Courtesy Flags and Progress Update

A lot has happened since the last post. We ordered and received our courtesy flags for about 60 countries, officially put our house on the market, and have progressed a few steps toward purchasing our boat! We are perpetually exhausted, but know that it will be short-lived as we are seeing the light at the end of this tunnel.

Courtesy Flags: These are hoisted up next to the quarantine flag when coming into port. A sign of courtesy and respect, it is something that most sailing vessels follow. You don't necessarily need to purchase the flags, as you can sew your own. Being that I knew I would not want to sew so many flags, we ordered these from Amazonand called it a day. For about $40, we were set. There are other sites that have you purchase larger sized flags that are about $15 for EACH flag. That quickly adds up to hundreds of dollars! After researching, we realized that the flags we bought were just fine and many other sailors use them. Saving all that money made us very happy!
I know that in the future, I may need to break out those sewing skills if we decide to visit a country not already on our route, but we will cross that bridge when we arrive.  These photos show how they arrive in the package. I hand wrote the name of each country on the white border and then cut off the white strings. I will then add the grommets once I get a moment to actually do so. Shout-out to this blog for the inspiration.


The House: We are finally DONE with all of the construction, remodeling, painting (I am so tired of painting, my friends know to not even joke about it anymore), and all the other projects we had on our list. No sooner than the fresh sod was put down, we had our realtor over to take photos and list it on the market. This was around 8:30pm on a Sunday evening.  In less than 2 hours, it had over 200 views and the following day we had showings. Throughout this past week, we have had multiple showings, a huge broker tour (a few actually brought buyers to this), followed by the actual open house weekend. What a whirlwind!

Plans are written in the sand at low tide...

The Boat: We have had a few changes regarding our new floating home. After visiting the BVI and Florida to walk on all sorts of catamarans, we had settled on the Lagoon 440. We LOVE this boat and the space it has. Stepping aboard just felt like home. Well, after further research, we learned that the Lagoon 440 model has bulkhead issues, which means cracks (Jared starts talking about all the actual technical stuff and I just zone out) and tens of thousands of dollars in repairs. We had a friend, Jack, who lives in Croatia touring boats for us up and down the coastline and each of those boats had the bulkhead issues! Ugh! Talk about frustrating!

Another of our plans, to start sailing in The Med, has gone to bust. Why? It is now charter season over there and NO ONE is selling their boats until after the season. If they are listing it for sale, they require a large deposit and will "hold" the boat for you until after it has completed the charter season.
We liked the prices over there, but after hours upon hours of research, phone calls, and emails, it just is not the best decision to buy there for our situation. We need to move aboard in June or July, and don't really want to wait until October.
So, what are the plans now? We are off to the Caribbean to purchase our boat. We have two we are looking at right now. They are Leopard 46s and seem similar to the Lagoon in many ways, have more storage, and are an overall faster and sturdier boat. The major plus, is that the Leopards have not had any of the issues the Lagoons have had. Definitely don't want to be worrying your boat is going to come apart while out at sea!

The new route: For now, (refer to the previous quote above) we will set sail from the Caribbean up through the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Azores, and into The Med. After touring Europe until about December, we will cross the Atlantic once again to the Caribbean. From there, we will transit the Panama Canal and head off towards the Galapagos, South Pacific, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii, and then back to Monterey.

So what are the next steps? First is to get this house sold and buy that boat! School ends on June 2nd, so we are free to leave as soon as then (and when the escrow closes). We have a couple of yard sales left (huge shout out to my awesome gal pal, Krista, for letting us store all of our stuff in her garage) and will donate whatever doesn't sell on the May 27th sale. Our house is pretty much empty of furniture, except for our beds, the kitchen table, and a couple of bookcases. We are selling those as soon as we are in escrow on the house. So, for now, it is to take it day by day and know that we are so close to achieving our goal!

Just a few Boat Bucks

The term "Boat Bucks" is commonly used around the sailing life. One boat buck = $1,000. I think it was created by a husband who didn't want to alarm his wife about how much his boat was costing. "Oh, its just a few boat bucks honey".

We spent a few boat bucks at the Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show the other day, but it was on gear we absolutely needed to have. Offshore harnesses/life jackets for the kids (they already have life jackets, but the new ones are to be used for off-shore and attach to a jackline tether), personal EPIRBS with AIS for all of us, foulie gear, etc.

We left home around 7 am in order to arrive in time for the boat show to open and meet our friends. Traffic is always a bit heavy when heading into the San Francisco area. We arrived around 9:45 am and met our friends on the way inside the show. Once inside, it was all business. We explored the exhibitor area and the kids did an amazing job, despite being a little bored waiting around for us to finish up what we needed to do. They patiently tried on harnesses, tested anchors, and were treated to a bunch of candy from the exhibitors. This made the whole process that much easier. =)

After a couple of hours, we ate lunch at Assemble restaurant and then walked over to the marina where all the boats were located. The kids played frisbee along the way and enjoyed reading the historical signage.

 

There was a sailing club demonstrating their little remote sailboats, which was the kids' favorite part of the day. They are convinced we now need to bring one aboard our boat.

After touring a couple of the new Lagoons (mainly so the kids could look at the storage options in their cabins), we headed back to the exhibitor hall to pick up our purchases and head back home. Our friends decided to stay and tour more of the boats, so we said our "see ya laters" and parted ways.





As far as the BIG purchase (our boat)? We have a friend in Croatia right now, who is looking at boats for us, with the guidance of our boat broker. Hoping to hear something soon! =)

Strictly Sail Pacific

Can't believe that a year ago this month, I was writing about our trip to this very same boat show. Except this year, we are making some major purchases! New PFDs, harnesses, and other equipment for the boat.

We are meeting another boat family at the show which will add to the fun. Updated post with pics to come soon!

MUST HAVE Boat Essentials!

Here's my growing list of MUST HAVE sailing gear for living aboard as a family.

1. Turkish Towels are amazing! They are super lightweight, wick moisture away quickly, and dry even faster! They are large enough to wrap around as a light blanket if needed and fold up very small = super storage saver (and on a boat, that means a lot)! The fact that we can use these several times before washing is fantastic and saves this mama loads of laundry in the long run! I even took it a step further and tested these babies on our BVI trip last year. I never needed to use any of the towels the charter company provided. I cant' recommend these towels enough as I just LOVE them! In action in the BVI pic:

2. Biodegradable sunscreen is just a no-brainer. Protect your skin while protecting the environment at the same time. Here is one we used in the BVI:Biodegradable, Reef Safe Sunscreen  

There are quite a few others out there on Amazon.

3. Besides sunscreen, some other items to provide protection from the sun: 

Hats (preferably with a strap incase the wind picks up) These are what the kids have.  

Polarized sunglasses with a floating strap (no more lost sunglasses). I recommend the straps that float. These are the ones we have, but there are lots of other options out there. 

Long-sleeved rash guards are also a good idea. They help keep your skin protected while out in the water, as well as from stings from jellies.

4. Dry bags (waterproof storage): These help keep everything dry whether you are traveling from shore to the boat or just sightseeing in the dingy.

Dry Pack duffle bag

Dry Bag Backpack

Universal Waterproof Case

5. Boat toys:

SUPs: We got three stand-up paddle boards on sale at Costco last year and they are an awesome way to get around! Watch for their end of summer sales. We got ours for about $100 each, marked down from $400! We are bringing these with us, as well as a couple of surf boards (also purchased on sale at Costco).

Swing: We have a swing that can hang from the boom or one of the shrouds. Ours is similar to this one.

Hammock: We like to hang ours from the boom!

Beach Mat: This one is awesome! The sand just falls through to the bottom. We also have the tote that is made from the same material. No more bringing sand back on board!

That is the top of our list for now. We will add more as we go!

Piles, Paint, Patience, and a party!

        My awesome friend, Krista, hosted the sale at her home, as she has a great location in town!

Piles...
Well, we are down to our last two yard sales. This Saturday we are having a gigantic one! Our front room has piles and piles of stuff! If it doesn't sell, the Goodwill truck will come pick it all up at the end of the day. Whew!

We will have our last yard sale in May, when we sell off the beds, table, and all the other stuff we are presently using until we leave.

Paint...
I cant' say we can put down the paint brushes just yet, but we are almost done with painting everything inside and out!

Patience...
It requires a lot at this stage in our lives. We just want to hurry up and go, already! We are waiting on some more stone and sod to be delivered before we can list the house. We are tearing out the old concrete driveway and installing nice pavers and a walkway. Also, a shout-out to our blog followers. We hear you loud and clear; you want updates! We have just been so crazy-busy with prepping the house, working, and just life, that the blog is pushed to the back burner. =)

Jared and I walked along the beach during lunchtime last week. Can't wait to anchor out in water like this soon!

Party...
Oh, and we are going to have one epic party to celebrate all this hard work as soon as everything is completed. Sort of like a "sailing away" party and "buy our house and/or furniture" party rolled into one. Can't wait! If we can sell it without using a realtor, we save on the commission fees and add more to the cruising kitty.

Still here!

Quick update: We are still here! We have just been a bit busy with prepping the house for sale and selling off our stuff! I actually have three blog posts to upload, hoping to get some time soon to do that.
~Stef