survey says....

Our survey, which took 10 hours over 2 days ("thorough" is the word of the day if you plan to make such a huge purchase and want to know without a doubt that your future home will, in fact, float while you are living aboard it) turned up various issues on the boat we are under contract to buy. Some of them we knew about and some were a surprise (not the good kind, mind you!). We used a gentleman out of Green Bay, WI named Ben Miller (who I highly recommend. I am happy to pass along his contact info for those in the market for a survey.) and after lots of discussing with him and between us, we approached the seller/brokerage with our list of "issues". We fully expected they would fix at least the very minimum problems in order to move forward with the sea trial. Those issues were more safety and structural in nature and ABSOLUTELY HAD to be addressed before putting the boat in the water, mast up, sails on, etc. Surprise of surprises, they have agreed to fix almost all of the items on the list! We should hear back today or tomorrow about the schedule of the maintenance and when we can get her into the water to complete the sea trial. We are beyond excited with the response and are already making our own little "to do" list of things we want to upgrade once she is ours :-)

the passing of time

I can scarcely believe I've let this blog fall into a lull for such a long time. Maybe starting it at this point was premature, but in the moment, it seemed like the thing to do. It was to be a way to move toward our goal of sailing abroad, but as things go, our lives have been pretty full with other things.

In the last year and a few months Josh graduated, accepted a job in Waukegan, we bought a condo on the north side of the city, bought a new car, took two vacations out of the country, lost a grandparent, and found out our chances of having a family of our own is slim at best. Needless to say it's been full of ups and downs, but at the end of the day we are well on our way to our dream of sailing around the world.

Josh has taken to crunching the numbers on our nest egg and will update me every few months on our progress, but as of now, we will be seeing the blue caribbean sea by mid to late 2012. It seems so very far away, but at the same time, way too close. We've both been boning up on what to expect, how to adapt, what to bring, and where to spend our years traveling the world.

We hit up the boat show last month and if not for our budget, we have found the boat we are in love with. However, since we are neither independently wealthy nor willing to break the bank to achieve our dream, we have set our sights on an Island Packet somewhere in the 35 foot range. Hopefully we will be able to find a sound bargain on a model from the late 80s or early 90s, but these boats tend to hold their value better than other ones we've seen out there. Wish us luck! Ideally we'd like to buy the boat next year, outfit it and sail away as soon as possible, but depending on 1) where we find our dream boat and 2) how much work it needs, this may change. The biggest "if" in that ideal time frame is where we buy the boat. We've been discussing the possibility of purchasing a boat that has primarily seen Lake Michigan sailing, but with that comes some issues. The boat may require more effort to be sea worthy because of the amount of equipment it may or may not have had been outfitted with. If the previous owners spent more time sailing up and down the coast, the boat wouldn't have needed certain items (Josh could detail all this, but I only really know the broad strokes of what is necessary from an equipment standpoint) but if they regularly sailed to, say, Mackinaw, less outfitting may be needed. So, as per usual, it's still a bit of a waiting game for now, but the sweet sounds of freedom will soon be here.

Chitzen Itza, Mexico. November 2009

Family fun at Christmas. This is how we do it.

Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. January 2010

Berniece Simon 1929-2009 beloved grandma

take this job

There hasn't been much to post as of late, since we've been in a holding pattern for the last few months, but let me catch up on progress, and lack thereof. Josh and I were able to spend some time out on the Chicago Sails boats later on in the summer, which was a nice respite from life on land. I think we ended up going out three times together, though he went out pretty much every weekend with students who want to learn the art of the sail. Once we even took my aunt, uncle, cousin and his girlfriend out and learned that the 22' boats we use are not meant for fog. Yes, it was an adventure complete with seasickness and panic, which as far as I can tell, are requirements for people who have no experience on boats.

Now the boats are out of Lake Michigan, and we are trapped inside our winter coats and trying to survive the bitter winds that blow in from the lake.

The newest thing going on in our lives is Josh's imminent graduation from college. He's 3 weeks away and is completely over it. The last month has found him jet setting back and forth between here and the east coast interviewing for jobs. It's been stressful on both of us, but it feels like it's all about to pay off. In the last week and a half, he's received two job offers and after a second interview today, we're hoping for a third. The first offer that came in is for a company in Waukeegan and would mean Chicago would continue to be home. It wouldn't be so bad because Josh could continue to teach sailing at Chicago Sails once it warms up again and I could keep my job. We would be able to use the boats again, but as this year, I doubt it'll really put us on the water all that much.

The second offer came in yesterday and would put us in Macon, GA for the first year and we're not sure after that. It's for a railroad management position and the first year would be for training and then he'd get stationed, similar to how our life in the Navy was. It has a ton of perks but the down side is that if he takes the job with the railroad, he'd want to put in 5 years, which would push back our departure to a boat. So...we don't know what we're going to do. The possible third job is in Rhode Island and I don't know many details about it other than it's great money and a fair amount of travel. We'll be discussing and making a decision soon, as at least one of the companies wants a decision by Thanksgiving.