Caught by the Lure of the Sea

This picture was taken in Negril, Jamaica at sunset.  We went to Jamaica for our honeymoon in the beginning of November, 2006.  The week we spent there had a profound and lasting impact on our lives.

It was during this week that we first tried our hand at sailing.  The resort we stayed at had a fleet of 14' Hobie Cat Waves that the guests could use.  No sailing experience?  No problem mon!  A watersports instructor there named Wade took us out for our first ever time on a sailboat.  After about fifteen minutes he had us drop him off at the beach, as he shoved us off again he shouted "Just don't go to Cuba!", and we were off.

After a little while of zipping to and fro in front of the resort we were feeling pretty bold and decided to venture a bit further from shore.  Once we had gotten good and far out there, the wind slowly petered off and we were becalmed.  So we sat, and waited.  Trisha started to get anxious, worried that if we had to swim back we might be eaten by sharks!  Eventually some of the watersports guys came by in their power boat.

"No wind, huh?"
"Nope", we replied.
"Just wait a bit", and they zoomed off.

Well, the wind didn't return that day and we got towed to shore for the first time, and certainly not the last time.  First day of sailing, first rescue at sea.  We were hooked.

For the rest of the week we took a hobie cat out and had a great time.  Our final "cruise" was to a little cay off of a point of land miles down from the resort.  Sailing through those clear Caribbean waters was like nothing we had experienced before.

When we got back home to NY, Bill immediately went out and bought "Sailing for Dummies" and read it cover to cover a few times.  We didn't get back out sailing the next summer, but in the fall of 2007 we bought our own sailboat.  It is a late 70s O'day Daysailer.  It is 17' long and sloop rigged.  After a scary attempt at launching and sailing our own boat that fall, we decided to take lessons the following spring.

This is a picture of "Float On", our O'day Daysailer.  We've had a lot of fun, a bit of frustration, and some moments of sheer terror with our little boat in the last couple of years.  We have primarily sailed on Saratoga Lake in upstate NY, where we eventually joined a sailing club.

We always think back fondly to our week in Jamaica.  More than any other time we've ever experienced it has changed our course in life.  From the warm salt air, the friendly people, palm trees, and sunsets...just everything about it becons us to escape this cold state we are currently in and return to "island time".

One last picture of us in front of our Hobie Cat on the beach in Jamaica.

Minimizing Your Life

I often wonder if we are strange for wanting to "run away" from our typical American life. I mean here we are in our late 20s and we have so much stuff. We have a house, two cars, a flat screen TV, clothes, bikes, boats; by all accounts we are firmly entrenching ourselves into the middle class. Yet all we feel is that we have to get rid of it all and change the way we are headed.

We've been taking steps in the past year to reduce our consumption and the amount of stuff that we own. Last spring we had a big yard sale and managed to trim some of the fat. We've also been donating clothes to goodwill and the like. Still so much more remains.

There is a minimalist movement going on in the country now that we've recently been paying attention to. Maybe you have heard of the 100 things challenge? The idea is to reduce your worldly possessions to 100 items or less. To us it sounds very liberating. I mentioned it to some people at work and they seemed somewhat intrigued, but couldn't image in doing it themselves.

So, this spring we will be having another yard sale, maybe two. In some ways we'd love to do an estate sale where people could just come into our house and buy our things as if we had died. That would certainly make it easy.

What doesn't go in the sales will be donated to charity, and when we move south we'll take the smallest U-Haul possible. One thing about living on a boat is that we won't be able to re-accumulate this much stuff.

11 Months Later

It's always amazing to me when you look back in time at how fast it seems to have gone, while the future always seems to to be so far away.

We started this blog almost a year ago to chronicle our journey towards a new life. Unfortunately we haven't made it there yet. The biggest obstacle to overcome has been the sale of our home here in upstate NY. A year ago the real estate market was looking pretty dismal and we decided to step back and regroup before going forward.

When last we blogged, we were determining whether or not to renovate the attic into a functional second floor. Well, we decided it would be best to go forward with the work in order to add more equity. The work began in September and by November of 09 we had a fully functioning second floor. Thus far everyone who has seen it has been very impressed, and we are hoping it will be the edge that helps with the ultimate sale of the house.

The plan now is to list our house for sale on or about May 1st, 2010. That will be the 4 year anniversary of when we bought the house. As always there is a list of projects we would like to complete in order to get everything in tip top shape before the sale. If we can get near our eventual asking price, we will have enough to break free.

It's hard to believe how fast the last year has gone by, and all that we accomplished with this house. In a short few months our lives will be very different, I can't wait to look back a year from now and see what we've done.