Long time, no blog, or, Settling into life in the Keys

Kicking back in the Keys

Well jeez, where does the time go?

As we've settled into life here in Key Largo, we find the time picking up in pace again.  The last few years seem to have flown by in NY, then slowed waaay down when we were road-tripping, and we've now found a kind of happy medium.

Life in the Keys is pretty much how we would expect.  The people are laid back and friendly, and often a bit quirky (a good thing!).  There is rarely a time where shoes are required.  Most days see temperatures in the 70s and even into the 80s while much of the country has been in the miserable grasp of winter.  The water is a wonderful aqua-marine color.  Life does not suck.

I've been keeping mostly busy working at a yacht brokerage.  I've had great opportunities for sailing and learning more about boats.  I worked at the Miami Boat show, which was a fun, if not a bit grueling five days.  The business is a lot like being a real estate agent, which is something I was interested in once upon a time.  If anything, I find I enjoy and look forward to working much more so than I ever have before.

I have found a great sailing mentor in the owner of the brokerage.  He has sailed all over the world for decades and I've been fortunate enough to go on one delivery and a few day-sails so far.  So, I am learning quite a bit.

Trisha is working at a couple of places part-time and doing some babysitting.  For both of us we feel that even on a bad day, when we come home it feels like we are on vacation.  It's a great feeling to be able to go outside and launch our kayaks right off our dock and be out on the water.

We still find ourselves looking for a sailboat.  Right now we'd like to get something that we could take for long weekend trips down the Keys.  So hopefully we'll be able to post about that someday soon.

We hope that we are proof positive that no matter how stuck you feel, or if the economy is bad, or if you hate your job; you can break away and start a new life and live out your dreams.  We've met loads of people down here who have stories very similar to our own:  They come to visit and realize what they've been missing, and they don't go back. 

Throw off the bowlines and sail away from the safe harbor.  There's a big beautiful world out there waiting to be discovered.

Sailing in Biscaye Bay, off Miami on a new Beneteau 40

Kayaking in the Florida Bay

An old wreck off Vaca Key, near Marathon

Having a blast

Keys Disease

"Keys Disease," that infectious virus that temps every visitor to the Florida Keys to stay far longer than originally intended. (from http://www.squidoo.com/Keys-Disease)

How can you not fall in love?

First, an apology to anyone who reads this blog with regularity and enjoys getting updates on our little adventure.  The month of December seems to have gotten away from me, but not for the usual reasons of shopping and holiday preparation.

After my last post in which I talked about us not knowing which way to go, we spent a lot of time brainstorming and soul searching to find what we really thought would be the best option for us at this time.  We looked at boats again, but ultimately came to the conclusion that we just can’t afford that right now.  We talked about going West, but with the weather this time of year we ultimately decided to get as far south as we could and stay as warm as possible this winter.

So, we headed back to the Florida Keys, this time to find a place to stay.  When we first visited the Keys in November we knew there was something special for us there.  It’s the water, it’s the coconut palms, and it’s the laid back free-spirited vibe that one gets down here.  Short of moving to the actual Caribbean, this is the closest you can get and still drive to it, and it’s pretty great.

We looked at a half dozen apartments between Key Largo at the northern end of the keys and Stock Island, which is next to Key West at the southern end of the keys.  We ultimately settled on a small (400 sq. ft. or so) studio in Key Largo, with a deck that is twice the size of the apartment on a corner lot with two canals running by.  Included in the lease is 25’ of dock space, so some sort of boat is definitely in our future.

See, dock space!

After the whirlwind second tour of the Keys and a few days unpacking the RV and settling into the apartment, we made a mad dash back to NY to return the Rialta to my family and pick up our Honda Element and two kayaks and some other things we had been storing.  It was a brief visit, but enough to see both of our families, visit some friends, and give us a taste of the winter we have left behind.  After freezing our butts off in NY for most of a week, driving back into south Florida felt like driving into spring time;  layers were shed, windows were opened, the sun came out, and it was good!

We have been settling in nicely in our new digs.  After living in the 150 sqare feet of the motor home for two months, a studio apartment feels downright palatial.  It’s great to have a kitchen again, and a full sized shower.  What really sold us on this place though was the tremendous amount of deck and dock space with it being right on the canals.  We have already been visited by manatees a couple of times.  

As I write this, we are experiencing something of a cold front in the Keys, today’s daytime high is only expected to be in the upper 50s!  Imagine that!  At the end of December, we are experiencing the same weather we wouldn’t have seen in NY until late March.  Sold.

So, what does this mean for this blog?  Has our change in course been completed?  

In short, I don’t think so.  Living on a sailboat and cruising still loom large in our dreams.  Our new life in the Keys is probably just a port of call on our meandering journey through life.  But it is definitely a nice stop.

I will keep posting about our adventures, and this may turn into a more frequent "here is the cool place to kayak that we found today" type of blog for a while.  But I want to keep everyone updated on where we stand on our journey at large, how we are able to live this life because we chose to live simply, and ultimately how these “crazy” decisions have enabled us to live a life closer to our dreams.

Down to the Water

There's something about water.  Something that binds us together as humans, that seems to bring out the best in people.  There is an optimism, a free spirited, good time feeling around water.  Whether on a river, lake, stream, or ocean; water seems to have a good vibe.

It's the power boater who waves as they pass you by when you are becalmed in your dinghy.  It's the guy playing with his dog next to the boat launch who wades out to give you a push when you are starting to drift towards the rocks.  It's the members of a sailing club who have your trailer already in the water when you get back to the launch because you had to be towed in by the committee boat.  These are the same people who would cut you off and give you the finger on the interstate, but around water there is something different.

Water gives us recreation.  It gives us hope.  There is a reason that the Man and the Boy in Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' are always heading towards the coast, away from the desolation of a post apocalyptic world.

Perhaps it is that we are mostly water?

There's a great story from Jimmy Buffet's autobiography, where he talks about his grandmother telling him to go down and wade into the salt water if he got a cut or had skinned his knee, and (paraphrasing here) "Later on down the road of life, I made the discovery that salt water was also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land."

I owe a lot to water.  When I was five years old my parents moved from Long Island to the mountains of central NY to start a bottled water company.  In some ways water literally gave me life.

Yet water is not always kind, just ask the residents of the lower 9th ward.

But by and large, people want water in their lives. It gives us hope.

So here's to you water, thanks for everything.  I'm looking forward to a lot more good times.

Doldrums

The "Doldrums" are an area around the equator in the intertropical convergence zone that are known to sailors for their light and variable wind patterns, often resulting in the boat having to motor through, or wait for a favorable wind shift.

While we are some 42 deg. North of the equator, that is what it has felt like around here lately.  We haven't made any forward progress on the sale of the house, and while we have looked at some boats we haven't found any particular one of interest.

So here we sit, seemingly adrift and waiting for a favorable shift in the wind...

What do you do to keep your spirits up when you get stuck in the Doldrums?

The Search Continues

It was a little depressing to find what we though was "the boat" and then to have to let it go once the survey turned up some issues.  But, just like riding a bike, if you take a spill the best thing is to get back on and keep riding (barring serious personal injury of course).

So last weekend we visited Newport, RI, and Salem, MA, to look at some more boats.  In all we managed to look at four boats on Saturday, they were, in order of viewing:

Southern Cross 31
Pearson Vanguard 32
Bristol 29.9
Ericson 28

We really liked the SC 31 and Bristol 29.9.  The Vanguard, while a beautiful boat, was just not set up in a manner that would allow us to live aboard, and the Ericson was a mid-1980s model with a pleather cabin top.  Not happening!

It was good to see that many boats in one day and we are learning a lot about ourselves and what we are looking for in a boat.  We tend toward the traditional, with a full keel, nice lines, and sloop or cutter rigged.  We are also looking for a boat with a less than 5' draft, as we would like to go to the Bahamas and the water can get "skinny" there as they say.

We also have found that we really love the state of Rhode Island, and decided that if we find a boat there it wouldn't be half bad to have to stay through a winter to get the boat in shape for the eventual sail south.  Another bonus is that if you keep the boat with a hailing port in RI, the purchase is tax free!  You've got to love a place that supports the boating community that much.

To that end, we are heading back to RI this Memorial Day weekend to look at a couple of other boats.  In searching on Craigslist this week, we stumbled upon a listing for a Down Easter 32, which is the same type of boat that we had the offer in on, but this is listed for about half that price.  So we are going to check it out.  We are also going to take another look at the Southern Cross 31, we really love the look of the boat, the practical layout, storage space, and great reputation.

One other item of note:  While in Newport last Friday evening, I surprised Trish by taking her on a sunset sail aboard the schooner "Aquindeck".  The really cool thing about that was that one of the crew members is a blogger that I follow, over at I Hate Shoes.  Scott, the blogger, recently quit his job working in a "cube farm" in Boston, sailed his boat down to Newport and is now working on the schooner.  A bold move and one I hope to follow shortly!  Anyway, check out his blog if you have the chance, it is well written and pretty funny at times.

Finally, a picture from our sunset cruise: