WHO: Craig and Regina
WHAT: A couple that decided to make space for a younger workforce and live the dream for a while.
WHERE: That dream is living on a sailboat and sailing around Florida, up the East Coast, and perhaps the Bahamas. (Current location available at Garmin, PredictWind, or MarineTraffic.)
WHEN: A few months to get the boat ready, then hopefully splashing in April/May 2021. Hopefully we can get a reasonable distance up the East Coast before hurricane season gets into full swing.
WHY (Regina’s answer): We are not getting any younger. While starting this adventure in our 60s could be done (even in our 70s) we wanted to get out there before physical things started to mess with our plans.
WHY (Craig’s answer): “For every dead and living thing, time burns like a fuse.” — Jackson Browne
HOW: On our 1987 Cabo Rico sailboat, Over Yonder.
Now for a few more details, if you would like to know, regarding how we started out……
We started on the road to this adventure in 2012 when we took a sailing course for our 25th anniversary. Basically a 3 day learn to sail course for Regina and then 1 week bare boat class on a 45 ft. Morgan-Catalina. After that we were bitten by the sailing bug and returned to Dayton, OH with the urge to get a sailboat.
Now, Ohio is land-locked but it is bordered to the north by Lake Erie. That is where the first stage of our journey started. We felt very lucky to find a 25 foot 1983 Catalina. This boat provided us with quite a few trips to places like Putt-In-Bay and Middle Bass Island but also fed our dreams to do more.
Doing more began with a move to Florida for work that also supported the search for a blue water sailboat. We researched, looked and finally narrowed down our list for heavy displacement boats. Yes, we knew that these older heavy displacement boats were slower that the lighter more modern versions. Yes, we had heard that is good to have more speed to get somewhere safe when bad weather was coming. However, we also thought that we would do our best to avoid dangerous weather and if we did not, a heavy boat would be a safer haven for us. That is what we decided after reading books and books and article after article with all kinds of conflicting advice.
Finding the ONE……
With our trusty list of heavy displacement boats, we looked and looked. The more we looked the more we learned about what we really wanted. As time passed the Cabo Rico became our number one choice and specifically the 38. There were only about 200 of them made so that resulted in only about 5 or so for sale on the east coast at any given time. Why the Cabo Rico? We loved her shape, her weight, the cutter rig and her reputation. Also the lovely honey teak down below was a nice addition.
They say you know your boat the first time you see her. We felt that way but still second guessed ourselves. We saw Over Yonder under her first name “Oh My” in November of 2016 but did not decide to start the ball rolling with purchasing her until February of 2017 .
Status, March 2018
Over Yonder is sitting on the hard in Green Cove Springs, FL getting a new Yanmar engine. It is a long story but let’s just say that the low oil pressure alarm was being very vocal and it appeared that the original Westerbeke was getting sick beyond repair.
Prepping to leave on our adventure……
- Gave away all our furniture
- Whittled down our possessions to fit into a 5 X 10 storage space. Since we plan to come back and work for a while, could not get rid of everything.
- Discovered that all the sentimental things Regina was keeping for the kids were not wanted. Who knew? A few tears were shed (by Regina) as all the art work and awards and various items were tossed away.
- Still hanging on to the photos and the Christmas ornaments. Will tackle them when we get back from this first adventure.
- Is this hard, it is terribly hard. We are by nature pack rats and there is security in ‘stuff’. All the memories even related to a sofa can affect a person. Regina had a lot of reservations about things in the house while Craig had to handle the garage.