My My, how things have worked out
Wow, what a surprise i had this evening when I came on this post from 2014. Crazy - right. It was wonderful to read everyone's great and thoughtful advice. Well let me get those of you that are interested, how it all worked out.
Since 2014, I'm here to tell you that the dream is still alive and well. As it turns out, every one of your valuable pieces of very good advice is appreciated and I'd like to say thanks for that. I followed it in some form or another while keeping my eye on the ball and working toward realizing that, this is going to take a lot of work.
The hardest task was to convince my wife that a whole new lifestyle would be fun even though it involves us spending some big money, learning new and unfamiliar skills, uprooting ourselves from our home, family and friends and basically putting everything we had worked towards the last 40 years behind us for awhile. As you may expect her answer was an emphatic "no thanks honey, that doesn't sound to good to me". well i guess ill leave discussion for another future date and maybe move on to an easier subject. It was a long time before we talked of that again. I'm going to rethink this a bit more I guess.
Well to make a really, really long story shorter and more bearable for you, I'm going to just give you the highlights of my now, quest, rather than just the dream I have. So here goes.
Until present, it is important to tell you that I have read and re-read every book written on the subject of boating and even discovered a thing called The American Great Loop, a 6000 mile circumnavigation of the eastern United States. Well, that sounds good but, the problem is we are not boaters, never had a boat and don't live by a body of water any larger than a municipal reservoir and I do not have permission to do that...yet. In the mean time:
2014: I waited for my wife and her girlfriend to finish training and walking 500 miles across northern Spain on what is called the Camino De Santiago or The Way.
2015: I was talked into becoming a Pilgrim, as the people that walk the Camino are known as. From time to time I brought up the subject of boating...delicately.
2016: Fate intervened but took it's sweet time in the process. Our daughter and grandson moved back home and at the same time we bought a camp trailer with the notion of traveling around the country. We did, and talking about boats too. Coincidently we drove to and camped in Key West FL.
2017: We traveled around the US and camped along the way but always steered a course so we would be at or along the coast and by some beautiful boats, water and marinas. We became Peeper's and drove to New England to see the Fall colors.
2018: I brought out my chip to cash in at this point and told my wife that I had made reservations for us at Trawler Fest in Baltimore and AGLCA Fall Rendezvous. We even chartered a trawler with captain for the day. Still camping. In negotiations now, she agreed if I would spend 3 months in southern France before walking the Portuguese Camino De Santiago, only 400 miles long, again to Santiago, Spain she would go to Trawler Fest and the AGLCA Fall Rendezvous at Joe Wheeler SP, AL . She's coming around to boating now.
2019: After she caved to the soft pressure and agreed that it might be fun to do some boating so we stated looking for a boat. We found a Monk 36, single diesel engine, aft cabin Trawler. On December 17th I hired a surveyor and we went to N. MI to do a personal inspection of the boat while in heated storage. Our buyers broker met us there. We all agreed it was as advertised and extremely seaworthy. We made an offer to secure the deal and then waited, and waited, and waited until May, so the ice could get off Lake Michigan. After the on water survey we bought our first boat. we hired a captain and first mate to train us how to handle a single engine boat. After practicing what we were taught, cruised N. Lake Michigan and N. Lake Hurron.
Starting in early June, 2019. We started the Great Loop.
2020:For the remainder of 2019 until March 2020 we cruised our boat from N. Michigan to Key West, FL. 3,300 st.mi
So dont let your dreams be forgot, persistence is your friend
Rick Marshall
Elaine May
Monkster36@hotmail.com