Shannon and I have been stewing (or very slow-cooking) over an idea of taking a year or more off of work to travel and sail. I don’t even remember when we first seriously considered it, but I do remember the first encounter I had with this idea.
We were in the Bahamas on a charter and ran into this dad and toddler boy. We chatted and he told me that they were out sailing for months. It surprised me as I hadn’t even conceived of anything like that before and our sailing experiences were limited to 7-10 day rentals. I didn’t think much more about it afterwards, but in the last five years or so, we’ve been thinking about it more and more, and making plans.
We have chartered more, and I bought a lake racer Pyrophoric in 2016. The next milestone is probably the Annapolis Boat Show in 2017 where we took some classroom cruising courses. Fate conspired such than Shannon got shingles and wasn’t able to attend, followed by food poisoning from street food. We did get to tour some new boats however and despite wanting to go back again, we weren’t able to make the show again.
I had been talking about quitting my job and living on a boat for a couple of years to my parents. They fear of us becoming 水上人家, basically boat people, and I think they picture life to be like this:
Unlike most people, my parents don’t like the sun, hate sand and water, and don’t swim. So they told me they’d never visit.
Undaunted, I was thinking more this:
I especially like the airplane upgrade in place of the conventional dinghy. Then I looked at the price tag, and more realistically, I’d be hoping for something more like this:
Or maybe
Years ago when I blogged about boats, I was thinking an FP Astrea 42 (now called Isla) or Helia 44.
After having worn them down, I think my parents have finally moved from the bargaining phase (you should just take a month off) to acceptance phase that we are actually going to do this.
I procrastinated on the decision myself for years. I’ve talked to friends/colleagues about doing this, but finally several months ago broke the news to my partner about leaving on this sabbatical. I was prepared with different scenarios as to how my departure could work, a BATNA, and worst case scenario. Surprisingly, these plans were not needed and Kym supported my decision for a leave of absence.
I promised to finalize our go/no-go decision with Kym this summer. In the mean time, we are doing some financial planning and and of course boat shopping. Kym offered that you never quite have enough money for these things, and he’s right, as our budget and tastes just grow as we keep manipulating the financial projections. Then again, the kids seem to be the perfect age and aren’t getting any younger. In fact, no one is getting younger, and the murder of a local doctor last year just underscores the fact that tomorrow is not guaranteed.
Next was seeing where Shannon was. Is the on board (literally) or will she have cold feet now that it becoming real? While it seemed like a go, I was never totally sure as she seemed to have little interest in any preparations such as getting experience on water and thinking and planning life abroad. Maybe it was the “we’re leaving next year!” deadline that spurred more urgency and gravity when Cristina pointed out that it is already 2021.
