The Plan

We began to develop "The Plan" back in 2004 after some conversations that Elvia and I had about our future hopes and dreams.  We talked about how we would love to travel and see remote parts of the world.  I explained how I loved being outdoors and missed  the sights, sounds and smells of living on the coast.  But alas, we were just working folks with kids and bills to pay, so it seemed that these things we desired would always remain just a dream.
I have always been the type of person who believes that anything can be achieveable through hard work and a little thinking "outside the box", so I started exploring how it could be possible for people of modest means to travel and see the world without winning the lottery or robbing a bank.
Because of our limited budget, airline tickets and fancy hotel rooms were immediately ruled out.  Many people opt for the RV which eliminates the hotel rooms but still requires a large energy budget and is limited to where it can go by the availability of roads.  The RV did satisfy my desires to get closer to nature, so I was on the right track.  We needed a way to reach every corner of the globe, without requiring large amounts of fuel and be able to take our accomodations with us.
I finally stumbled upon a website called  Living Aboard Forums.  Now we're talking!  These people live aboard sailboats all over the world!  The wind can take them anywhere they want to go and their house goes along for the ride.  This is exactly what we were searching for.  After leaving the Navy, I have missed the sea terribly.  I began to reminisce about my life on the east coast.  The ocean is very bountiful.  It can provide for a lot of our needs.  I used to catch fish, shrimp, crab and lobster on a regular basis with relative ease and the wind, waves and sun provide an infinite source of renewable energy.
This was it! This was how we were going to make our dreams come true.
By 2005, "The Plan" started taking shape.  I've learned long ago that the way to make a long term goal a reality was to take little steps at a time, each one leading you in the direction you want to go.  Every decision you make in your life can either take you closer to your goal or further away.  You have to ask yourself, at every decision, big or small, "does this take me closer to where I want be?"  By following this process, you will eventually wind up at your desired destination without much noticable sacrifice along the way.  This is the process we embarked on.  It lead us to sell the 3 bedroom house with a pool, to the 3 bedroom townhouse, a 2 bedroom apartment and finally to the 1 bedroom, utilities paid apartment.  The slow gradual down-sizing wasn't painful at all and was actually quite liberating.  The key is to intentionally live below your means.  While everyone else continues to try to keep up with their neighbors, taking on more debt, stress and exhaustion, we have paid off debt, reduced our dependancy on "stuff", put away some sizable savings and have gained a tremendous amount of FREEDOM!!
By the end of 2010, we were finally prepared to take the final steps necessary to make our life on the sea a reality!  I quit my job in December, freeing me to finish up outstanding projects that had to be completed before leaving Arizona.  Now, in April of 2011, those projects are nearing completion and Elvia is preparing to leave her job. 
So, Where do we go from here?

The following is "The Plan" for 2011 and 2012:

APRIL 2011
The first couple weeks of April we will be downsizing our 1 bedroom apartment to whatever we can carry in the bed of our pick-up truck.

MID-APRIL 2011

We will leave Tempe Az for my Mom's house in Benson Az.  In Benson, we will sell-off all the impractical items we still have and acquire those items we will need on the next leg of our adventure.  We will be living on-the-road until we find a suitable boat. I will be preparing our tent and other living systems while in Benson.  Elvia will be working on our communications, including this blog.  In Mid-May, we will make one final trip to Phoenix to attend Elvia's son's graduation and then we will return to Benson and pack up for our trip to Texas.

MID-MAY 2011

In Mid-May we will depart Benson Az headed for Houston Tx.  We expect to be on the road for 2 nights and will stay in campgrounds.  We expect to spend a couple days in Crosby Tx with Elvia's brother before moving on to Florida.

END of MAY 2011

By the end of May we expect to be in the Tampa Fl area.  We will be living in campgrounds and shopping for a suitable sailboat.  It will probably take several weeks to find the right boat and we don't  want to rush it.  Hopefully my mid-June we will be moved onto our new home-on-the-sea.  We will spend June and July in the Tampa area, getting familiar with the boat, doing any needed repairs and provisioning.  We will be sailing the bay and coastal areas, getting our sea legs.

AUGUST 2011

In early August we will sell the truck and begin our first long distance cruise.  We will follow the coast north to Pensacola and then work our way back west towards Houston.  We will be sailing by day and anchoring at night.  We plan to take our time, enjoy the sights and not arrive back in Houston until the last week in August.  Max and I will be staying with the boat in Houston while Elvia will be heading back to Phoenix to be with her daughter, Arielle for the birth of her first grandchild.  We expect Elvia to be in Phoenix for a couple weeks and then return to Houston by mid-September.

MID-SEPTEMBER 2011

After Elvia returns and we are prepared to get under-way, we will shove-off for our first over-night sail.  We will sail out of Texas and probably anchor off the Louisana coast the first night and then set off on a 3 day sail straight to the Florida Keys.  We will spend the remainder of September in the Keys.  We will work our way up from Key West to Key Largo.  Once in Key Largo, we will wait for a weather window to make the transit to the Bahamas.

OCTOBER 2011

We will cross the gulf stream and enter our first foriegn country, The Bahamas.  We will visit Nassau and Paradise Island and then start a slow, lazy meander down through the multitude of islands that make up The Bahamas.  We will spend all of October and part of November exploring the many islands, camping on the beaches and snorkeling in the lagoons.  When we have had our fill, we will head south for the Turks and Caicos and  then the Dominican Republic.

NOVEMBER 2011

Come November we will head south through the Turks and Caicos Islands to arrive in Lupron, Dominican Republic before Thanksgiving.  We will spend Thanksgiving and the the first half of December in The Dominican Republic.  We will explore the lush tropical interior on horseback and bask in the warm winter sun of the tropics.  By mid-December we may be ready for a taste of civilization again.  Puerto Rico should satisfy that urge, so we head south again.

DECEMBER 2011

So down the coast of The DR and across the channel and we are back in the US of A,  well, sort of.  We will be in Puerto Rico for Christmas and New Years.   We will stay in the Puerto Rico and US Virgin Island area for an extended period of time.  This would be the perfect opportunity for any family that would like to come down for a winter vacation!  While in Puerto Rico we will be looking for some temporary work to supplement our cruising budget.  We probably won't depart Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands until early March.

MARCH 2012

Once we are comfortable with our finanacial stiuation, have completed any necessary repairs and have provisioned the boat, we will again be headed south.  We will spend March and April working our way through the Eastern Carribean.  We will spend several weeks in each island nation and should arrive in Rodney Bay St. Lucia in early May.  This will put us back in familar waters.  We visited St Lucia in 2007 on a vacation gift from my son, John.  We will spend May in St. Lucia before continuing south to get out of hurricane alley before July.

JUNE 2012

June 2012 will find us in The Grenadines and the island of Grenada.  In July we will be in Trinidad.  The area north of Grenada is in the hurricane belt.  The hurricane season runs from July to October, so we will be out of the hurricane belt before the beginning of the hurricane season.  From Trinidad we will begin heading west and should be in Isla Margarita off the coast of Venezuela by early August.  Heading west with the trade winds should make for smooth sialing through out the fall







AUGUST 2012

In August 2012 we will be heading west through the netherland antillies including Aruba.  Then, sailing down the coast of Colombia, we should arrive in Cartagena by the first of September.

SEPTEMBER 2012

In September we will be taking in the flavors of Colombia while exploring the historic town of Cartagena and the islands off the Colombian coast.   We will liesurely work our way down the Colombian coast and eventually into Panamanian waters.  By the first of October, we will arrive in the San Blas islands off the Panama coast.




OCTOBER 2012

The San Blas Islands are the much dreamed of tropical island paradise.  Turquiose blue waters, white sand beaches and palm trees swaying in the tropical breeze.  We will spend several weeks island hopping through the San Blas and snorkelling in the crystal clear waters of the southern carribean sea.  When we have had our fill of island paradise,  we will be moving on to Costa Rica and other points north.  By early November, we will be in the coastal islands of Nicaragua before pushing on to the Rio Dulce of Guatemala.






NOVEMBER 2012

After passing through the Bay Islands of Honduras,  We will enter the Rio Dulce of Guatelmala.  The Rio Dulce is the main in-land waterway of Guatemala.  The river winds through the dense tropical jungle, featuring steep canyon walls, calls of exotic birds and howler monkeys swinging through the trees.  The Rio Dulce is the most popular hang-out for boaters in the western carribean.  We will spend Thanksgiving in this exotic land before heading out for our Christmas destination of Belize.

DECEMBER 2012

In early December we will depart the Rio Dulce for Guatemala's neighbor to the north, Belize.  Belize is the land of the ancient Maya Indains and it is only fitting that we will be in this magical land in time for the end of the Mayan Calendar.  If after 12-21-12, and if the world hasn't come to a tragic conclusion we will be celebrating Christmas here in Belize.  This would be another great opportunity for any family that would like to take a break from the cold weather in the north and spend some time with us in the tropical sun.

That is how we plan to spend the remainder of 2011 and all of 2012.  Of course, none of this is carved in stone and is subject to change as we move along through this grand adventure.  2013 will bring in a new age and new decisions.  From Belize we will decide if it is time to head back north to the US or turn back south to transit the canal in Panama and head out to explore the South Pacific.  Only time will tell where the winds will take us and what amazing places we will discover. 

We will be honored if you choose to follow our adventure by reading this blog and contributing by providing your comments to our posts.  We invite you to stay in touch via e-mail and even consider visiting us wherever we may be as part of your vacation plans.

Thank you for your interest,
Keith

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”  - Mark Twain