TRIP: ON

It was only twelve months ago when we came across the idea of sailing and we knew then that we wanted to cruise through the Caribbean one day.  In those twelve months we bought a sailboat, learned how to sail on it, spent every summer weekend sailing at the Jersey Shore, and then sold that boat this past October.  I’m not exactly sure when our dream became a very reachable reality, but that is what it is now, a reality.

We flew down to Florida this past weekend.  Our intention for the trip was simple (kind of): look at boats and if we found the perfect one, we’d buy it, leave our jobs and sail away.  We had come up with a list of sailboats we wanted to see and had set up appointments with a few. We looked at a good number of boats. We saw a great Cape Dory 30 and a beautiful Bayfield 32 that left us with positive impressions, though the Bayfield was pretty high above our budget.

The last boat of the day was a Westsail 28.  We were lucky to get an appointment to view the boat because we didn’t have one previously set up.  Jordan and I were excited because we know that Westsail’s are great sailboats, but I was pretty sure that a 28 was going to be way too small.  My mind was already set (I thought) on something in the 3o-35 range.  Well, about an hour after first stepping on the boat to inspect it, we had each already decided that we LOVED it.  To make a short story even shorter, we put in an offer for the Westsail the day after seeing it and it was accepted!

Jordan and I have both put in our dates of resignation at work.  It was tough, as we will be leaving good jobs and some great people.  But we are confident that this was the right decision for us to make.

The next steps are to spend January cleaning, fixing and preparing the boat for extended cruising.  If all goes as planned, we should be on our way to the Bahamas in early February.

our Westsail 28 : )