This is a blog of our projects and journeys leading up to and after our departure from the idea of living the dream to actually living the dream. Dirk and Nancy along with Butters will soon go in search of beautiful beaches,& sunsets in the Bahamas then into the Caribbean.
I know It's been a while since my last post but there is good reason. As cruising goes, I think that a major milestone in ones life is when you first make that decision that this is the lifestyle that you want. How one achieves that can be handled many ways. Dirk and I had power boats in the past and we loved them because they got us where we wanted to be in a timely manor. We loved going out in the gulf fishing or to the Island for an afternoon of fun. It wasn't until we met a couple people at our marina that had sail boats that we even considered owning one ourselves. This is about the time in our lives when we started considering a sailboat because it broadened our scope of what can be done. Our lives changed when we purchased our boat. We have spent thus far a year doing up grades and making her ready to be our home when we depart this land life in less then a year. I know that sounds like a long time to some but it is passing very quickly. Another milestone one has to pass is what to do with your home when you decide to cruise. Some people decide to rent their home, others decide to sell. In this day when the housing market is a bit on the shaky side Dirk and I decided that we would try and sell but do it a little over a year out. This way we don't get into a situation next year where we are ready to go but the house didn't sell. So in April of this year we listed the house with the knowledge we had time on our side. Little did we realize that someone would decide they wanted it now. Wow, what do we do now. So on July 31st, we closed on our home and handed the keys over to what seem like wonderful people. So now we have made the first major downsize to happen before next year. Two storage units and a garage full needs to be gone through and decisions made. Since we have no set time limit as to how long we will cruise we really don't know what we should keep. I really felt like it would be very difficult selling our home which we put so much into but I'm finding that with each day getting us closer to our goal that I'm really beginning to focus on the future and the life it will bring us. So now that we have sold our home and moved, we can now resume our weekend life on Tybee Time. Its been about 4 weeks since we were on her and I believe this weekend will be spent with a lot of R & R.
O'Day 40 Year 1988 LOA 39'7" LWL 33'6" Beam 12' 71/2" Draft 4' 11" Displacement 18,500 lbs Water 107 gallons Fuel 42 gallons Engine Westerbeke 46 HP
About Us
Dirk was born and raised in Hamburg Germany. He moved to the states when he was seventeen and a couple years later joined the Army. His 23 years in the military took him all over the world to many a location. In January of 2007 he retired and is now an instructor of blackhawk systems at Fort Rucker Alabama. As for myself, I was born in Philadelphia, PA and raised in the small town of Natchitoches Louisiana. I spent most of my time in and around photography. Starting off in small 1 hour labs printing, working as an assistant for photographers, and finally found myself as a photographic retouch artist. In June we moved aboard and began prepping Tybee Time for our eventual departure. November 2, 2009 we will began our travels down the west coast of Florida. From there we plan to head to the Bahamas, eventually finding our way heading down south to the Caribbean. We will be bringing Butters our cat with us on the journey as crew.
So in April of this year we listed the house with the knowledge we had time on our side. Little did we realize that someone would decide they wanted it now. Wow, what do we do now. So on July 31st, we closed on our home and handed the keys over to what seem like wonderful people. So now we have made the first major downsize to happen before next year. Two storage units and a garage full needs to be gone through and decisions made. Since we have no set time limit as to how long we will cruise we really don't know what we should keep. I really felt like it would be very difficult selling our home which we put so much into but I'm finding that with each day getting us closer to our goal that I'm really beginning to focus on the future and the life it will bring us. So now that we have sold our home and moved, we can now resume our weekend life on Tybee Time. Its been about 4 weeks since we were on her and I believe this weekend will be spent with a lot of R & R.
