Preparing for a Change

So, from this point forward my "Daily Thoughts" are going to focus on preparing for a life changing plan. Jodie (my wife) and I have both agreed that we will shed all, or at least most of, our worldly belongings and move onto a boat. I know that most will think we are crazy. I have a great job (at least some would think) and Jodie has a pretty good job too. But we both feel that we would enjoy this type of life better than our current one. We are both the type that likes to be on the move and see different things and experience adventure. We love the water, we love the sun, we love warmth and we love the Caribbean. So here we go.
Our reasons for making the change are many and not all of them will be disclosed here. For me, it is mainly the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness. I feel like I have little or no control over my job, finances, government agendas (and yes I vote), the economy, and the feeling of always having to have material things. I have lost my motivation to go to work every day. I wake up dreading the thought of going in and dealing with the same crap from people on a daily basis. Yeah I know, so do a lot of people. I am choosing to do something about it. Financially it seems that every time we make a step or two forward we take a few steps back and this time not because of things out of our control. I have become completely disenchanted with the government. I am really starting to feel like they are trying to put some sort of control on many aspects of our lives. And don't get me started on taxes. I know that I will continue to deal with our government because I don't intend to, at this point, move to another country. As far as the material things in my life, I really just want to get rid of everything that I do not NEED to live. I love my material things, but I now realize that these are the things that require that I continue to work in a field that I do not enjoy anymore; civil engineering. It felt like a revelation when I pictured myself with next nothing and all of it being on our boat. Seems crazy, considering we have had a sport boat, jeeps, convertibles, motorcycles, went on numerous luxury vacations etc. and anything else that cost too much and offered little sustained satisfaction. No matter what we always have to come back to our jobs, bills, the economy and our screwed up government.
So now a little more about our plan.
We figure on the short end we might be ready in two years, but more likely 3-4 years. We have a lot of financial items to take care of. We need to find a boat. We need to prepare to sell our home. We need to learn about boating, sailing and blue water cruising. We need to get our USCG Captains license. We need to learn as much as we can from other liveaboard cruisers. We need to prepare mentally, prepare our families and prepare ourselves. You get the idea.
We have pretty much focused on living on a catamaran. Based on our initial research they appear to provide the most living space and storage. They are also touted as being very stable and safe to cruise blue water, and from what I understand, they will not sink due to a few water tight bulkheads. We are going with sail power for obvious reasons. Who wants to spend outrageous prices for fuel? That is one of the many reasons we want to change our lives. It is exciting picking out a boat, because this will become our new home. We hope to be able to pay cash for it to minimize the need to make a lot of money, but may not be able too. We have really enjoyed the Lagoon series of cats. They are very expensive brand new, so we are definitely planning on purchasing a used one. If you're interested, there is a website of someone who is selling one that has some great information about his boat along with their experiences living on a boat (www.indigomoon.us). The owner appears to really love his boat. His video review of his boat gave me some great ideas about what to look for in a new boat and how to customize one. I have also looked at standard sailboats, but they just seemed too cramped and don't offer very much natural light in the salon areas. Along with that you sail at an angle, whereas a cat sails flat, so no need to keep everything tied down.
We have a lot to learn as well. We will be looking into learning how to sail too. This should be fun, but unfortunately we are in Missouri so not much ocean style sailing around here. It will give us experience nonetheless. We will also learn navigating, safety etc. I am also planning on getting us enrolled in First Aid and CPR classes. We will be relying on each other for everything when we are at sea. I have to learn how to enjoy and cook seafood. I don't like fish at all, but I know, based on experience, that when you are near the coast or on the water, seafood is frequently the main course. Need to learn about reading the weather. Now I can't complain about the meteorologists being wrong, because I might be talking about myself this time.
Financially, we don't have it all figured out. If possible we will go into this with as few bills and debts as possible. But just in case we have more bills to pay than our cruising tilly can handle, we are planning as a backup, to do a charter cruise option about once a month. Based on my initial research, it appears that it is very expensive to charter one of these. With that in mind we think we can maybe charter one week a month and that should more than pay for all expenses and give us a fair amount to live on. Hopefully we won't have to do it at all, but if we do, it appears we can make good money at it. We would also consider doing dinner cruises, snorkeling tours, day cruises etc as needed to make some extra cash.
I know our families will not be entirely excited. But we can give them a vacation that they could never imagine and it will only cost them airfare. So hopefully they will come see us. Not to say that we won't come back home once and a while as well. I have to believe that a tropical vacation in the Caribbean would have to seem pretty enticing.
I am not fooling myself into thinking that it will be a vacation every day. Everyday there will be work to be done on the boat, planning routes, running the boat etc. But we will control our own destiny and we will be able to choose where we want to be and when we want to be there. We will visit new and exciting places. Meet new and interesting people. Probably be scared more than a few times. But it is an adventure that not everyone can say they have done. We are not going to let anything stop us not even the doubters.
So I hope you enjoy my coverage of our plan to adventure.