiding that I would have to quit my full time job at Hewlett Packard to keep guiding and I decided that the full time pay and benefits where more important since I still had kids around.

Other than the official training and Certifications I have been on a boat of one kind or another most of my adult life.  We have spent many days in a 25’ fiberglass boat 60 miles offshore chasing Albacore Tuna out of NewportorDepoe BayOregon with many more days 30 miles offshore catching Halibut and Salmon.

John's 100+LB Halibut! View at Picasa John's 100+LB Halibut!08-Aug-2005 02:31, SONY DSC-U60, 5.6, 5.0mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 100

Albacore out of Depoe Bay Oregon! View at Picasa Albacore out of Depoe Bay Oregon!

Seasick

Jac has less experience on a boat, but she is a natural to the water.  When everyone else is seasick she is wondering why and actually has said she is looking forward to her first time (ha me too!). She can sleep when everyone else is getting beat up and she loves to crack a Tuna on the head when she boats it.

I don’t think I could have another partner better suited to learn while we go, did I mention she has a photographic memory?  I have heard people talk about having photographic memories but she is the only person I have actually met that really can do it, seriously she can pull phone numbers, what you where wearing from 10 years ago.  Yes I do lose most arguments because she is usually right!

I have spent a limited amount of time on a Sailing vessel and we are planning on taking the first year of our cruising life just learning the intricacies involved with sailing Vs Motor boating.

We are intelligent people (well Jac is anyway) and there is no way I will plan and execute a voyage until we are both prepared to handle whatever situation may come up.

Any of you have some great suggestions for us please feel free to comment or contact us and let us know.

Newport Bridge at Night! View at Picasa Newport Bridge at Night!07-Aug-2007 20:51, Canon Canon EOS 20D, 4.0, 17.0mm, 8 sec, ISO 400

We have owned many Boats but since we sold Jetzilla we no longer own one.  We have been researching sailing vessels every since we decided we wanted to do this! The opinions out there on Blue water VS Coastal Cruisers is kind of like the ford vs chevy debate and the same goes for Mono hulls vs Catamarans.

Jetzilla

I find that there are two distinct kinds of sailors those who think either it’s a Mono hull or it’s not really a sailboat and those that just love the water and don’t care what type of boat they are on.
I look at boats differently than others and I think if the wind propels it (well most of the time anyway) and it rides comfortably and safely it’s my kind sailboat and I really have always loved Catamarans.

We have decided that a Gemini 3400 or 105m catamaran will be the one we are going to try and purchase. They are at our price break and large enough to do what we want. I know a lot of people will say these are not offshore boats but there is at least one finishing a Circumnavigation (Slapdash). I think the boat is only as good as the person operating it and the preparation that went into getting it ready.

The Albion

Why a catamaran you ask? We like living above the water not below, We like our drinks to not slide off the table while sailing, we don’t like leaning when the wind blows hard.
Are Catamarans safe? I don’t know if they are as safe as a big mono hull, but I do know that the modern catamaran is very safe, wont sink, and is fast.

To all you purists that think you have to be in a mono to be sailing, please read more about Modern Catamarans. If you think they are ugly then that’s a different story. I love the lines of a nice Mono hull and some of the Cats are ugly, but to each his own.

The main concern I have about a cat is Pitch poling, I see this common topic whenever I search for catamaran safety, I have not heard of many cruising cats actually doing this, and in most cases it’s racing cats that have this happen.  The below picture is from Ockam Instruments where they are discussing real world sailing.

Oh Crap!

The second thing that could happen is if the cat gets upside down that’s where it will stay unlike a mono that will right itself but unlike a mono a cat will not sink.

I will let you know how the mono vs cat debate turns out for us as we go.

I know it’s in the news a lot but Pirates?  I always like to answer “What about em?”  You know where there at, don’t go there.  Then follow up with what about crossing the road, driving to Portland, the gangs in LA, and the people who think they should have what you do?  What about Terrorism? What about falling in your shower?

You can get in a situation at anytime that can take your life, but you can also be careful not to put yourself in that situation.   The way I look at it is if we are afraid to do this because of Pirates we don’t belong on a boat!  There is oh so much more to life than being afraid.

Besides I will have Jac with me and about 2 days after we get hijacked they will release us and then they will go on an extended bender to recuperate, anyone who knows Jac personally will know what I mean.

Seriously though what about pirates?  Well we will do everything we can to avoid the areas they are known to frequent even if it means taking a route that might be harder for a small sailing vessel to deal with, the thing we have in our favor is that we have plenty of time, if that means we take a longer route and sit somewhere until the weather gets better then that’s what we do.

If we make it to the part of the world where the pirates are at, I mean real Arrggh Pirates not local punks that will steal from you at any port.  It will be in 3+ years and I am hoping the Governments of the world will grow some balls and release the Navies to clean it up before we get there.  Seriously how hard can it be to sink a fiberglass fishing boat?

If the High Tech Navies of the world can’t get it together then we will have a choice to make and here are the 4 options I see, well 5 I guess, we could just park somewhere and never leave;

• Ship the boat to safe water; this won’t be a real option since we won’t have that $30k laying around to pay for transport
• Try to join a group and sail through the pirate area,
• Turn around and sail back towards the Pacific
• Sail around the Cape of Good Hope, as anyone knows this is almost as bad as trying to outrun the Pirates
• Camp our asses on a beach somewhere until they kick us out

Who knows that’s a long way out, I will keep you posted.

Here are some good Pirate references;

Sos (save our Seafarers)

Noonsite Piracy page

U.S. Maritime Administration’s Horn of Africa Piracy page

U.S. Coast Guard’s “Homeport” page; select “Anti-Piracy

For us the “when” is a variable not a fixed date even though we have affixed June 30^th of 2012 as the end date for work that date may be revised at anytime due reasons that might be out of our control, for example in order for this plan to come together properly we must sell our house and as you all know the housing market is pretty crappy everywhere.

Our house is listed for sale and we are doing everything that we can to get it sold, but if the market does not carry what we need to get then we will wait.

The plan going forward is:

Sell the house

Leave work on June 30^th 2012

Our route....

Sometime in July or Aug start traveling across the Country and visit everywhere we want and end up on the North East Coast

Start Boat searching as we travel down the East Coast, actually the boat search has been on for awhile now, hopefully this will be a boat look at trip

Buy boat when we find “The One”

Move onboard, outfit to our tastes

Learn the Boats inside and out and when confidant Leave the East coast of the US for the Caribbean

Move from there as we feel ready and to where next, who knows.

Who Knows....

When do we plan to finish?  At this point there is no plan to finish we will go until we have just had enough of the traveling, Health issues force us to stop or we run out of money (I will talk more about finances later, that’s another question all together).

Goal #1 at present

So that’s our rough timeline and we have a lot to do to get to there, but it’s all falling in place and with the exception of the sold sign in our front yard we are on track.

Leaving when?  follow us and find out!

Why would youever do this? Man you must be rich, how can you afford it? What about pirates? Won’t you miss your family? And many, many more.

It is very hard to explain to any sane person why you would give up the comfort of a home, the security of a great job, the nearness to your family and just leave for an uncertain future.  I hope that over the next few posts I can answer some of the questions, and I will start with the most common, why?

Why do we want to do this?  Seriously in my mind why don’t you?

We want to do this because we still can!  We have worked our entire lives, raised some great Children to Adults and we are ready to do something different.  I figure at the rate of retirement I will end up working until the day I die, why not take this time when we are healthy and financially able to go and have a great adventure?  Hasn’t everybody seen a picture of crystal clear blue water and a sandy beach and thought “Wow I wish I could live there”?I know that cruising full time on a sailboat is not the same as living on a beach somewhere with unlimited funds to do anything you want, but it’s also not doing the same thing day in and day out for the rest of your life.

We have people all the time say to us, “Man I wish I had the Balls to do something like that”  It doesn’t take big balls it just takes a little bit of ambition to do more than work the same job every day and some desire to be more than a number at a company!  I have been the same number for almost 20 years and I want to be more!  I want my co workers to go “hey whatever happened to John?” I want to be the guy that they talk about because I left a great career at the top and did something else!

It is really freeing when you start actually planning to leave.  We are spoiled here and it’s amazing how little you actually need to live happily, I can’t wait for this adventure to start.  200 Days until We leave our jobs and start our Journey!

There will be time when we are old and done sailing to reflect on this decision and I can’t believe we will ever regret it!  I am sure there will be many more questions to come, especially from us.

I hope that you will enjoy our trip and maybe even join us for some of your own adventure!