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Sunday 27 November 2011

This is us...

How did all of this start? I cast my mind back many months ago. I think it was a thought process and a conversation about "what do we really want to do?'. A sailing adventure was one of the first things to cross our minds. It stems from an element of adventurous inkling and the fact that we had both worked pretty hard in London for the last 8 years as Management Consultants, accumulated houses, shares and other such material things but really had nothing to show for it.

With that in mind, Dylan and I decided to go off on a Caribbean adventure that has been months in planning. We have put our jobs on pause, sold most of our possessions to fund this excursion with many people thinking that we are nuts (I tend to agree!).

I have just marked my 25th birthday, finally I can hire a car abroad and in the UK with no excess - yet I can skipper an 8 tonne yacht in high seas with no qualifications, experience or age restrictions!! Dylan is looking forward to his 31st winter.

Our ambition is to buy a yacht on the East Coast of the US and sail around the Caribbean, ensuring we are out of the hurricane belt when the time comes - soaking up as much of the Caribbean sun as we can adding a stack of stamps to our soon to be overflowing passports. Very similar to Management Consulting, we are being thrown into a completely new experience with semi inflated arm bands - its going to be sink or swim (literally!)

Our preparations currently include a reading list consisting of the sage words of Lynn and Larry Pardey - The Cost Conscious Cruiser and The Embarrassment of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof.

The advent calender we have counts down the days to our departure rather than to Christmas - each chocolate marking a day closer to the start of what promises to be an amazing experience...

The purpose and intent of this blog is to keep everyone updated as we go on our adventure. We shall be taking Miss Mac with us and will update when we can. This is the first post of hopefully many many more...