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

100 Things Challenge Interview

One of the keys to Trisha and I being able to up and leave our "old" life behind and travel has been the ability to let our stuff go.  I've talked a little bit about the 100 things challenge before and the concept of a minimalist lifestyle.  I think living a simple life is one of the keys to being happy.  Think about it, if you learn to get by with less and enjoy it, then you don't need as much money, so you can have more time to pursue what you really want to, and so on.

Another key to us being able to take off has been the elimination of most of our debts, specifically credit cards and car payments.  Without having to pay for stuff on credit and then fighting to pay it off every month, we've been able to get out and follow some of our dreams.

So, with these two things in mind, I was happy to see an interview by Baker of Man vs. Debt fame (who is about to embark on an RV journey of his own) of Dave Bruno who started the whole 100 things challenge a few years back.

It's a great interview and touches on a lot of points that I think are valuable to cruisers, RV'rs, and pretty much anyone who wants to be able to cut down on the amount of stuff they have.  So check it out if you have about 15 minutes to spare:

100 Things Challenge Interview

If you haven't yet made any resolutions for the New Year, this would be a great one.

Cross Roads

Today is supposed to be the day where we sit down with internet access and figure out where we are going next.  It's as simple as choosing a destination, but what are the greater implications of such decisions?

If we get somewhere and don't like it we will have wasted gas and therefore money, of which there is a finite amount.  If we get somewhere and love it, will we want to stay?  If we go somewhere, will it be further from where we want to go?

We are at a cross roads.  We've had a wonderful time on our trip thus far, but we are weary of much of the suburban scenery we see day to day.  It seems every exit off the interstate looks the same:  there is a Walmart, a Burger King, a Dunkin Donuts, three or four gas stations, a couple of strip malls...you know the scene. 

There have been places on our trip so far that we could really see ourselves staying at for a while.  Key West and Charleston come to mind.  Both towns have done a great job of keeping vibrant downtown scenes and keeping big boxes to a minimum and pushed to the outside.

A funny thing is that we don't mind living in the small space of the RV, it's more a sense of place that we are missing.  However, we aren't ready to just settle into an apartment or house again and be tied down with a lease, or furniture.  If only there was a place to boondock in a nice community's downtown for free!

So, what do we do?  Do we head further West into the vast greatness of this country and see if there is a place for us there?  Do we follow through on our initial quest to find a small sailboat to live on?  Do we pack it in, get on a plane and go to another country?

Somehow, I don't think I'll find the answer by the end of today...

A Week of Transition

It's been a week since I left Albany, NY, my home for the past ten years.  I'd wanted to leave for quite a while now, so there haven't really been any feelings of nostalgia for it.  Of course I'll always miss my friends who are still there, but with our new mobile lifestyle I have faith that I will see them all again.

Our first stop after leaving Albany was at my in-laws on Long Island.  We were there until Wednesday of this week arranging and re-arranging our new 160 +/- sq. ft. of living space.  That's 10% of the square footage we had when we lived in our house.  We've gotten rid of so much, but we still ended up with two large garbage bags of clothes for Goodwill and some other miscellaneous errata that was donated.  It's good to know that our no longer wanted or needed items can have a new life with a new owner.

On Wednesday we left for Trenton, NJ.  An unlikely stop, I know, but we decided to take the opportunity to visit with some family there.  We ended up staying for two days as we found out that some other cousins were coming into town on the second day.  We hemmed and hawed about the decisions to stay, feeling like we had to get on to our next destination, but it dawned on us that we didn't really have to.  We don't have to be anywhere specific until at least the 30th.  The kind of freedom we are now experiencing is both liberating and frightening.

On the second day in Trenton we came upon an unexpected surprise at the Trenton City Museum located in Cadwalader Park.  There was a good art exhibit featuring local artists in the renovated 1800s summer home that the museum occupies.  The park itself was designed by the same fellow who designed Central Park in NYC, and Washington Park in good old Albany, so it was a nice place to spend an afternoon walking the dog and soaking up some sunshine.

We've noticed we are about two weeks behind the climate in Albany.  Whereas they got flurries last night and most of the leaves are gone, we have had temperatures in the 60s and there is still a lot of green on the trees.  If we plan this right, this nice weather will follow us all the way down the coast.

Today we left Trenton and headed for our first real destination:  Annapolis, MD, the sailing capital of America.  You see, even though we decided to "cruise" in an RV, we are still sailors at heart.  I'd much rather be anchored in a nice cove than boondocking in a Sam's Club parking lot, but such is life.  The opportunity to use an RV came along and we jumped on it, we'll get to the boat soon enough.

This week has seen a lot of change.  Change in the amount of space we live in.  Change in our schedules.  Change in the climate (at least our climate, I won't get into global warming here).  Changes in our spending habits.

We've finally started on our journey.  It's scary, it's overwhelming, it's fun and it's exciting.  This new life will take some getting used to, but we are living our life by our design and for ourselves.  There's no going back!

"Living the Dream"

A typical hallway conversation at my workplace:

Person 1:  "How's it going buddy?"

Person 2: (in a dejected and sarcastically toned voice) "Just living the dream..."

I hear this too often.  Why don't we just stop?  If you aren't living the life you want to live, living your dream, it is time to change.

The problem is that most of us think we have to work for forty or more years and sock money away to get to the point where we can go live our dreams, some would call it retirement.  Somewhere along that journey we lose our youthful ambition and the daydreams we had as children.  The simple fact is that almost anything is possible with enough determination and initiative.

What I mean is, I can't walk onto an NFL team as a quarterback (one type of dream), but I can get out of the work-a-day life I have been leading and start living life on my own terms.  It won't be easy, and it will take some sacrifice, but what is leading the life you want worth?

Too many people are unhappy, or just content with their lot in life.  But they assume that is how it is supposed to be: you work, save your pennies, and then "someday" you'll get to enjoy the things you are truly passionate about. 

Part of the reason for writing this blog is to challenge that assumption. 

Maybe I am crazy, but I feel there has got to be a better way.  There's got to be a better way than driving thirty minutes to work to sit at a desk under fluorescent lights while staring at a computer screen for nine hours only to turn around and drive thirty minutes home eat and watch TV till you fall into a fitful sleep only to repeat tomorrow.

My wife, Trisha, recently broke free of that trend.  By renting our house and getting rid of much of our stuff, she was able to quit her job to focus on starting a business for us.  It's nothing too fancy, no dot-com start up that will turn us into uber-billionaires, but rather a seasonal concession business that we can hopefully work at for an eventual six month on/six month off schedule.

I'll soon follow her out the door away from corporate America.  Our plans now include traveling south by RV for the winter.  It would be better if it was by boat, but plans change and we have to re-evaluate our situation and adapt to the challenges at hand.  We are sticking with our overarching plan of heading south before winter sets in, and we are still going to be looking for boats, while we journey in our "land-yacht".

I'll leave you with a quote from Bob Bitchin of Lattitude & Attitudes fame:

"Don't dream your life, live your dreams"

Decisions are a coming...

Sunset over Lake Champlain from Burlington, VT

As of around 10 this morning, we have to move out of our house by September 1st.  No, it didn't sell.  We rented it.

We put it up on Craigslist last weekend and on Tuesday night we showed it to a group of young guys, about our age actually, who we have ended up renting it to.  We put it up for rent on a whim, just to see if there was any interest.  There was no need for us to sign today, other than to give us incentive to get moving.  To shake off the rust brought on by the stagnation of the past few months.

So what next?

Option 1) My work has offered me a transfer to Burlington, VT.  We have an office there that has loads of potential to grow, and they see me as someone who could grow it.  This option has a lot going for it:  Burlington is a great town, there are good cruising grounds there where we could hone our skills in the next year or two, I'd have the potential to make more money.

Option 2) Move to the Caribbean.  I know, its kind of like cheating to just move there without getting a boat and cruising there, right?  But we were talking about it and thought, why the heck not?  It's easy to move to the USVI, and if we go down in October/November there are bound to be plenty of job openings in the tourist industry.  Fun stuff like being a mate on a sailboat.  Or maybe we start our own little business.

Obviously option 1 is the safe option and option 2 is the "what the f**k do you kids think you are doing?" option.  But life is short, we (probably) only get one shot, so we have to figure out what is really going to make us happy.

No one can give us permission to go with either option except ourselves.  We just have to have the courage to sign that permission slip and hand it to the principal and go...

Dead Blog?

 

I've read a few times that if you don't keep up a schedule of posting that you will lose interest in your blog and lose readership.  It makes sense.  The internet is a fickle place, with boundless amounts of information for every possible interest...

Well here it is almost a month since my last post!  In looking back at the blog over the past few months it seems that I was posting pretty regularly just before we listed our house for sale.  In those days I was full of optimism and really felt that we would have moved past this point in our lives by now (July).  Well we haven't, the house is still for sale, we have dropped the asking price by more than 17k and can't go much lower before selling it will eat into a significant chunk of our savings.

Everything else is on track though.  We have been saving money and paring down our possessions. 

We actually should be really content and happy with the life we have.  We have both received promotions at work in the last year, we have a nice house, and lots of other things going for us.  The problem is now that this dream of living simply on a sailboat has gotten into our heads, it just makes so much sense and we can't get it out again.

But I digress. 

The blog isn't dead, it is just that there hasn't been much "Changing Course" to talk about.  In keeping with the sailing analogies:  It seems the wind has been knocked out of my sails.

On the bright side, we are taking a three day live aboard sailing class this coming weekend on Lake Champlain.  I think a re-cap of the class will make for a good blog post.

Till then...

Fear & Permission

Chris Guillebeau is a well known blogger who writes about unconventional strategies for life, work, and travel.

This video resonated with me after the doldrums that we have been experiencing here lately.  The whole point of this change in our lives is to live without fear and not have to ask permission to do what we want.  I especially enjoyed Chris's points about how you cannot bargain with fear, or a crocodile, even if you play it "safe".

Life is unpredictable... 

...we should strive everyday to work towards our dreams.  No one but ourselves can give us the permission to go out and make these dreams real.

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?

Always Wanting More

"I want to be a billionaire so freakin bad"

On my way to work today I heard a song on the radio with the above line as the catchy chorus.  The rest of the song went on about all the things he could do if he was a billionaire, and the fame he would get, though I should mention he said he would probably adopt a couple of kids.  Growing up, people always wanted to be millionaires, now apparently that isn't enough, you have to be a billionaire.

Immediately after the song, the DJ came on saying how times were rough but that was okay, you should enter his contest because you deserve a new car, and that would make you feel better!

This stuck in my head all day and got me thinking about how we are driven to always want more. The media, pop culture, our neighbors, family; all expect and push this ideal that everything would be easier and more glamorous with more.  More cars, more money, more house, more parties, etc.  We spend so much time thinking about what we could do and have if we had more, that we don't pay attention to what we have, or think about how great our lives could be with less!

What if you had less?

The Minimalist Path

If you had a smaller house (or a sailboat) it would cost less money to maintain, and you couldn't fill it with as much.  If you had fewer bills you wouldn't need as much money.  If you didn't need as much money, you wouldn't need to work as much, or stay in a job you don't care for just because the pay is decent.

The way I see it is that there are two options if you want to be able to enjoy your life and not work forever:  

You could become a millionaire (or a billionaire).  

Or you could choose to live a minimalist life with fewer possessions and fewer expenses and live on much less. 

In between these extremes lay the majority of people who are just trying to get by saddled by debt and the desire to always want more. I was on this path, and in some ways still am (the house hasn't sold), but am trying desperately to break free. 

To me, the easiest path is the minimalist path.  It is a path that you can control, that doesn't require you to win the lottery, or to be a movie star, or a Wall Street tycoon.  I think the odds are definitely in your favor if you have less.

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:

Plans & Schedules & Fate

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving" ~ Lao Tzu

"Those who fail to plan, plan to fail"

The second quote there is what I have heard from my Dad throughout my life.  I think there is merit to both.

As we get closer and closer to the start of our adventure, I hope to be able to transition more to Lau Tzu's line of thinking.  But it has been a mixture of planning, schedules, and the un-planned that has gotten us this far.

When we went to Jamaica for our honeymoon in 2006, I had never been on a sailboat, let alone to the tropics, before. There are moments in your life when time divides, when it splits to what came before and everything after it.  To me Jamaica was one of those.  It was totally un-planned but has largely determined the past four years of our lives.

Though our time in the Caribbean was transformational, the idea to actually live on a sailboat probably didn't hit until sometime in 2008, almost two years later.  We made a trip to the Newport, RI boat show and that was probably the beginning of the actual realization that we could in fact live on a boat.

Since that time, we have had a mixture of plans & schedules.  Our schedule got pushed off from last year due to the economy and real estate markets at large.  We deemed that it wouldn't be worth selling our house at the time for a variety of reasons.  So our plans and schedule changed. 

Our current schedule has us listing the house for sale within a month and to be moving south to find a boat by September.  That is, unless we find a boat here in NY before that (we have a few scheduled to be looked at in the next month), then our plans will be tossed aside and fate will have intervened.
 
There are people out there who spend so much time planning and preparing and trying to figure out the perfect conditions and set of equipment, that their boats never leave the dock. 

On the other hand, if we were to go buy a boat tomorrow and sail away with little experience it could be hazardous to our lives. 

But, yet again, there are people like Pat & Ali who bought a boat after a weekend of looking and circumnavigated the globe with a day's worth of sailing lessons.

For us, I think it will be a balancing act of these three approaches.  As of this writing, we have no intention to circumnavigate the globe.  We would however like to sail through the Bahamas and into the Caribbean, perhaps setting up shop in the US Virgin Islands for a while.  We believe that we can do that with a little more practice and "big boat" (30 ft. range) experience.

So, these are our plans, in no particular order:

• To buy a boat small enough to be in our price range, but big enough for the two of us. 
• To learn to sail said boat to the best of our ability.
• To live minimally and simply enough to make our lifestyle sustainable on less than $1000/month.
• To enjoy ourselves while we are young and try not to go back to "work" again.

 Who knows what fate will have to say about these plans...

One final thought:  I've read that the most dangerous thing you can have aboard a sailboat is a schedule.  This has to do with rushing to be to the next port despite the weather or other conditions.  I really cannot wait to not have a schedule.

How about you, have you had plans where you feel fate has intervened?  Or the converse, were fate has led to your plans?

Beating to Windward

For you non-sailors who might read this, sailing towards the direction the wind is blowing from, or "beating to windward", is a lot of work.  Modern sailboats can sail to within a certain angle of the wind, around 45 degrees to either side of where the wind is coming from; so to get upwind you have to go through a series of "tacks" where you change the direction of the boat to either side of the wind to eventually make your way to where you want to go upwind.

That is what the past few weeks have felt like as we prepare for our yard sale, and get the house in order to be shown for sale.  A lot of work.

All of the little fixes that we have been putting off forever now have to get taken care of.  Everything from taping down stair treads, to touch up painting.  Its a good thing that we have pretty much forsaken TV, because we haven't had time to watch it anyway.

What is key here is to keep our dreams in the fore front of our minds.  The easiest thing would be to do nothing, and stay where we are.  We could easily have a nice comfortable life, especially now that the house is finally nearing completion.  But the easy thing isn't always the right thing, or the best thing.

Just a few more tacks...

What do you do?

I've always hated that question.  You know, when you are at a party, or out to dinner with new friends, before long the question will come up:  So, what do you do?  Or, where do you work?

I've always felt that the question is so limiting.  I suppose its only natural for people to want to try to peg you down based on the stereotypes of different professions.  But its always been an awkward question for both Trish and I.

The expected and easy answer is, "I work in marketing at a mid sized A/V company".  More appropriately I might say that I sail, kayak, and generally try to enjoy life.  The questioner would probably look at me funny and say something like, "No seriously, what do you do?".

I'm not sure where the discomfort with this question comes from.  Maybe its just that I haven't found my true calling.  Or maybe that I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs.  More likely I think it is because I have come to value life and living above material possessions and status.

This post has mostly been inspired by a book I just read entitled "The Best Life Money Can't Buy", by Andy Deering.  Andy's answer to the question is: "I Live".  Andy and his partner, Lisa, have had some wild adventures including sailing the Pacific, and living through winter in a small cabin in Alaska.  At the heart of his book is the idea that life is short and the time we spend on this planet is finite so it is best to enjoy it.  Andy's personal sense of enjoyment and my own are pretty similar I think, except I don't want to experience any winters for a while after we get out of NY.

I'm sure there are people out there who truly enjoy their jobs and get real satisfaction when they tell people what it is they do.  In my experience they have mostly been people who have a direct and positive affect on other people, i.e. social workers, special education counselors, and teachers.  Maybe that is the answer.  Maybe if your work truly benefits others you will enjoy it the most.

As we embark on our great adventure I can't help but look to the other side of it and wonder where we will come out.  Will we find enlightenment that will lead us to our "path"?

On the other hand, maybe this adventure is our path.

Paring Down

Verb

1.

pare down - decrease gradually bit by bit

We have been whittling away at the possessions we've accumulated by selling them off on craigslist, donating them to charity, giving them to friends, or putting them aside in a yard sale pile.  The process is kind of like when you get asked: "If you were stranded on a dessert island and could only bring 1 thing, what would it be?"

While we aren't going that drastic, we would like to decrease our overall possessions to under 100 things.  Fortunately for us, the boat will count as 1 thing, but be many things to us.  It will be our home, our living room, our kitchen, our couches and our shower, our car, and so much more.  By living on a boat, we won't need many of the things we currently possess including furniture, Christmas decorations, and assorted knick-knacks. 

We have done a lot of thinking about getting rid of most of our worldly possessions and what it will mean for our future.  By getting rid of things we start to feel liberated.  It is as if a weight is being removed and we are being lifted by helium balloons.

Fewer things = less holding you down/back/behind.

By simplifying our lives, we can achieve our dreams.

Shutting off our TV

Recently we have been limiting the time we allow ourselves to get stuck watching TV in the evenings.  I say get stuck because that is what it feels like.  You know the feeling...there is nothing on that interests you, but you keep flipping channels trying to find something.  You might tune into something that is mildly entertaining and watch it for a while, but really has it done anything to enrich your life?

By shutting the TV off we have become much more productive and taken big strides towards our dreams.  It is amazing how much time we used to waste just sitting there hoping to find something entertaining to watch.  So now instead of sitting on the couch we have been putting the finishing touches on our house to forward our plans to sell it this Spring so that we can move South and find a boat.

Now I'm not saying we don't watch any TV at all.  We will tune into the news a few nights a week, or watch one or two sitcoms or shows.  But we came to the realization that outside of a few shows that we really enjoy, the rest of the time in front of the TV was spent flipping or watching something that was just "passing the time".  But really, how much time can we afford to pass?  Time is the one resource that we personally can control, and it is finite.  Years from now wouldn't you rather look back and say that you worked towards your goals?  Or would you rather look back and know who won American Idol?