The Innocents Aboard – Becoming a Cruising Couple

1.     We thought we were pretty salty…

           It’s a rare person with even a drop of sea water in their veins who doesn’t dream of someday chucking it all, buying a boat, and sailing off into the sunset. My wife Jayne and I shared the dream since even before we were married. While still dating, we set out on a trip to the Bahamas in our little 22 foot cuddy cabin Gag Reflex with a couple of other boats from our fishing club. The plan was to raft up at anchor for 5 days of diving and fishing. When they saw how much fun Jayne was having living at anchor on a boat with a tiny dog hole of a cabin, no head, and no refrigeration or fresh water, the older guys in the club took me aside and said, “you need to buy that girl a ring.” Still the best single piece of advice I ever got.

            We took our first baby step on the road to becoming a cruising couple on the first Valentine’s Day after we were married. We found ourselves in Key West that day taking delivery of Top Cat, a 26 foot Glacier Bay catamaran with a real head, a queen size berth, and other palatial accommodations. For the next 15 years our vacations revolved around that boat. We took trips to the Bahamas and explored the Florida waters from the St. Johns to the Suwanee. It was a grand adventure, and as a side benefit we also got to explore just about all the different ways there are to screw up while cruising, in a boat that was very forgiving. Over the years the dream of becoming full time cruisers persisted, and slowly slipped into obsession. We talked every night about boats and where we would go, and read everything we could find. While some people fawn over Hollywood celebrities, our rock stars were Ron and Eva Staub, Katie and Gene Hamilton, Jim and Lisa Favors, Tom Neale, and Skipper Bob. We knew we wanted to do this, and were pretty sure we could handle it. Heck, we were feeling pretty darn salty already – we had crossed the Gulf Stream a dozen times, dealt with storms and dragging anchors, and had run aground in various exotic locations. We could cook up a four course Thanksgiving dinner on a single burner butane stove, and had lived for weeks at a time in a space smaller than your guest bathroom without once killing each other. Just imagine how easy it would be on a bigger, more comfortable boat!

 The first concrete step in turning dream to reality was the building of a boat fund. When we paid off our mortgage, we took that monthly money and put it instead into a special bank account. We sold our beloved Top Cat and the truck that pulled her and put those proceeds into the fund as well. Now there was an emotional commitment -  as we watched Top Cat being towed away by her new owners, Jayne wept openly. I may have shed a manly tear myself.