Do you dream of one day telling your job that you are leaving to sail off to beautiful islands? So do we, all the time. But then reality sets in and you realize that day may be a long way off. Come on Lottery $$$!!
We all know stories of people who did not wait, they quit their land jobs when they were young and worked when they needed to replenish the cruising kitty. We all admire those people for following their dream at any cost, but for most of us, family commitments and careers put the sail away date into our retirement. We also read about people who hit a point in life where they suddenly sell everything, buy a boat, and start the process of learning to sail and cruise. While most of these impulsive dreamers make it work, they often go through a painful learning curve. Whatever path you follow, the key is not to wait, start moving toward your goal NOW!
While we are not ready to sail away in the next ten years, we will not let that stop us from having amazing sailing adventures leading up to permanently casting off the lines. This site is all about local cruising and building sailing experience that will support bigger adventures in the future. We are fortunate to live in Florida which allows sailing twelve months a year and many miles of coast line and lakes to explore. We have only been cruising for four years. Most of our cruising is on weekends with trips ranging from two to four nights. We own a trailerable sailboat, so part of every trip is cruising at 60 mph with truck and trailer to get to our launch point. This allows us to cover 300 or more miles in one weekend! These trips have taught us about trip planning, navigation, weather, tides/currents, anchoring, sleeping without worrying about the anchor, various types of marinas, provisioning, marine toilets, living in a small area with a marine toilet and most of all the team work and communication it takes to keep from having a relationship melt down. My brother served as an officer on USS Fearless (MSO-442) and the ship’s motto was “Good Stories Don’t Come Cheap.” We often learn the most when something goes wrong or breaks at the least opportune time, and we have earned some expensive stories.
Almost any area of the world has a nearby coastline, lake or river to explore. All of these areas will help you gain experience and provide you with a cruising experience. Boats float that same in any water, whether cruising for a weekend on the local lake or cruising through the Bahamas we all can have great cruising experiences.
If you are a local cruiser or world cruiser, we would love to hear from you. We want to share your trip stories and hard lessons learned. We have learned a lot from meeting other boaters and we look forward to learning from our interactions on this site.
– Steve & Brandy
The Sailing Rode / The Sailing Road – Sailing Podcast
