picking up and sailing away

[pkburns]

We too are hoping to set sail this next winter. We have about 4 years experience sailing on a lake here in Colorado on a 26 ft McGregor but no real ocean experience. We are thinking of buying a Catamaran 36ft or a little bigger with all the gear already included. We too are hoping to sell our house to make this all a reality. Our twins will be 1 1/2 years by winter and we'll have to make sure we cover all the safety features as well. We are planning on taking a sailing course to help us prepare and currently reading what we can to prepare. Your plan sounds good and we may have to do something similar. We'd love to keep in touch and hear how your plans progress and likewise with ours.

[Nausikaa]

Regarding Ben Scpott Robinson's comments of the 16th Feb, let me firstly apologise for the delay in adding my comment but, in my defence, I have spent the last week in Windhoek and been a little off the main stream and out of touch.

Secondly, I wish to endorse every wotd Ben wrote! He, in fact, describes my methodology to dotting the last i and crossing the last t. I did exactly that. I bought a grp boat from 1969, long leeled and very solidly built. She had earlier problems with osmosis but this had been repaired. Now I have the boat of my dreams. At only 27' she is a little small compared to todays cruisers but I love her because I can handle her on my own or with one crew member. The other advantage, small boats.....small problems.

I would like to wish Ben bon voyage as the next few days I will be tied up do some conferensing in Cape Town so I may miss his departure. Anyway Ben, best of luck with your trip and I hope to see you in Aden or maybe somewhere in the Red Sea. Keep in touch!

Cheers all

Stephen

Yacht NAUSIKAA

[Nausikaa]

One piece of advice I forgot to impart yesterday is get your teeth checked up before leaving. Problems with your teeth tend to be, well, painfull and good dentists are not always available.

If you are heading directly for somewhere like South Africa, where dentists are excellent and charge less than where you come from then maybe you should wait until there otherwise have a check up.

Toothache at sea is a real downer. I know from experience but fortunately, when it happened to me, I was only a day's sailing from Halifax. As a result of 'repairs' there I can now say I am part Canadian!

Cheers again and the best of luck with your voyage.

Stephen

Yacht NAUSIKAA

[Arrow1]

Laceykay,

My husband and I have the same dream, we are planning on it being our retirement plan in 3 years. We sold the power boat, bought a 35' C&C 1972 and are making all the changes necessary to go offshore in the next few years. We have many more land ties, kids houses, etc. but we have set a realistic goal and i am certain we will be able to set off when we have planned. My husband had no sailing experience when we bought the boat, we have time to gain experience sailing the puget sound area and learning about the boat by fixing all that needs attention. There is lots of advice out there, do listen to the being a newby and having a broker sell you a boat, there are too many sharks out there and there are so many friendly sailboat owners with lots of experience to draw from. Reading is a great way to get the feel of some of what you will be doing, fans the flame on the long cold northwest winter days, but there is no substitute for experience, nothing can substitute for the breeze on your face,the sound of the waves on the hull, the look of 3 inches of water in the cabin after you forget to close a through hull!

Best of luck for everything you choose to do. I hope we all are able to sail our dream!