One step closer...

We have had a lovely relaxing 2 weeks at Dylan's parents on Salt Spring Island (check out the view from their living room below!) being fed amazing food in large quantities. Xmas presents have equipped us with boat related items including a magellan GPS, cruising guides for the Caribbean, a germinator and solar showers. Gem (Dylan's Mum) has given me a cruising recipe book containing her old favourites and I have been using the time to test some out, with successful results!

Salt Spring Island is full of interesting characters and people who have jumped off the corporate treadmill, choosing instead to move to a slower laid back lifestyle, living on an island with like minded people. Hippies aside (and wowzer there are a lot of them), we need to get cracking on our Caribbean adventure.

After hours and hours of trawling through the internet with the help of Dylan's parents, we have come up with a short list of ten boats consisting of 3 Cabo Ricos, 3 O'Days, 2 Tartans, a Hood and an Amazon all between 34 and 40 foot and all in Florida. Flights have been booked to Miami for 4th January and we are now lining up the viewings. By the time all boats have been seen, we will be experts on the geography of Florida! The viewings are taking us from the northern town of St Augustine, all the way down through Titusville to the West coast towns of Sarasota and Fort Myers, ending up where we started in Miami.

Excited and slightly daunted at all that needs to be done pre and post boat purchase, we are under no illusion that there is going to be a helluva lot of work that needs to be done to get a boat ready to head to the Bahamas.

The yacht specification...

We have spent numerous hours trawling sailing magazines, cruising blogs and many hours talking to my parents who have done this all before.
They recommended we look at yachts in the UK to further identify likes and dislikes with regards to designs, size, space, performance etc.

Many of our weekends were spent travelling down to the Solent (Portsmouth, Southampton etc) to view yachts from 30 foot, up to 40 foot to get a picture of what is on the market and to create a short list of makes, models, preferences and sizes.

As a pair of consultants, we are fairly analytical when it comes to these sorts of decisions so created our own criteria.

1. Used yacht preferably not older than 30 years
2. Monohull
3. Between 30 and 40 foot (any larger and the costs go up exponentially and any smaller and it would be tricky to store all our possessions and live comfortably)
4. Of a suitable cruising pedigree from a recognised designer. (Many yachts are built for many different purposes. Not all are suitable cruising yachts)
5. Fin and skeg design (personal preference as I believe long keel yachts not as manoeuvrable or have the same performance as more modern fin keel). As we will be sailing in the tropics there is not much tidal fluctuation and hence a bilge keel is not an option.
6. Hull can be Aluminium, cold moulded wood or GRP (Fibre Glass). Steel is also an option above 37 feet.
7. Sloop or cutter rig
8. Low maintenance yacht with few "toys". i.e. electronic water makers, water pumps, hot water etc.
9. Medium / heavy displacement yacht (too heavy and she will probably have poor performance and too light and she will be thrown around in a heavy sea)
10. Decent sized water tanks for longer range cruising
11. Interior should be open and well ventilated with a decent master berth for in port use
12. Suitable opening ports and hatches for ventilation in the tropics. (Some UK yachts did not have many hatches or had small hatches as they were not a huge requirement in that region of the world)
13. Adequate stowage space for clothes, tools, spares, food, sundry kit (older designed yachts like the Nicholson 35, although beautiful yachts were quite restricted in the amount of stowage space below)
14. Single head (I don't have 2 loo's in my house, why would I want 2 on a small yacht...and 2 more holes in the hull too!)

Hood 38

Certain preferences come into the mix too:

1. No traveller in the cockpit (great if you are single handing, but a pain as it takes up space, more ropes to foul the cockpit, limits use of a Bimini)
2. Manual water pumps in the galley and head
3. Centre cockpit generally means larger internal space and a drier boat, however this is not a requirement as most yachts in our bracket are aft cockpit

Nice to haves but no deal breakers included:
1. Self tailing winches
2. Dodger and Bimini (to keep the sun and spray away)
3. Windvane self steering is a big plus
4. Up to date electronics (in our searches, very few boats have modern electronics so we opted to factor in that all electronics would probably need to be replaced)
5. Fridge
6. Radar
7. Lazy Jacks
8. Spinnaker
9. Generator

With these points in my mind we commenced our search using the internet (yachtworld.com and sailboatlistings.com) to create a shortlist of yachts in Florida prior to travelling down there to view.

The plan...

The initial plan...subject to change at a moments notice!

Quite a bit of thought and research was done around what we wanted to do and hence what we wanted. As we are both relatively inexperienced with cruising, we wanted to ensure that we started off in a location that was not only fantastic for sailing, but also not too challenging so as to allow us to learn safely and comfortably. Hence us deciding that the Caribbean would be an ideal place. Many of the islands / anchorages are day sails apart with the odd over night passage required. The climate is tropical, water gin clear and it is a beautiful place to sail. We did initially toy with the idea of buying a yacht in Europe / UK and sailing it locally and prepping it before then crossing the Atlantic, however a number of factors dissuaded us. The price of yachts in Europe are a lot higher than the US, sailing in the UK can be a bit chilly (even in summer) and doing a transatlantic crossing might scare the crew from ever setting foot on a yacht again. The game plan is to pick up a yacht in Florida and sail it down the leeward and windward isles and be out of the hurricane belt by July. A bit of a push seeing as the season has already begun and buying a yacht is not just a "jump on it and sail it away the next day" sort of activity! Generally a fair amount of time will need to be spent preparing a yacht for cruising.
There is also the risk or "analysis paralysis" - Sitting in a marina trying to buy every contingency piece of gear, waiting for the perfect weather, needing to do "just one last thing" etc
There is also the risk of being naive and heading out under equipped / prepared and running into issues.Getting the right balance is tricky and different for each individual.

So now we had a jump off location to start our adventure; our next step was to identify our requirements for a yacht!

Sightseeing in Seattle

After an awful night's sleep originating from a combination of jet lag and poor quality pillows (what you would expect from a 2 star Days Inn), we set off to check out Seattle starting with the 'waterfront'. Well, apart from a few piers adorned with cruising companies, there really was nothing else to see. No people, no open shops, no traffic, no life. A rather industrial looking place, we made a call to go and get breakfast instead - the steep sidewalks running up and down from the waterfront getting the heart going.

After a US sized portion of charcuterie hash we opted to visit the Space Needle. $60 (for 3) and an elevator ride later we found ourselves peering through a mesh fence out to the views of Seattle and Mount Rainier. A trip full of commercial nonsense but a must to see the sights and get a birds eye view of Seattle.

We headed to Lake Union where we clocked up a 10 mile walk - for future visits, a car is a must. A few pit stops were made along the way including an authentic American bar (complete with diner stools) and a store to finish our xmas present shopping.

Despite every intention to head out to dinner later that evening, we all fell asleep by 7 - so rock n' roll!

Day two of our sightseeing trip starts with a tour of the underground tunnels in Seattle, by far the highlight of the trip, traipsing around the tunnels underneath the sidewalk listening to the history of the city from a midget comedian named Dan.

As always with Dylan and I, we start to plan what we will have for meals way in advance and for today's lunch, Dylan has decided to recreate man vs food at The Crab Pot. For those that haven't heard of this, man vs food is a TV programme that follows an American guy around different restaurants, challenging himself to eat wacky food or consume huge portions. On this occasion, the guy ate two Alaskan crab feasts and it is this dish that we choose when ordering (albeit only one...and to share between 2). We are each given a bib, a wooden mallet and board to thwack the crabs into submission, within seconds, an eager Dylan has crab shell flying in all directions.

Bibs off and crabs pulverised, we took a short walk to Pike Place Market. A trip here can't be complete without a coffee from the Original Starbucks. The queues were coming out of the door but we persevered and bought a coffee that tasted exactly the same as one purchased back in London - who knew! Totally worth it though I thought; although Nicholas (Dylan's brother) would tend to disagree, having waited outside for the past 20 minutes twiddling his thumbs in the rain as there is no inside area to sit down.

The next day we wake very early and catch a ferry from Seattle, across the border to Salt Spring Island, Canada via Victoria, Vancouver Island. Orca whales came to say hello as we left the Puget Sound, unfortunately too quick for my amateur photography skills to capture (note to self - read the camera manual now I have time on my hands). At Victoria we were greeted by Dylan's mum and post the kisses and hugs, headed for yet another ferry to our final destination - Salt Spring Island.

It was a chilly, overcast day, yet it lost non of the overall beauty of the place. A flat sea separates a clumsy arrangement of rocky islands. In the distance you can see the snow covered mountains belonging to the mainland. The occasional boat putters between the islands and save for the odd car noise, the place is dead quiet.

I could get used to this!

Ode to catching a bus in Seattle

What an interesting experience! Note to self - penny wise, pound foolish. We decided to stay further out of town to save money on the hotel bill, which means catching a bus into downtown Seattle every day.

The first sign of this being no ordinary commute was being wished 'Happy Holidays and New Year' by one of the faceless members of the public when stepping onto the bus. All double seats were taken so we spread out amongst the bus, it was fairly clear to see that public transport was taken only by the working classes.

Some unsuspecting woman sat down in an empty seat, next to the serial creep, Gabe. Starting with 'are you going to work' we proceeded to listen to a conversation we couldn't help but eavesdrop on. Gabe liked Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and was in search of a girlfriend - 'what time do you get off work' was the clincher, a VERY friendly stalker making general conversation. Whilst on the subject of stalkers we also witnessed an obese lady with a pineapple do on the top of her head, chat up an old guy with no teeth. Getting nowhere fast, when the toothless old timer exited the bus, the lady followed....total bunny boiler in action.

On this morning's commute we were subjected to an eminem wannabe, listening to his dulcet tones aided by the iPod he had on full blast in his ears. On the other side was a guy resembling Hagrid, despite his size when stepping on a tiny Chinaman's foot, apologised profusely. A 'chav' to the front of the bus proceeded to engage an older lady in a conversation regarding the book he was reading - surreal situation that most certainly would not have happened on the tube in London.

All said and done, a much friendlier environment is apparent here. Random strangers engaging in easy conversation, flirting with each other and aware of their surroundings - miles away from what we are used to in London.

Leaving London...

In preparation for our adventure, we must first sell a London flat and 8 years worth of possessions to accumulate as many freedom chips (money) as possible. Ebay, two trips to my parents place in Wales and a couple of charity trips later - our flat resembles an ikea showroom, bare and empty with a few clothes to take with us (each item justified the effort of carrying them - doubt Dylan will agree with that!).

Last Friday we made the trip up to Hampstead Heath to get the jabs necessary for our trip. £166 and 5 jabs later, we had a suitable array of bruises on our arms...now for the Yellow Fever side effects to kick in apparently in 4 - 7 days time.

We spent a good deal of time researching the right 'yacht' bags to take on our trip, settling for 155l and 90l Helly Hansen bags, Dylan had to be sure that the zips wouldn't rust when on board our yacht. After packing our few remaining items and Christmas pressies into our luggage, we still have plenty of space for those 'must have' items of clothing that were heading for the recycling bin (result!).

May I remind you that at this point in time, we own no yacht, nor are we even in the same continent to buy one. A trip to Canada (via Seattle) to see Dylans family is first on the itinerary prior to flying to Florida and starting our boat hunt.

I am typing this post whilst sat in a motel room in Seattle at 6am, slightly jet lagged. Looking forward to a day sight seeing around the home of Starbucks.

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...