WHY WAIT??? Why so few?!!

[Frank]

It was a full 10 years ago that there were 5 of us from this site cruising the BAHAMAS.
That was the most ever!!
How many members have come, gone and new members join ?
My point being that the "dream" seems alive.....but the ability to make the conscious choice to "go" seems lost.....
Tell me....why is that?
Honestly?
I started a thread a while back "where's the passion" cuz it seemed the minimalist "let's just do it" was fading.....
But...then I met a few kids in Orientle coming dowon that gave me hope...
But...
That was a few kids...

I look at boats and think "why"
Here's a sweet sailing 25
Fast in light air
Only 3ft 3in draft (talk about a BAHAMAS boat!)
And only about $1900 USA $$ (price is Canadan)
http://www.kijiji.ca/v-sailboat/barrie/hughes-25-northen-sailboat-fast-fund-and-pocket-crusing-boat/1237292300?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true
So....throw another $3000 for a dodger, reef points in sails, bigger water tank, various other upgrades etc and for about $5000....,you have a sweet sailing Keys or BAHAMAS cruiser.
Learn to fish, Speer lobster, drink $10 rum n rain and you're  "in"... CHEAP!!
So.....why has it been 10 yrs since 5 of us were doing it?
Not being funny....just saying....
Hundreds of members...
All with a passion....
........
......
...
..
?

End of ramble....

[CharlieJ]

DAMNIT KURT WHY does a too large file require you to completely re do the damned post!!!! TOTALLY!!

Yep- is a mystery. I was one of those who did the Bahamas- 3 months, along with much more cruising- coming onto 12,000 miles,

Unfortunately my life got blasted apart coming on six years ago.Trying hard to rebuild, but really have little interest in cruising alone. And at my age, kinda doubtful I'll find another cruising mate. But still hopeful and looking :)

But still sailing locally when I can.

And a dodger doesn't need to cost $3000, Did mine myself, with sewing by ex

[ralay]

Ahem ahem.  We're out and about, we just have other places wanted to go more than the Bahamas. 

In answer to your question, I think the biggest obstacles are financial, health-care, or people needing to fulfill caregiver roles for children and parents. 

I think for anyone who's not retired/financially independent, $5K for the boat is just the beginning.  Going without income and benefits while travelling is probably more significant to a lot of folks than the purchase price of the boat.  Personally, I think chosing to live as a young cruiser has had a huge opportunity cost.  I have no kids, no debt, healthy parents, no car, no house, etc, so I can swing it, but it's not hard to imagine why it might be really hard for a lot of people to put their dream into practice.


   

[Frank]

Yes...you ARE out and about 😄

My point being this IS a sailing site dedicated to cruising smaller boats and pointing out the relative lack of more active cruising folks.....

It's about choices...
There was a male nurse over here a few years back....took a year off to cruise his 25 Catalina.
Roger, a "tech", took a few years off on his Cape Dory 27 several years ago.
Many others work summers to enjoy winters here living inexpensively but having a hoot.

I'd personally love to hear other folks adventures posted here and loved your posts and pictures Relay. Those fall colour shots were  Awesome!!

No...BAHAMAS are not needed....could be doing the loop, the Florida Keys...anywhere.....but doing it 😄

[Bubba the Pirate]

The Hughes is a good boat I've heard.  In fact, if somebody buys it and gets down to the Gulfcoast of Florida, I can arrange for them to meet Howard Hughes [yes, Howard] "the" Hughes of Hughes boats in Ontario.  As far as I know he is still around. My parents knew him well when they were coming down here every winter.

And I know I keep saying this, but I am on my way! Give me another 18 months or so and I think I will be able to just wander for a couple years. My only plan after that is to sail a little, work a little, sail a little, etc. and hope when I finally kick the bucket, I've sailed more than I've worked.

[ralay]

The other possiblity is that there are lots of active cruisers, but, for whatever reason, they're no longer as drawn to/active on this website.  It might not reflect a death of the minimalist sailing ethic, it might just be that sailfar has to compete with more other blogs/websites/forums for those sailors more so now than 10 years ago.  These are just guesses.

[K3v1n]

Just taking off for the Keys is a dream a bit off in the future for us. In the mean time my wife is taking sailing lessons this Spring, ASA 101 & 103. The 2017 season we plan to hone our sailing skills on our 'new to us' Cape Dory 26. The plan is to do some 2-3 night trips in our local waters(The Jersey Shore) and perhaps even venture out into the ocean. Then next year we'll take ASA 104 together and the navigation course.

Future plans when our daughter completes college in three years is to take the boat down to the Chesapeake and explore those waters for a couple of years while keeping the boat at a marina down there. Then it's the Keys after that, fingers crossed. Just too much debt to walk away from our jobs now, which is our own fault.

I tell young people to go learn to sail and have an adventure while you can. Of course my daughter chose college instead of a sailing adventure, maybe afterward before she gets settled into her career.

'Keeping the dream alive since 2005!'

Kevin,
:)

[CharlieJ]

pretty good guess. Ten, 15 years ago TSBB was much biggerr  When SBO took it over, they made a lot of small forums, for brand specific boats. Bled off a lot of traffic.

Looked at Classic Plastic forum a few days ago. Hasn't been a new posts in several months. basically dead

[ralay]

10 years ago, Facebook was probably still something people needed a .edu email address to use.  I know I've joined a number of Facebook sailing groups that have really high traffic.  I posted an intro on Women Who Sail this summer and got 150 responses in 24h. 

I think all sailing sites probably have a much larger percentage of people who are boat-curious, fewer who are doing research/making plans, even fewer who have boats and are getting started, and fewer still who are "out there".  Seems like the main factor in how many of the latter you get is probably the size of your community.  For instance, WWS directed me to their subgroup for vegan women cooking on sailboats.  Once you have a really large group, even rare things become well represented. 

[Phantom Jim]

Times they are a'changing.  Not too many years ago most marinas had a pier where smaller boats with their dreamer owners were preparing for "out there".  Many marinas have eliminated these small boat piers and actively discourage these dreamers.  There must be more money in larger boats for these marinas, but that is not an explanation for the disappearance of these boaters...it just may not be that attractive anymore.  Maybe people are looking for adventure in different areas.  i enjoyed being around these builders/remodelers/restorers, but I do not miss the clutter on the docks and the noise and dust of their efforts.  I was one of them in my time.

[CharlieJ]

Yep- was in a boatyard of do it yourself folks when built my trimaran. 11 boats being built. Not all got completed, but we were a community. The place where I built the boat is now fenced, and all grass. Even the docks are gone

[lance on cloud nine]

Great thread Frank! I think that many younger minimalist cruisers would tend to post sound byte updates on Fb. But, I love it here...and that is why I started the thread "what's your current status?". I was hoping to flush some quiet folk out of the bushes. I was hoping they would just if even occasionally....give us something!

I hope you all are having some fun.

[CharlieJ]

Yep- was in a boatyard of do it yourself folks when built my trimaran. 11 boats being built. Not all got completed, but we were a community. The place where I built the boat is now fenced, and all grass. Even the docks are gone

Found the pic I meant to post-launch day after 7 years of work,

[Godot]

I've been meaning to reply to this for awhile now. But I just couldn't bring myself to. I had intended on being out there years ago.

I can't speak for everyone, obviously; but based on how my life has gone I can offer some ideas. The simple answer is, Life Happens.

When you are young, you dream big; but have few resources. It's fairly easy to say to yourself, "Self, all I need to do is save up ten grand and I'm off to the Bahamas!" But, when living paycheck to paycheck, trying to pay off student loans, and basically getting started in life, it can be hard to get that ten grand. Everytime it seems to get close, an emergency or unanticipated expense seems to knock it back down.

Time passes, and the income starts to increase. But then, it starts to become difficult to focus on the long term goals. Especially when that cute blond is staring at you (girls cost money), the old beater car needs replacement and now you can afford something decent with an improved credit score (car loan), and why should you live in a crappy studio apartment anymore? Eventually, marriage, kids, and who knows what else creeps into your life.

Middle age arrives suddenly and without warning (OK, there was plenty of warning; but who is paying attention?). Maybe the kids are moving out, or would be willing to come on an adventure. But there is this new thing to worry about...retirement. That 401k isn't going to fund itself, you know! And taking a year or two off is probably career suicide once we get well into our forties or fifties; especially nowadays with those of us working in technology where skill sets are perishable and companies generally would prefer to hire the younger, cheaper, probably better workers. So we keep driving on, perhaps hoping to retire early.

Then we start getting old. If we are lucky, we managed to save enough money, stay healthy enough, not get too attached to grandkids, or end up responsible for elderly parents, while still maintaining the dream. Which is why you probably see more retirees than anyone else doing long term cruising.

There is a common thing I used to see on the bigger cruising forums. The Five Year Plan. In my experience it is very difficult to maintain any plan for five years. Or three. Even two is hard. So I suspect the vast majority of these dreamers eventually move on to other things. Life happens.

In my case, I had originally planned on taking off around thirty. By my late twenties I was still pretty broke; but I was beginning to get my feet under me career wise. So I built a little boat and enjoyed that, temporarily, as I tried to get finances together. Then I met the girl who would be my first wife. Priorities changed. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to keep the dream while keeping the wife. Eventually, the decision was taken from me as the wife moved on to other...er...men, and I suddenly found my self free! And dead broke as the financial/real estate crash left me roughly $100,000 under water. I slowly dug myself out, and started dreaming again, and somehow met another girl who ended up being my second wife. While not thrilled with me taking off sailing (she is on the fence whether she would go with me full time or part time); she is at least supportive. But now I find myself in a position of having to worry about funding that 401k and worrying that if I leave I will not be able to find a decent job upon return. Fear kicks in.

So, the FIVE YEAR FRICKIN' PLAN, which is now close to THIRTY years old, has me funding the 401k to a predetermined amount (I'm not telling), working on the boat, and sailing as much as I can. I try to take 2-4 weeks a year out cruising the Chesapeake, and once up to Martha's Vineyard and the areas between here and there, and in about 5-7 years take early retirement and get going. The dream is persistent. I'll get there. Just not as soon as I had hoped.

[Frank]

Great reply Adam.
Ain't all that a fact!
I had hoped to leave in 1984.... Many of the same things got in the way.
"Life" has a way of doing that.....

Yet, I see many folks here with their focus on working summers so they can spend winters here...(not materialistic)..some much younger than I ....some with 2 kids.... I do believe in the end, it still comes down to "choice".

I "chose" to keep working many more years

I just love and respect the folks that don't!! 😀😀

[Godot]

Red pill, or blue pill?

Yeah, it's all a choice and who's to say which is the right one. I often wish I would have made different choices. But I didn't and I'm on the path I'm on. I could take a left turn even now, I suppose. I probably won't, though, or I would have years ago. Still...I'm getting there.

[Lost Lake]

Well hello!! It's been a long time since I've been here. I sailed a Compac 19 for a couple of years and sold it to buy a bigger boat which didn't happen. Then work and kids and such take over, you all know how it can be. Now I'm 52 and my last child is 2 years from college and we're just commissioning a survey for a 1983 Endeavour 40 we fell in love with! I haven't given up on my dream, and now it's coming together. We'll outfit and upgrade the boat for the next two years and then take off from Lake Michigan to the Atlantic and down the Caribbean.
Being that I've been gone from here for so many years, I'm not sure if I fit in any longer, but I see some familiar names and have learned a lot from many of you back when I had my smaller boat and was taking sailing lessons. I'll check in as I can during the next two year refit, taking a fresh water boat and transforming it into a blue water cruiser.

[Frank]

Great to hear from you!!
No worries about "fitting in"....keep us posted on you new vessel, mods and ultimately...your travels.
And....don't forget..PICTURES!!! 😃

[Capt. Tony]

Ever notice how certain topics seem to get a lot of well considered, emotionally substantial replies?  I'll accept the role of lowering the average.  This thread is finally relevant to me (or vice versa). 

Our plans last year were to pull the boat down to FL and finish her in the yard, then hang around the coast and Keys gaining some experience necessary to cross over and explore the Bahamas.  Living and working in the yard was about 5x more challenging than we anticipated.  We took a lot of liberty to "live" the experience instead of focusing entirely on the projects.  Part of that was self-preservation to save our sanity due to NOTHING going the way we wanted; dirt, dust, rain, heat, etc.  Living on a small boat under construction has it's ups and downs..mostly downs but we took it all in stride.

Eventually the money ran out and we had to go back to work.  That meant the prime hours Monday through Friday were spent trading life for money again.  Dream largely on hold again.  Once we made the last mortgage payment Carol and I agreed to work a couple more weeks and then get back to focusing on the boat. We were on the home stretch (until something else pops up) when we got word that our daughter bought a house and would be moving out of our house leaving it empty and unmaintained.  Dream largely on hold again.  So we wrapped up Scout in shade cloth and headed back to MN for the summer.  The intent is to recharge our batteries and bank account head back this fall to pick up where we left off. 

So the wait was unintentional and not really planned.  Life happened, but, in my case it was just poor, or more accurately, lack of planning for the realities we faced.  We went in with high expectations and got schooled by life (again).  Sometimes I feel like I failed and let my lovely wife down miserably.  Then she reminds me that we did something most people will never try because of fear, and, we didn't really fail because we knew we would have to come back eventually.  The plan just changed.  Like it does sometimes.  Pretty much all the time.

The lack of convenient internet access kept me from posting updates.  It's tough to say whether we would have prepared others or scared them away from pursuing the "dream".  I can say that this is by far the most influential forum I have ever run across.  Whether it's help with a project, inspiration, or a good laugh, you can find it here.

[Phantom Jim]

Sometimes the journey is the destination