We are now official, our boat cards are in!

We are now official, our boat cards are in!

The new year has arrived and we are ready for it! Two years ago when we were first making the decision to delay cruising to establish our rental income, Dan’s brother Kyle encouraged us (forcefully) to set an end-all date: the date at which we would quit our jobs and start cruising, no matter what else had happened. That date was January 1, 2015. Now that we have passed it, there is a constant reminder that the time has come.

We are hoping to be able to head out to the Bahamas sometime in the vicinity of March-April. Dan’s work pays their annual bonus around that time and while we are acutely aware of the fact that there will always be more money if we stay longer, it just makes sense to us to at least cash in on money we’ve already earned before leaving. That, coupled with the chance to have both of our parents come to visit in a relatively easy-to-get-to setting, is what we are basing our timing on at this point.

Once we head out, our tentative plan is to head for the northern Abaco islands as our landing point in the Bahamas and work our way through the chain. We’re hoping to get through the Exumas as well but with hurricane season on the horizon, we’ll have to play everything by ear and keep an eye on the weather for sure. The only solid deadline that we have is August 1. That is the day that Dan’s brother Alex is getting married and all three of us are in the wedding!

With that in mind, we’re hoping to have the boat stored somewhere on the hard for a month or two while we go home. After that our plans are completely fluid. We are essentially waiting to make any other definitive plans until after our time in the Bahamas. Hopefully a lot of our big questions will be answered at that time and allow us to do more in-depth planning. Here are a few of those biggies:

  • “How long do we see ourselves cruising?”
  • “Is our planned budget working for us?”
  • “Are we interested in a large-scale crossing?”
  • “Do we have the right boat for our future goals?”
  • “What changes need to be made to accommodate our cruising style?”

The answers to these questions will have a huge impact on our decisions going forward and our lives in general. Dan and I fully anticipate loving the cruising life-style, but we can’t say that positively because we haven’t tried it of course. We hope that you’ll continue on this journey with us.

 

Have suggestions for beautiful anchorages in the Bahamas that we just shouldn’t miss or a great suggestion for a haul-out facility on the east coast? Leave us a comment below!