Rich with detailed information about why and how this family chose to go cruising and the rewards their choice has brought them, the story is studded with terrific photographs that will melt your heart!
Each of the 12 families answer 12 questions about the challenges of choosing this life, what they like best and least, how they handle family back home, schooling, safety, laundry, etc. Plus, they offer advice for other families pondering this life.
When our family of 4 began our exciting transition to the cruising life aboard our 35′ Cal Cruising Windfall in November 2008, we had everything planned out.
We would explore Mexico by skimming lightly off our savings if we needed to, but the monthly interest that we received off our conservative investments would be the bulk of our revenue… keeping us afloat financially.
It was so perfect!
And as Murphy’s Law so cruelly predicts… even before we cast the line off the last cleat on the dock, the dividends plummeted to such depressing lows that my husband and I all but went into cardiac arrest! The crash of 2008 had ruined our slick cruising plans for all of 2009.
We had sold our business and our home. We had dumped major dollars into Windfall finalizing her cruiser ready status. We were on the line. We had a decision to make. We had just enough money to go back and start over. Or, we could go for it… no matter how crazy… and fulfill the quest. We opted for the quest! All we needed was a new plan.
July 9th, 2010 - by Caribbean Safety and Security Net
Question:
I have a question regarding safety while cruising. Our dream has for the last almost 20 years was to retire early and go cruising to the Caribbean aboard our 41 ft ketch.
But now, as that time is quickly approaching, I’m beginning to be afraid of the safety issues. It seems there is an increasing number of reported incidents against cruisers, whether petty theft or worse. Enough to make us wonder if going cruising is now safe.
To all of you who are living the life we are dreaming of, is it safe? Is personal safety in the Caribbean worse than cities here in the US? Am I being silly or ??? Any input would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Karen
The Caribbean Safety and Security Net responds:
I don’t know what your source is for saying that there is an increasing number of reported incidents against cruisers.
The situation is certainly getting more press, both legitimate as well everyone and his brother posting his version of a single incident in a blog. Most of these blogs are opinions only, often no basis in fact, but they do serve to get people riled up. …Read more
On even the most perfect weekend afternoon, we see only a handful of empty slips; most boats jostle restlessly in place like drunken tombstones.
Smart, motivated, and capable people own these craft: doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, craftsmen, teachers, engineers, etc.
They’ve sacrificed and saved and dedicated significant resources for years to buy, berth, and maintain their boats, yet barely use (90% leave their slip less than six times per year) them and very, very few actually end up out there living The Cruising Dream.
Why? Not enough time? Life too crazy? Priorities changed? Out of money? I don’t buy it.
No, the real reason is that she is not on board.
While the registration may indicate joint ownership, this is most often (yes, there are many exceptions) his dream and this is his boat. You can bet that if she shared his enthusiasm, motivation, and The Cruising Dream, the boat would leave the slip more often and travel further.
In April, Livia Gilstrap wrote Women and Cruising about the Interview with a Cruiser project that she recently started to ask the hundreds of questions she had as she prepared to go cruising.
Livia sends out a list of ten questions to cruisers who have cruised outside of their home country for at least two years and each week publishes an interview on her website.
Livia asked us to participate. Gwen Hamlin immediately got on the ball and answered her ten questions. (Perhaps this will inspire me to do the same…)
This week Livia published Gwen’s answers to her ten questions.
What did Livia ask Gwen? Here are a few of the questions:
Through a sequence of connections it would take a page to recount, I’ve come back in touch with a cruiser I first met in a group of West Coast sailors getting ready to leave for the South Pacific from Puerto Vallarta back in 2003.
A series of maintenance problems cropped up and kept Nick and his wife from departing with the rest of us.
The fallout from those problems and the disappointment at the interruption ended up unraveling their cruising plan to the point that they sold the boat and got out.
That was almost six years ago.
What went wrong for them….and how did they fix it?
Nick has since spent a lot of time thinking this all through and realized most if all of it came back on him. With the clarity of hindsight, Nick picked through the debris of his dream and identified a whole series of mistakes that he made that he has since discovered are made rather blithely by many men whose dreams are still tied to the dock.
I have learned from many sailors over the years, but none so much as the years I spent in the cockpit of my father’s ‘old classic woodies’ on the Great Lakes.
Being the youngest of 5 and having lost my mother to her nursing career, I tagged along behind the Captain (my father) and learned by doing; whether we were trading in old nautical antiques in the flats, scraping and re-packing the seams in the dead of winter or heading off on long legs to Canadian islands.
I have a question regarding safety while cruising. Our dream has for the last almost 20 years was to retire early and go cruising to the Caribbean aboard our 41 ft ketch.
But now, as that time is quickly approaching, I’m beginning to be afraid of the safety issues. It seems there is an increasing number of reported incidents against cruisers, whether petty theft or worse. Enough to make us wonder if going cruising is now safe.
To all of you who are living the life we are dreaming of, is it safe? Is personal safety in the Caribbean worse than cities here in the US? Am I being silly or ??? Any input would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Karen
We asked Sally Erdle, editor of the cruising newspaper “Caribbean Compass” to reply:
Dear Karen, I’d advise you not to give up your dream.
Yes, there are security issues in the Caribbean, as there are everywhere.
But recent input from active cruisers in the Caribbean might be enlightening:
I have considered myself ‘pink’ where the boat chore distribution is concerned, and my husband, Jim,‘blue’. I am responsible aboard Hotspur for much of what I was responsible for back home on land: grocery shopping, laundry, cooking, cleaning, bill paying, sewing, etc…
However, I got to thinking about your article and it dawned on me… not all my jobs are ‘pink’.
I think I might fall into the category of ‘violet’.
“Tonto he was smart, one day said Kemosabe, Kiss my ass I bought a boat, I’m going out to sea.” Lyle Lovett’s, If I had a Boat
I could not wait to make this the ring tone on my phone, and I did November 20, 2009 as the selling broker and I were bringing ‘my’ boat back to her home at Florida Sea Base after the survey.
Since that day my entire life has changed. I have moved aboard, left my full time yoga teaching position in Miami Beach and am preparing to receive my first Boy Scout crew for the ten weeks I will be running at Sea Base in the Florida Keys.
In April, Betsy Morris wrote about the division of boat jobs aboard Salsa (Boat jobs: Pink or Blue? Betsy Morris’ Confession). She wondered how other cruising couples divided up the jobs and whether they were happy with the result. Following is Marcie Lynn’s response.
I enjoyed reading Betsy’s article, but I guess I never had delusions (or was desirous) of being able to do all the “blue” chores that David does aboard Nine of Cups.
He’s an engineer and I was VP of marketing for a medical company. The difference in being on land versus afloat is that anything I needed to get done on land, I could hire someone to do. While at sea, it’s life critical to be able to handle everything yourself. …Read more
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We are so excited! A project in the making for almost a year is finally coming together!
When our family of 4 began our exciting transition to the cruising life aboard our 35′ Cal Cruising 
I don’t know what your source is for saying that there is an increasing number of reported incidents against cruisers.
On even the most perfect weekend afternoon, we see only a handful of empty slips; most boats jostle restlessly in place like drunken tombstones.
Through a sequence of connections it would take a page to recount, I’ve come back in touch with a cruiser I first met in a group of West Coast sailors getting ready to leave for the South Pacific from Puerto Vallarta back in 2003.
In 1998, we purchased our first real cruising boat, sailed quickly from Tortola to Venezuela, and began converting her to a floating palace.
