I have had a dream for a few years now. It probably sprouted back in 2014 give or take, that dream was to get a sailboat and visit exotic destinations. It really started out as a more of a pipedream something to lay on the coach and read magazine like cruising world look at the pictures and imagine myself doing those things. Back in 2014, my kids were still in elementary schools and parental and Dad duties were in full swing between soccer, swimming, and gymnastics. Three kids can keep you busy with all their extracurricular activities. My magazine flipping soon turned to YouTube videos where I would watch channels were they were fixing up or restoring sailboats, mostly ones they got for free. One of these channels got me interested in some cruisers channels where they were living the cruising life. I will give a shout out to the first channel, Wicked Salty, they are not producing much content currently, but it was fun to binge watch most of their first trip down the ICW to the Bahamas. They got me hooked and I’ve since watched (and to some extent still do) many other cruisers. This went on for a couple more years where I lived vicariously through the content creators and their sailing adventures.
Fast forward to 2019, my wife knew I had the dream but still had never really owned a sailboat of my own, so we purchased a small Catalina 22, it was cheap and was not in the greatest condition, but it was an opportunity to live just a piece of the dream. Now I have not mention it, but I do not currently live near an ocean, or even a large body of water. The lake I sail on is about 2 miles by 3 miles in total area, it is great for racing but unless you are looking to practice your tacks and jibes it is not much for cruising. So, I fixed up my new to me sailboat, slapped some fresh paint on here, reworked the electrical and did some overall deep cleaning then headed out to the lake to moor her permanently in a slip. That was great diversion for the past couple of years, most of my time out has been single-handing things with the occasional crew.
Well, it is 2021, and the last of my children graduate from school in a matter of weeks and plan on heading to university in the fall. And because of life circumstances, I will be single-handing life soon as well. So, time to work on turning those pipedreams into something a bit more. I will be relocating to Florida in the next few weeks, luckily, I have family that I can stay with until I find something more permanent. My goal is to find a solid sailboat that can take me anywhere and move aboard. I will likely work a few more years, while performing any refit necessary and getting more offshore experience. (More on this in a future post.)
So, with that welcome to my first post, I don’t know how frequent they will be but I hope you are entertained and maybe encouraged to dream a little bigger.