Disaster at sea

At least it was for us, anyway. Unfortunately, I don't have the good news to report that I was hoping for when I wrote that last post.

As it turns out, our offer was accepted, and at what we thought was a reasonable price for the boat. So, we went ahead and jumped through all the hoops to book a surveyor, a haul out, last minute plane tickets, etc. We were feeling pretty optimistic that we were at the end of our search, so we decided that both Sara and I would go for the survey, even though it was a bit of a budget killer to book two plane tickets on short notice.

Off we flew, back to sunny Florida, where the forecast was for rain and thunderstorms the whole time we were there. The landing in Tampa was eerily similar to my earlier boat shopping trip to Fort Lauderdale, with rain and lighting out the window as we landed.




Due to scheduling conflicts, we couldn't see the boat until our second day there. That made our first day a carefree tour around the Florida Gulf Coast, checking out potential marinas where we could keep the boat, assuming the purchase went through. There was lots of rain that day, and at one point it was pouring so hard we couldn't drive safely, so we had to pull over into a parking lot to wait it out.




We capped the day off with a great dinner out, and a walk along the water front, where we found the locals getting together for their weekly Thursday night jam session. It was amazing to watch - some really great music, and an amazing feel of community, kind of like you see in old American movies set in small towns.




The next morning dawned bright and sunny, which was a welcome change for our survey day. We headed out early to the boat. 6 a.m. Florida time is 3 a.m. for us, so we were really feeling the time change. The rest of that day was a blur, with a survey, haul out, and sea trial. I won't say too much about it, other than to say things were going pretty well until we put the boat back in the water after the haul. An unexpected current, a misplaced megayacht and a nearby dock put a distinct damper on events after that.










As we drove back to the airport in Tampa that night, we were still in shock as to how quickly things had gone downhill on the survey. In fact, the incidents on the water were not our only concerns with the boat - we had some misgivings about the layout, and some of the functional issues of the boat. Suddenly, our optimistic plan started to look a little suspect, and we were cursing our lack of foresight. If we had anticipated things better, we could have spent some of the time we were in Florida looking at other boats as well. In fact, we pulled off the highway and briefly considered the logistics of changing our plane tickets and car reservation, booking a couple of more nights in a hotel, and extending our babysitting for a couple more days so we could view a few more boats. But on the background of the day we had just had, it was all too overwhelming, so we decided to head home as planned.

Long story short, we have been home now for over a week, and it has been a difficult one as we have tried to decide what to do about the boat. In the end, we elected to decline the purchase, which means we are still without a boat, and will have to start all over again. This likely means another long negotiation process, another expensive trip to Florida, and another full survey before we get the full feel of yet another boat. It's too bad there isn't a system to sail a boat without having to kick out the full money for a survey, but it seems like that is part of the deal.

Oh well, every time we do this we get smarter about the process, and define better exactly what it is we want in a boat. I think we are also getting a bit jaded, and will be a little less excited next time we head out to survey a boat. I'll keep you posted how that whole process goes.

We are also acutely aware that if our worst problem is that we are having difficulty buying a yacht, then life must really be pretty damn good. And it is.

And your offer iiis ……. ACCEPTED!

Well, we've been down this path before, so we don't want to get too excited. Also, we don't actually have the paperwork in hand (something about power outages in Florida?) which makes things seem a bit fishy, but… we are told by our broker that we have an accepted offer.
I don't want to jinx the whole thing by providing too much detail. However, I think it is safe to say the boat is in Florida. It is one of the possibilities I saw on my initial boat buying trip.


Next step is to wait for the actual paperwork to get to us. Once we have that in hand, we will book another surveyor, and a haul out, and then some flights to Florida to do our due diligence on this one. Then, if all goes well… we will have bought a boat! If that happens, I will provide full details, with lots of pictures.
Wish us luck!

Comms 101

May 31, 2013. Home



Communications are an area of concern for us, given our plans to be away for a whole year. And, much as we want to get away from it all, and explore off the beaten path, we still feel a need, at least from our current perspective, to try and stay attached at least via phone, and when possible, via internet. Especially since I plan to continue to do some work over the interweb while we are away.

There are 1000 different aspects to communications on a boat, and maybe at some point I will write a post about it (once I actually know something about it). At this point, though, I did learn a couple of useful things recently, that should be of interest to any Canadian planning to spend some time travelling in the states (maybe to come visit us?).



First thing – it turns out you don't need to rely on your Canadian cell phone carrier's extortionist phone and data roaming plans to get good access in the states. There are several American companies that will sell you a sim card that you can pop into your unlocked phone, and then you will have a number you can use anywhere in the states. The best cost I found is about 4 bucks per day, but that includes all your calls to anywhere in the US or Canada, plus a lot of data use – more than you will likely use, unless you plan to spend your whole trip watching Netflix on your phone. You can check out the company I am planning to use, called Roam Mobility, here : http://www.roammobility.com/.

BTW, I have absolutely no financial interest in Roam, and haven't used them yet, so can't recommend them other than it looks like a good deal to me. If you do plan to use them, apparently if I refer you, we both get some free days, so let me know.

"But, Scot", you might proclaim, "I don't have an unlocked cell phone! I saved a ton of dough, and bought one with a contract!"



So, here is where I can really save you some money. You can either do what I did, and buy a brand new unlocked cell phone, for much dinero (as they say in Mexican cell phone circles).

Or… and this is where it gets interesting… call your cell phone company, and ask them to unlock your phone.

After spending a bunch of money on a new phone this week, I called my cell company (Rogers) for a completely different reason, and just as an afterthought, I asked them if they would unlock my old phone. I was sure they wouldn't, since I am only 6 months into a 3 year contract, and bought the extremely expensive Iphone 5 at a really cheap price, since they included it with my contract.



Anyway, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask, so I did. And what do you know – 15 minutes later, I now have an unlocked Iphone 5, which I can use with any carrier, any sim card, anywhere in the world (cost me $50.00 to have it unlocked, but totally worth it.) I wish I'd known this before I bought my new phone. I guess I could return it, but as it turns out, I think it will be nice to have some redundancy in our phones on the boat anyway. At least one of them is pretty likely to end up in the drink at some point.

So, anyway, that is the tip for the day. Call your phone company, and see if they will unlock your phone. It will make it way more valuable, way more versatile, and if you bought it on contract, it will be the cheapest way to get an unlocked phone. In fact, I can't imagine why anyone would pay full price for an unlocked phone directly from the store, ever again.

B..B..B..Back in the BVIs

A month ago I never would have guessed I'd be back here so soon. Long story as to how this came about. I'll try to shorten it here.

After our initial offer on the boat in Florida, it appeared we would end up quite a ways apart on the price the seller was aiming for. About the same time, some huge price drops on a couple of charter boats in the BVIs, of the same make, made it impossible to ignore them. So, I booked a trip to come check them out, and here I am (I guess that wasn't such a long story).

It has been an extremely eventful couple of days here. I've been bouncing back and forth between the Voyage yachts charter base in West End, and Conch charters, where, ironically, the main boat that attracted me here has recently been moved. I've been all over the island in my rental Daihatsu, and all over multiple boats.

Today was an extremely full day with a haul out and survey on the boat at Conch. I arranged all of this before I arrived, as I wanted to make this a one stop trip – it is a full two day trip to get here, and pretty expensive, so I didn't want to do it more times than absolutely necessary.

How did the survey go? Well, there were some real high points, and real low points as well. The high points – the boat sailed beautifully despite a head sail that looked like it might blow out at any moment. Also, the surveyor, Geoff Williams of West Indies Yacht Surveyors was a wealth of information, and extremely thorough in his going over of the boat. The information and insight I gained from him regarding boats, systems and trip planning may in fact be worth the cost of the entire trip here, including the survey, given that I think it will probably end up saving me a lot of money in unnecessary boat upgrades and systems expenditures.

        

        

The low points – well, I don't really want to focus on them, but suffice it to say it is not a terribly great sign to have to call the mechanic out to the boat you are surveying, and have them install a new starter motor on one of the engines so that you can get the boat to move for it's sea trial. Also, a word of advice from a new ( but rapidly gaining experience) boat buyer. If you are trying to sell your boat, you might try having it cleaned up to some degree. At least try and clean the fruit flies out of the bottom of the fridge, and the dead roaches out of the escape hatch. I'm just saying.

        

Anyway, I am going home armed with a ton of information and ideas I didn't arrive with. I believe I have solidified a plan in terms of boat purchase, the relevant systems I need on the boat, and also a route that will work for us, taking into account hurricane risks, timing, and latitudes.

There is still some negotiating to be done, and a boat purchase to finalize, but I now know what I want, and have a solid list of priorities. I'll give you all the details once we have a purchase sorted out.

Long trip home starting tomorrow, but I can't wait to get back.

Still trying to buy a boat

Well, despite all our efforts thus far, we are, as yet, still boatless. People have been asking me for an update, so here it is.

My trip to Florida was reasonably successful, with the reward for the effort being the chance to see a number of different boats, and confirm exactly what we want. Despite the large number of boats out there, it is amazing how our list of requirements quickly narrows things down to only a few boats that are possibilities. For those who are interested, here is what we are looking for, and why:

1. Catamaran – if you want to get into the arguments between the advantages of catamarans and multihulls, you could spend the rest of your life arguing one over the other (and a few minutes looking at the cruiser's chat rooms will confirm that people do exactly that). Bottom line for us is this – catamarans are more comfortable, have more room, and are more pleasant to be sailing on with a family. It is true they are also considerably more expensive. To us, the difference in comfort is worth the difference in cost.

2. 4 cabins – given that we are going to spend at least a year using this boat as our home, we want all the kids to have their own bedrooms, so they at least have some shot at a little privacy when they need it. Happy kids, happy wife. Happy wife, happy life (or so I've heard. Seems to be working out so far).

Interestingly, this really cuts down the number of boats for us to look at. Most of the cruising catamarans for sale are what they call "owner's versions", with one hull dedicated to an owner's suite (big cabin and bathroom). This is mainly a function of the most common cruising demographic being retired couples, with money and time to take on a cruising lifestyle. The 4 cabin versions out there are mainly charter boats, set up to have 4 couples on them at one time, for a one week vacation.

3. 2 heads ("bathrooms" for you non-boaty types. Or restrooms, toilets, johns – you get the idea.) As I mentioned above, though, this is difficult to find. In fact, it looks like we will probably have to give up on this one. Most of the 4 cabin charter boats have 4 heads. Apparently when you are on vacation on a charter boat, it is preferable to have your own tiny bathroom than to share your bathroom with someone else, even if it means twice as much room. Who would have guessed? For us, it seems a real waste of space to have an individual bathroom for each cabin, but we may have to go that way, since that is what is out there.

4. Location – east coast of USA. This is not carved in stone, but we have done a lot of thinking about logistically where our trip would be easiest and most interesting to start. We've decided that getting all 5 of us to the boat would be easiest if it was on the east (or west) coast of the US, and outfitting the boat would definitely be easiest in the US in terms of cost and availability of parts and expertise.

And that's really our list of "must haves". Of course, there is a dollar value limit as well, based on our budget, which further rules out a bunch of boats. There are also a lot of "nice to have items" which largely revolve around cruising gear that we will probably need. Most of the stuff you need to live on a boat long term is not present on ex-charter boats, and given that we are focussing on 4 cabin boats, we are seeing a lot of those. We can add all the cruising gear we need after the fact – it just adds a lot to the expense and time needed to get the boat ready to go.



So anyway, with that list of needs and wants, there were a few boats in Florida that came pretty close to filling the bill, with the differences being in the details.

In fact, I saw one that we liked enough to make an initial offer on it. Shortly after I made the offer, I became aware of another boat, of the same make, but 5 years newer, with a couple of big ticket cruising items already installed. It was a bit more expensive, being newer, but still seemed to be a good deal compared to other similar boats out there. Unfortunately, this boat is located in the BVI.

Anyway, it looked like the seller of the boat in Florida and I were going to end up pretty far apart on price for the first boat, so I decided to pursue the second one instead (sorry to the owner of the first boat – who knows, we might be back).

And that is where we sit today – I have put in two offers on the boat in the BVIs (first was low, and countered). Our final offer went in yesterday afternoon, but because of the time change to the East coast, I guess it didn't get to the seller until yesterday evening (if his broker was working late). As far as I can tell, boat brokers don't really seem to work on weekends, so it looks like we will have to wait until Monday to see if we can reach a deal on price.

If we do, I still need to find the time and money to get to the BVIs and see the boat for myself, as well as have a professional survey done. I am hoping to do that all at the same time, since I don't have a lot of time off from work between now and when we leave in August.



If we end up buying the boat, we then need to decide if we want to bring it back to the US to get it outfitted for cruising, or just start our trip in the BVIs (lots of pros and cons there – I'll leave those to a separate post). If we don't buy it, it's back to the drawing board. The good news is, now we know what we like, so hopefully we can use that hard won knowledge to move things along more quickly either way.

Synthesize your happiness

On the trip home from Florida, I was listening to the in-flight radio offerings, and came across their "TED" ideas channel. I heard excerpts from Dan Gilbert's TED talk on synthesizing happiness, and thought I would point it out to anyone who hasn't heard it. It is really cool, and has implications for most of life's big decisions one way or another. Check it out:

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html

For those who don't want to watch the whole talk, the essence of it is that human beings have the innate capacity to make them-selves happy, more or less regardless of their circumstances (Dr. Gilbert calls it an "immune system of the mind"). Also, "synthesized happiness", which is the happiness your mind creates when things don't go exactly as you want them, is pretty much the same as "natural happiness", which is the happiness you experience when you get what you want. And finally, we are not very good at estimating how much the difference between two possible outcomes in our lives will affect us.

The implications for our current trip planning situation are pretty clear. Right now, we are spending a ton of time and mental energy on finding the exact right boat for our upcoming trip. But in reality (and I think I already knew this), it probably doesn't matter a whole lot what boat we end up on – we will make it our home, and it will be great for our trip.

And I could see this playing out with every boat I looked at. Just by chance, most of the boats I was interested in had owners on them when we looked at them. Alina (our boat broker) assured me this wasn't usual. As it turned out, though, I got great tours of all the boats, and you could see that every one really loved the boat they were on. They all seemed like they could talk about their boats for hours, and if there were small things about their boats that weren't perfect, they generally didn't seem at all concerned about them. Of course, they were trying to sell their boats, so that could all just have been strategic, but none of these people were professional salesmen. They were just boat owners, who had synthesized real happiness about their ownership. And I am sure we will, too.

An offer in – and now we wait

May 3, 2013, Ft. Lauderdale

I woke up this a.m. after finally getting a full night's sleep for the first time in about 10 days. In addition to that, I checked my email and found some amazing words of encouragement from one of my best friends, reassuring me this whole plan wasn't completely nuts. Between the two, I felt ready to face another day.

I'm finally getting the hang of the Ft. Lauderdale freeways, so it was a quick trip back to Just Catamarans today. Once there, I figured I should just bite the bullet, and so I told Alina we were ready to make an offer. Despite the fact she looked a bit worn out from our long day yesterday, she patiently sat me down and walked me through the whole offer process. After a few trips to check with Kent (the wonder boat technician) regarding pricing on some of the upgrades/changes we would want to make to the boat, she helped me arrive at a reasonable price to open our negotiations. At least we thought it was reasonable – we're still waiting to hear a response from the seller.

Once we got through all the paperwork to officially present the offer, we hopped back in the car, and this time headed north to Stuart, Florida. As we rolled along the interstate, it occurred to me that I don't think we've seen a hill in two full days of driving around south Florida. I flipped the GPS on to show us our elevation, and sure enough, on the entire hour and a half drive to Stuart, our max elevation was 50 feet above sea level. This is one flat state. It would be good for biking.

In Stuart, we had a look at another boat. This one has just finished a 2 ½ year circuit of the Caribbean, with three kids on board who are similar ages to ours. The owner again was a really nice guy, who gave us an extremely detailed overview of his boat. The best part, though, was hearing about their trip, and how great it was. Also, he had some really good advice about cruising with kids, and was very encouraging about what a valuable thing it has been for his whole family. I've just started reading their blog to get some more details about their route. The boat was pretty good too – it is nice to know we have other options if our offer doesn't pan out.

On the drive back to Ft. Lauderdale, it was pretty apparent that both Alina and I were getting tired after two hard core days of full on boat shopping. We were both pretty quiet by the time she dropped me off at Just Cats.

I needed some serious decompression time, so I took a short stroll around the docks at the Lauderdale Marina Center, then went and checked out West Marine – the flagship store of this major marine supply chain is here in Ft. Lauderdale. They definitely have everything you could think of needing for a boat – all at "marine grade" prices, which is to say at least double for anything over what you would pay in a regular store. ($50.00 flip flops anyone?)

After that, I figured I'd better see some part of Ft. Lauderdale that didn't involve interstates and boat yards, so I headed out to the Ft. Lauderdale beaches, and caught the sunset from there. I even took a few minutes to dip my feet into the Atlantic.



Then, back to the hotel to relax for a bit before bed. I have another 12 hours of flying to look forward to tomorrow, this time through New York and Minneapolis (two other places I have never been), before a three hour drive back home, so I better get some rest. Hopefully I will hear something about a counter offer en route tomorrow.

Exhausted, but encouraged

May 2, 2013, Holiday Inn Express, Ft. Lauderdale Florida

OK, reading the end of that last post over again, I realize I may have made that landing sound a bit more dramatic than it was. It was pretty cool to see the lightning out the plane window, and the touchdown was kind of bumpy, but everything went OK.

We pulled up to the Fort Lauderdale International Airport in pouring rain, which was overwhelming the storm drains on the tarmac. So much for Sunny Florida. It took a while to get the rental car, and after navigating extremely efficiently to the wrong Holiday Inn Express, I finally got to the hotel I was booked into. (Yes, it occurred to me to just stay in the first hotel, but they warned me I would be charged a no-show fee at the original one, so I headed over here).

I finally got to bed around 2:30 a.m. local time, and was up again at 7:30 to make sure I wasn't late for my 9 a.m. appointment at JustCatamarans.

I got to their offices on time, and what came after was a whirlwind day of seeing a lot of boats. Four actually, but it still took all day. The first three were in Ft. Lauderdale, and one of them was a boat I have been watching on the internet for a long time. It was a real treat to meet the live aboard owners, who were a lovely French couple. They have been cruising for four years, and are ready to head back home and settle back in to life on land. Their boat was really nice, and remarkably well outfitted. Pretty much ready to set off on a world cruise as-is, which is rare for your average catamaran. Most of them need a ton of work.



We then saw two other boats in Ft. Lauderdale, neither of which really did it for me. (One of them, I said to Sara later, looked like it just needed to be sunk and put out of its misery. It is a shame that someone would let something that expensive and beautiful become that worn out).

After that, we hopped in Alina's car, and headed off across the great state of Florida. We went through Alligator Alley (more than just a nickname, it is actually on the road signs here), and saw the Everglades. Really beautiful country, which I had only ever seen on T.V. before. It was amazing to see such an uninhabited area of wilderness right in the middle of a heavily populated state like this.

After a 2 ½ hour drive, we arrived in Punta Gorda, on the Gulf Coast, and saw another boat there. We were again lucky to have the owner on board. He was busily washing up the boat when we arrived early, and he turned out to be a treasure trove of information about his boat. He lived in a condo on the waterfront that was right next to the dock, and he could see his boat from the window. I have never seen a boat as clean and well cared for as that one. It, too was very well outfitted, but needs a few things the other one didn't. Still a definite possibility. The boat was so clean and well looked after that Alina, who also owns and runs a boat detailing business, told me after that there wouldn't have been much left to do if someone had paid to have the boat professionally detailed. You could tell this guy had taken great care of his boat its whole life. If you are going to buy a boat, this is the kind of owner you want to buy from.



On the drive home, I could barely keep my eyes open, but I still managed to pepper Alina with tons of questions about the logistics of making an offer, getting a survey, and purchasing a boat, as well as anything else I could think of. She was great, and extremely patient with all my newbie questions. Although if you go boat shopping with her, make sure you bring a good GPS ;-).

We finally made it back to Ft. Lauderdale in one piece at about 8:30 p.m. I then braved the 10 lane interstate back to my hotel in the rental car (luckily only 10 minutes), and Skyped home to show Sara all the pictures and video I had taken of boats today. (did you know you can share your computer screen via Skype? It was a great way to show her all the details). We had a long talk, and agreed that either of the two boats I liked would serve well for our trip. There is a bit of a difference in price, but not really too much when you factor in the work that we would want to have done on the second boat.

So, the plan is that I meet Alina again tomorrow a.m. to see one other possibility. Depending on how that goes, I suspect we will put in an offer tomorrow, and start the negotiating process for our new home on the water. Heady stuff! Stay tuned to hear the exciting conclusion. For now, it is after midnight here, and I have to try and get some more sleep, otherwise I will be a wreck tomorrow.

Welcome to the Exciting Field of Boat Brokering!

April 17, 2013. Home.



I don't know what it is with boat brokers, but at least from a buyer's perspective, they have to be the least dependable group of people I have ever tried to give huge sums of money too. Maybe it's because they technically don't take any commission from buyers, and only get paid by the sellers. But surely they need buyers to buy the boats the sellers are selling, don't they?

I first met a boat broker a couple of years ago in Vancouver, when I went to look at a Lagoon 380 there (which is still for sale two years later – that's some excellent brokerage work). That broker (who worked for a company that rhymed with Fraser Yacht Sales) couldn't have been less interested in showing me the boat. He knew next to nothing about the make and model, and essentially stood there while I worked my way through the boat and back. I wasn't terribly interested in that boat, but asked him to send me as spec sheet for new boats, so I could get an idea of the costs, options, etc. He assured me he would within 24 hours.

Two years later, I'm still waiting for that spec sheet.

Anyway, I thought maybe that was just a typical lame ass left coast approach to boat sales, and I wrote it off as such (although I swore never to buy a boat from that particular brokerage). Unfortunately, that impression has been constantly reinforced over the last couple of weeks with our new attempts to buy a boat.

Here's what my experience has been like so far. For the past several weeks, I have been a pretty hardcore peruser of "yachtworld.com", which, for those who don't know, is the boating world equivalent of porn sites for perverts. In fact, whenever I get looking at a boat I clearly can't afford, we call it "looking at boat porn."

Anyway, I had a good idea of what I was after (boat wise, not porn wise), so I went on to the website of the company that was listing the boat I was most interested in and filled out their "request more info" form. The next day a very pleasant and knowledgeable broker (whose works for a large brokerage, that will remain anonymous, other than to say their name is The Multihull Company) called me, and we went through, in great detail, exactly what I was after. I also told him there was already a boat I was interested in, which happened to be listed with his company. He assured me he would go right to work finding boats that fit my needs, and also asked if I could send him a copy of the listing I was interested in. Sounds great, thought I. Immediately after hanging up with him, I sent him the listing. I figured he could just shout down the hall to the listing broker, they could set me up to see the boat, I'd love it, buy it, and bam, big, easy split commission for both of them.

Two weeks later, I've never heard back from Boat Broker #2.

Not an option

So about a week after that original call, I saw another boat that looked good. Starting to realize I wasn't likely to hear back from broker #2, I called the selling broker for this new boat (let's pretend he works with the Florida Yacht Group) . Unfortunately, it had just been sold. He then went on to spend about ½ an hour telling me about another boat that would be perfect, though, and was even nicer than the one I was interested. Punch line to that story – too bad I hadn't called a few days ago, because it had just been sold too. But….he was about to get the listing for another equally nice boat. He expected to know that night, and would call me back the next day.

A week later, I've never heard a word back from Captain J*** (that is really what he calls himself in his ads.).

So, by now, I'm starting to realize that if I want to buy a boat, I can't really depend much on the people who take huge commissions for doing next to nothing, as far as I can tell. I keep haunting the internet daily (usually several times per day - my eyes are starting to hurt), and have come up with a couple more potentials. Two days ago, I finally got smart, and emailed the broker of the first boat I was interested in (yet another fine representative of TMC). He emailed me back right away, and said he would call me the next day. Never heard from him.

So yesterday, I emailed another broker who had an interesting listing. He emailed me back and said he'd call me this morning. Guess what. Never heard from him either (company pseudonym – Annapolis Yacht Sails).

So this morning, I finally decided to get aggressive, and called the broker of the first boat, that started this whole thing, long distance B.C. to Florida, at my own expense. "Oh yeah," he says. "I meant to call you, but got busy." No kidding. Must have been a crisis day at the Multihull Company. Not surprisingly, he had never heard of me from the original broker I talked to, who works for the same flippin' company. Anyway, to his credit, he does seem to know what he is talking about, and he has been quick back and forth on the email since. It actually looks like we might have a viewing arranged.

Ain't gonna happen

Given all this, you can imagine my surprise when I received a call from Alina Lauriero at Just Catamarans today. I had emailed her yesterday as well, and she had told me she would call me back today. Technically she was a couple of hours later calling than she said she would be, but this is the first broker I have encountered so far who actually called me on the day they said they would.

Not only that, but she proved to be extremely knowledgeable, engaging and pleasant on the phone. To top it all off, my jaw nearly hit the floor when she actually went so far as to say she wouldn't recommend the boat I had enquired about, and went on to make other extremely appropriate recommendations, some of which weren't even represented by her company.

The whole thing was a bit Twilight Zonish – a broker who actually sounded like she was interested in helping me find the right boat, at the right price. I was even more impressed when I realized that Just Catamarans is the company where the infamous Bumfuzzles (www.bumfuzzle.com) started out, and they still employ Kent, who Pat and Ali joked about taking on their trip with them, given how much he helped them when they were starting out. Anyway, things are looking up, at least from a broker perspective. Still haven't found the perfect boat yet, but there are a few possibilities out there, so our fingers are crossed.

Anyway, if anyone is looking for a job where a little get up and go could make them the most successful person on the planet, I suggest looking into becoming a boat broker.

Confession

April 10, 2013. Home.

It's time for a confession. The charter vacation in the BVIs was more than just a getaway for us. It was also a "trial run". In fact, it was the last of several charter trip/trial runs with our family on a catamaran, meant to see if we could spend an extended period of time together on a boat, and do some serious travelling.

Now, I'm fully aware that 10 days in the BVIs does not equate to spending months on end with a family of five living and travelling in a space roughly equivalent to a small studio apartment. And it could well be argued that it is not much of a trial run for a plan like that. But it has to be a better facsimile than sitting at home, thinking about it and reading about it on the internet (which we have also done a lot of).

In fact, we've been thinking of an extended family cruise for the better part of 7 years now. Over and over again, we have come up with and discarded various plans: sell everything and go now, wait until the kids are all in college then cruise as a retired couple, cruise a few months every year and work in between, or take a sabbatical and do a trip with the whole family.

Finally, after years of discussions, making, and discarding plans, we have finally decided to pull the ripcord, and go for it. So what has changed? Why have we finally decided to go now instead of more waiting and more planning?

Well, we've realized there is no perfect time to go on an extended trip like this. We definitely want to do it as a family, so waiting until the kids leave home is not an option. Also, we are currently fortunate to have our health, and our extended families are healthy and stable. As I see at work every day, things can change in an instant, and plans for future dreams don't always work out.



Another big factor is my current ability to take a leave from work. As it turns out, there are currently lots of doctors in my area interested in taking over my practice. This has not always been the case. In fact, historically, it has been extremely difficult to find locums, especially in a smaller town. So there is a window of opportunity.

Finally, our kids are at the perfect ages to do this now. Alexander is 13 going on 14 – if we wait much longer, he will be a full-on teenager, and while he is a pretty easy going guy, we are aware of important it is to kids to be around their peers as they get older. Christopher is full of adventure and life, and keen to try something different for a while. And Katie, while she has some concerns about missing her friends, is solid, confident, and outgoing. We have no doubt she can handle the change. As for Sara and I – maybe it's selfish, but we want some real time with our kids, uninterrupted by Youtube, play dates, swim practices, committee meetings, on-call shifts and all the other million distractions that creep into our lives. We want the opportunity to connect, explore, learn and see more of the world with our family.



So, what's the plan? We've come up with a scheme that we feel we can swing socially, financially, and career wise. We are going to take a year's sabbatical, and buy a boat with a plan to resell when we are done. We've talked a lot about where we might go – Europe and the Mediterranean, the West Coast of the US and Mexico, or the East Coast and the Caribbean.

While it is tempting to go to Europe, buy a boat in the Med and eventually cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean, the logistics of a boat purchase overseas, getting it set up to cruise, and transporting the whole family just seems too overwhelming.

Instead, we are going to look for a boat on the East Coast of the US. This should allow us to start there, spend some time exploring places like Washington D.C. and New York, then, when hurricane season dies down, work our way south. We are keeping our minds open as to where we will eventually get, since many a sailing trip has been destroyed by too rigid an itinerary. We will probably have to make a choice between the Western Carribean and the Eastern Carribean, as well as lots of little choices in between. We have lots of ideas and dreams, but we will have to see how it all plays out.

So there you are. It feels good to finally come clean, and let you know what we're up to.

You are invited to follow along for the ride, and we will try and keep you posted as plans evolve. I've already got the work situation pretty much figured out for the year. The next step – find a boat!

Final impressions of the BVIs

Now that we're back home, I thought I'd write a bit about some of our general impressions of sailing in the BVIs, in case anyone stumbles across this blog in preparation for their own trip. I know before we went, we did a few internet searches for ideas, thoughts, and advice, given that it was a long way and a big expense. So, for what it's worth, here are my two cents on a few relevant topics.



The Charter Company:

Prior to our trip, I spent a fair bit of time researching the various charter companies on their websites and thevarious sailing forums. We ended up going with Conch Charters, despite the fact that there was some negative opinion about them on some of the sailing forums. On closer inspection, it appeared that the negative opinions all came from one unhappy customer, and the criticisms didn't really seem – more like an unreasonable person with lots of time on his hands venting (or a competitor taking a cheap swipe? You can't really tell on the internet). Anyway, we went with Conch for several reasons. Mainly, they were significantly less expensive than the "first tier" companies (the Moorings and Sunsail). We knew this would mean we would get an older boat that had seen more use, and this certainly turned out to be true. However, given that we have chartered on older boats lots of times, and were comfortable fixing minor issues that came up, we were happy with this trade off. The service we experienced with Conch was very professional, and everything they promised, they delivered fully up to our expectations. Their charter base is a bit worn relative to the high end companies, but again, the people were pleasant, efficient, and responsive, so there is really nothing to complain about.

Would it have been nice to charter a newer, fancier boat? Definitely. Would it have been worth the money? Maybe not. In the end, we got to snorkel the same water, relax on the same beaches and eat in the same restaurants as those in the fanciest boats, and we were comfortable and well taken care of the whole time. Would we charter with Conch again? Probably, although if we were to go back to the BVI, it would be tempting to go with a different company in order to get on a different boat, just to experience a different manufacturer and a different sailing set up.

In the end, if we went back, I wouldn't stress as much about which charter company and what boat as we did prior to this trip. All the companies and boats we saw seemed professionally maintained, and well run. I think they are so busy, they can't afford to do things poorly. Any differences are minor shades of grey, but like everything else in life, you get what you pay for, so if you want a premium experience, pony up the dough and go with one of the top end companies. If you are just as comfortable with a slightly more used boat, you can save a few bucks on the charter, and buy more Painkillers at the beach bar. Either way, you can reasonably expect the company to take good care of you, and make sure you have a great experience.



The Boat:

Catywampus was a 2007 Leopard 43 catamaran, and based on the worn spots where the decals had previously been, we could tell that she originally was a Moorings boat. She was well maintained, but also had some signs of being heavily used, and I suspect she has had a busy charter life. She was more than adequate for our needs, and we were definitely comfortable on her. She sailed better than I thought she would, and we managed to keep up well with a 50 foot Voyage catamaran when we sailed across to Anegada. The sailing controls were not the most convenient, and we definitely needed at least two capable people on deck to handle lines, halyards, etc. whenever we were sailing. The anchor and chain were pretty worn, but the anchoring set up worked pretty well. The interior was comfortable and clean, but a gain, a bit worn around the edges. Overall, I'd say this is a good boat for chartering for a week or two. If I wanted to live on board a boat, I don't think I'd go with an older Leopard. I haven't been on any of the newer ones, but the Lagoons we have chartered previously have more liveable space, storage, etc., for long term use.



The BVIs:

The Islands themselves are an amazing place to charter, and deliver well on the promise of clear, clean, warm water, lots of sun, and easy sailing and navigation. It is really the perfect place to charter for someone without a lot of experience, as it is remarkably easy, with no significant tides or currents to worry about, and pretty consistent wind. The infrastructure for the sailing and tourist crowd is well established, and it is pretty hard to get yourself in significant trouble, and almost impossible to be very far from help if you do.

The downside of all this ease and convenience is that it is pretty busy, and the popular mooring spots were crowded during the spring break timeframe of our trip. We expected this, though, and set out early on the days we moved to new digs, usually arriving before noon. By doing this, we always managed to secure a spot wherever we wanted. The remarkable thing, though, that we didn't expect, was that it is pretty easy to avoid the crowds, simply by going to slightly less popular bays, and anchoring out, or even anchoring a bit away from a mooring field. There were several places we went into, picked up a mooring ball, and then realized that if we had looked around a bit more there was room not far away to anchor in the same area, a bit away from the crowd. As long as your main goal isn't restaurants, beaches, and night life, even during the busy time we were there, we managed a couple of quiet, relatively isolated nights by anchoring a little off the beaten path.

Given the relative lack of experience of many of the charterers there, most people spend to stick with the pack, and follow the published itineraries. The itineraries seem be designed, at least in part, to hook tourists up with the opportunity to spend money, so they largely focus around places with restaurants, yacht clubs etc. I won't write the name of our favorite spots, as I don't want to spoil the sense of discovery you could have by scouring the charts and looking for your own independent places. I will say that, if we went again, there are 4 or 5 places we would definitely go, and forego a few of the mooring fields we went to this time.



The People:

I can't say we were overwhelmed by the friendliness of the people living and working in the BVIs. Like any heavily travelled tourist destination, the overarching ethic seemed to be to separate travellers from their money as efficiently as possible, with as little personal interaction as necessary. The service was frequently brusque, and a few times downright surly. We got the impression that most of the locals were very clear they were unlikely to ever see us again, and they didn't have any vested interest in being pleasant, given that we would soon be replaced by another pink American with a fat wallet. It was slightly disappointing.

There were, however, a few remarkable exceptions. The lady that filled our outboard gas tank on Jost Van Dyke was initially as standoffish as everyone else, but when I took the time to engage her in a bit of conversation and ask about her life, she suddenly lit up with a big smile, and became really chatty. The same thing happened with our taxi driver from Charlotte Amalie to the St. Thomas airport when I asked him about where he grew up, and what it was like. And as I mentioned above, the staff at the charter operation was at the very least extremely professional, and a few were also really pleasant, personable, and welcoming. In the final analysis, I guess people, like everything else, give back whatever you put into them.

0945, April 3, 30,000 feet over Arkansas

Back in the air en route to Denver from Atlanta, screaming babies in the back of the plane and drink carts bumping our elbows, it is hard to believe we started out in tropical waters yesterday morning. The whole day yesterday was "hurry up and wait". We were up by 6:00, and off our mooring half an hour later, heading back across Sir Francis Drake Channel for Road Town. The wind was still strong, and as we got bounced and rocked by the big waves, we realized what great protection Kelly Cove had offered us for the previous two nights.

It was tempting to crank up the sails, as the wind was a solid 20+ knots on our beam, but we were on a tight schedule to make sure we got the ten a.m. ferry out of Road Town, so we bit the bullet and just powered our way back to the charter base. Once in, it was a quick matter to fuel up the boat (only $130.00 worth of fuel for the whole 10 days – gotta love wind power!), and unload all our gear. It was a bit strange to just turn over Catywampus, who had been our home for 10 days, to a total stranger, and watch him drive her away to dock waiting for the next group of tourists to take her out. We had all become more attached than we realized.

We didn't have much time to dwell on it though, because the taxi was there right away, and we were off to the Road Town fast ferry, only a few minutes from the charter base.



Before long, we were on the big power catamaran, headed for St. Thomas. Not the cleanest or most pleasant trip, but at least it was nonstop, and we only had an hour to sweat in the hot compartment (with no working AC), and breathe the diesel fumes blowing in from the back of the boat.



When we pulled in to Charlotte Amalie, we had the bad luck to land right behind another ferry unloading its own cargo of sunburnt tourists. Since we had to clear immigration at the ferry terminal, we were obliged to sit and wait on our ferry for another hour, at the dock, then stand in line for another hour after that to get through the backlog. We had left plenty of time to catch our flight, but were starting to get a little nervous, not knowing how long the whole process would take. A nice family ahead of us were due to catch a flight to Switzerland, and despite begging their way to the front of the line, we later caught up with them at the airport, where they had missed their flight, and were making alternate arrangements. You really can't rush anything in the islands.

    

Eventually, after satisfying the needs of homeland security, we made it through, and hopped in another taxi to the airport. There, we got to wait in more lines for customs and airport security. This time, the process was more efficient, and we made it through with a few minutes to spare prior to boarding our plane. So much for the two hour buffer we thought we had given ourselves.

After that, it was a comfortable flight to Atlanta, and the kids all enjoyed the inflight TVs Delta supplies, so the 3 ½ hours went by quickly. It is amazing how big a difference something like that makes. We are on United today, and there is no equivalent entertainment, so we are having to work a bit harder to keep the kids entertained. They are really good on the planes, but as the hours tick by, they get restless, and need to be reminded not to be too disruptive to the people around them.

    

Back in Atlanta, we took the convenient free train back to the Springhill Suites, and dropped our bags off in our room. Having been there 10 days previously paid off with a few tricks we had learned on our last stay. It turns out you can actually take the luggage carts from the airport all the way to the hotel, so we took advantage and pushed our bags all the way to our rooms, then decided just to keep the carts in our room overnight, and took our bags back on them this morning. We had a lot of sailing gear with us, and our bags were heavy, so it was a big help. Especially given that I am still dragging around a significant portion of sea urchin in my left foot, so it is not the most comfortable thing to be walking long distances with heavy bags.

We popped back to the airport for dinner, and treated ourselves to Oreo Brownie Sundaes at Burger King for dessert, to celebrate our success at making it off the boat in one piece.

Today, we were up early (5:45 Atlanta time; losing 3 hours today with the time change is going to hit us hard tonight!). We were quickly back to the airport for a smooth check in to today's flights. We are now on the way to Denver, where hopefully we'll have enough time for lunch, then will head off to Spokane, and finally home!

2045, April 1, Kelly Cove, Norman Island

Today was a full day, and we didn't even move the big boat. We spent our last full day in the BVIs trying to pack in everything that the west end of Norman Island had to offer.

We started the morning with a relaxed breakfast of pancakes and bacon – it was an interesting food day, too, as we tried to use up everything that was left over on the boat.

Then, around 10:00, we loaded up the dinghy and headed over to "the Caves", which are a prominent snorkelling site just across the Bight (the main mooring bay here). We jumped in for a good snorkel around the caves, and saw lots of great fish and reefs. It was pretty busy, though, and didn't provide a lot more than the snorkelling we had done in Kelly Cove the day before, right off our own boat, so we only lasted about half an hour in total.

After that, we took the dinghy into the Bight for a quick tour, passing the infamous Willy T's floating restaurant, which is an old boat made up to look like a pirate ship, with picnic tables on deck. You can pull your dinghy right up for a meal, and apparently it tends to get pretty raucous at night.

We decided to forego the pleasure of Willy T's for now, and headed into Pirate's Bight, which is the restaurant right at the top of the bay. It had a nice beach, and we had a look around, deciding we would come back later in the day for cold drinks if the spirit moved us.

We then zipped back out to our relatively secluded spot in Kelly Cove, and Alexander and I dropped off the others, then headed across about a mile of open water in the dinghy to snorkel the "Indians", which are two big red rocks sticking out of the water, with a beautiful reef below. We got pretty wet on the dinghy ride over, but the snorkelling was worth it – same fish as everywhere else, but generally bigger, and the reef and coral was more developed too. Also, there were fewer crowds than at the Caves, since the Indians were a bit harder to get to.

On the way back, Alexander practised his dinghy driving skills, and enjoyed soaking me as he hit some big waves.



We had a great lunch on the boat, then spent the afternoon enjoying the perks of cruising in warm water. Katie and Christopher decided to do a "photo shoot", and put on their best clothes that were still clean.

    

                

Then, we got into a diving and flipping contest off the back of the boat, and even Sara pulled out some moves that none of us had ever seen (check out her graceful backwards dive at the top of the post).

    

        

After all that, we figured we would head back into Pirate's Bight, and get some drinks. Christopher was keen to try some Conch fritters as well, seeing as how we were on a Conch Charter boat, we had bought a Conch shell, and we had even see real live Conch in the wild. Turns out Conch fritters are pretty good, and they were a big hit with everyone.

        

        

When we got back to Catywampus, just as we were trying to dry everything out in preparation for packing, we were hit with another rain storm. So, we pulled everything in off the lines, and the kids settled in to finish watching Pirates of the Caribbean.



Fortunately, the rain didn't last long, and we have had a beautiful last evening on the boat. We are all packed up, and ready for an early departure back to the charter base, so that we can be on time for the ferry to St. Thomas, and our flight to Atlanta.