The Plan

Everyone has dreams for their future and things that they think they would love to experience, but so many people simply stop at thinking and dreaming. So many never really and truly believe they can make it happen and always find one reason or another for why it's never a good time. We are so fortunate, Ron and I. We've each been so blessed to have realized so many of our dreams already, the latest of which is sound asleep in her bed with her favorite book wide open on her face, and that's a whole different blog (click here for Olivia's story).

Our latest dream has evolved over the past few years from a distant "wouldn't it be awesome if someday..." to "what if" to "maybe we can" to "let's make it happen" and is now at the "it's really happening" stage. Our original plan was to embark on a sailing trip from the east coast of the US, most likely Florida, to Trinidad and back with stops in as many places as possible over 14-16 months. Life has a funny way of rolling things out in ways we could never predict, and we have now purchased the perfect boat for us in St. Martin, (Dutch West Indies/middle of the Caribbean Islands) so that is now our new starting point - and we're going to do it all with our four year old daughter and a shoestring budget.

Ron is as able a skipper as any I've met and never once in our west coast of British Columbia sailing adventures have I ever been concerned or questioned his skipperness (if that's not a word, I just made one). Even in the roughest of weather we've experienced, I know he respects the sea and stomachs of his crew (me) enough to make the best decisions for the conditions at hand and the well being of his galley slave.

So, to get to this point we've made lots of arrangements, plans, sacrifices and adjustments to our lives. Here's the short version:

• Sold the house (in a very difficult market with the help of our stellar realtor Shayne)
• Sold a small holding property - also in a crappy market
  
• Arranged for a year long leave of absence from my job (with many thanks to my manager, director and VP)
  
• Searched North America and the Caribbean for the perfect boat for us and purchased "Exodo" - a 43' Endeavour Ketch
  
• Sold our beloved 30' Catalina - "Seascape"
• Ron retired from his present job
  
• Sold and gave away lots of our possessions so we wouldn't have to store so much
• Had 2 huge garage sales (finally got rid of the "couch from hell" that we couldn't give away)
• Bought another house that will be a rental/investment while we're gone (Again, with the help of the amazing Shayne)
  
• Interviewed and arranged for 2 sets of tenants for the house
• Moved into the Cherry Tree "Penthouse" suite from Sept/09 until we depart in January/10
  
• Moved our remaining belongings into storage
• Arranged for paperless billing and automatic payment for as much as possible
• Arranged for Medical, dental, and travel insurance
• Arranged for the necessary vaccinations and various other precautions
  

There is still a list of things yet to do, but we're slowly getting there.
So, I guess we really are heading out on this bizarre, crazy, exciting, scary, thrilling, wonderful adventure. Three Thoms and a boat, sailing from St. Martin in the Dutch West Indies through the Caribbean chain of islands to Venezuela and back again through Cuba and the Bahamas. At least that's what we're thinking - we may end up on a couple of bar stools in St. Martin for a year, but at least we'll be able to say we started with a plan!

We are hoping to update this blog as regularly as we can, share our experiences when we can, answer your questions when we can and live in the moment everyday. 72 more sleeps...