Friends that we just hadn’t met yet
No matter how many times it happens, we still really get a kick out of meeting new friends that have followed us through this blog, especially ones that have been reading it for years! Last night we had just such an opportunity when we were invited to dinner (and treated!) by Perry (he comments here as Uncle Pooty — Pooty being his nickname) and his wife Kaki (also her nickname).
Here is the cool thing… Pooty has been reading our blog since before we left Canada and we learned that he has been eager to follow in our footsteps. As their son just graduated from college, they took a big first step and moved to St. Thomas for a 3-month stint with him working as a dive instructor and her taking a nursing position at the local hospital. He shared that he was even inspired to start a blog about their experiences here. Make sure you check it out, I just did and it has some cool stuff!
Thanks for the fun evening, guys. I hope we get to see you again in the near future.
Group shot following a good dinner at the Shipwreck Tavern.
Thanks again for treating us, guys!
One more thing… if you’re reading this blog with aspirations of running away to the tropics, what steps are you going to take today to make it happen? It has to start somewhere.
Great to be able to meet you two. You’ve been an inspiration to us, as well as many others I’m sure. Thank you for allowing us all to follow along.
Thank YOU for investing the time to read this stuff. We really did have a fun time last night. Great laughs.
Well, since you asked at the end of today’s blog: We’re looking at Ocean side property in Costa Rica as a land based, rented out home base, as well as currently shopping for a 40 to 44 ft Cat. Not long till our house is paid off, and only 5 years till I retire… and from YOUR encouragement, I started downloading and watching the Distant Shores series… pretty informative and practical…
Awesome, Gerry! Thanks for sharing.
My first step this past summer was to acquire a 15′ dingy and learn how to sail. I also managed to acquire a 26′ Thunderbird that I am currently restoring. (note I said acquire for both, not buy. I was lucky enough to get both boats for free through kijiji.) The restoration is interesting as I am learning as I go. My goal is to have the 26′ in the water for the summer of 2015.
That sounds great. Congrats!
Hey guys, I’ve been reading your blog for a while now since I found it couple of month ago while doing a research on Cats, finally caught up with the present times, and will surely enjoy what is to come as I enjoyed all of it from the start. It has been a nice read for me, I learned a lot and hopefully I can put into practice some of the things, I am planing on getting my RYA Day skipper license and start by chartering first and if my family gets hooked maybe end up buying a boat of my own.
Keep up the good times and the posting, for know your adventure is the closest thing to cruising for me.
Jihad
Hi Jihad
Thanks for posting and for following along. Please stay in touch and let us know how the RYA and charter thing go.
Well, we are well on the path to cruising. We purchased our cruising boat 2 years ago and we are currently getting to know one another and making upgrades and doing maintenance stuff. We are starting to go through all our worldly possessions and paring stuff down and continuing to build the cruising kitty. We still have about 4 years before we finally leave for good, waiting for our youngest daughter to leave the nest and I would rather error on the side of working an additional year if necessary since once we leave our jobs, we intend to be permanently retired and I don’t want to go back to work. Looking to sell the house in the next year or so. So, our plans are starting to fall into place. Lately, I have had thoughts of moving the boat down to the caribbean however and starting our cruising at least part time during the winter months and perhaps working from the boat.
That sounds great. My experience is than even four years will go by very quickly. Enjoy the preparation process. It can be exciting, just like the build up to Christmas.
Congrats on completing your first charter! This past summer we realized that the fractional we had on Antares, a 30′ O’Day, was not enough. So we went ahead and bought a 2002 Hunter 306 we named Bedouin. After our first half-season of full ownership in the Chesapeake we are not looking forward to the next four months of crying now that she’s laid up for the winter. Next season can’t come soon enough. Still, Step 1 (buy boat): complete. Step 2 (continue to shepherd daughter through school and get her graduated and off to college): ongoing. On on!
We hated the winter that we had ZTC on the hard in Canada. We couldn’t wait to get her back in the water. I think there was still ice floating around when we launched. 🙂