Update (Not Much)

I just got back from a business trip to the Caribbean and I liked it a LOT more than I thought I would. It actually hurt to see boats sailing away — without me on board!

Right now we’re moving out of our house and into a small, temporary place. We’re getting rid of a lot of things and in the next few months (while we wait for the snow to melt) we’ll weed out more.

What I’m starting to do is to look at things and say, “Are we going to take that on the sailboat with us?” If the answer is “no” then it’s a major candidate for ditching. We’re not ditching everything that fits that, yet, because we don’t know how long it will be before we can move on to a sailboat.

My goal is to have us knowing how to sail by the end of the summer (my wife and I and 14-year old son will take ASA certification courses, and my 11-year old daughter will learn to sail a small boat) and then do a bareboat charter in the Caribbean next winter.

If that goes well, the plan will be to look for a boat to buy immediately afterwards. Of course, I’m keeping my eyes open for opportunity before then — I don’t really have a problem moving onto a sailboat even before we learn to sail. I just wouldn’t untie from the dock until we knew what we were doing. =;)