Sunday, August 9, 2015

What's the Plan?

What's the plan?  This question seems to be what we are asking ourselves daily.  Our family knows, and has for sometime known, that we want to make some big life changes.  We want to see the world, expose our girls to other cultures, discover new places, learn to be self sufficient and learn to live small in a big way. 

How to make that happen has been the struggle we have faced.  It isn't always easy to make changes, especially ones that will change everything about our life.  We live pretty comfortably, our girls have plenty of stuff, too much stuff, we all do.   Leaving all that stuff behind and doing something huge is scary,  but exciting.  We have had a half a million family discussions on what we want to do, where we want to go and how we want to get there.  


And we are ready to share...we have a plan!  We are selling ALL of the stuff that weighs us down and we are going to move aboard our boat and travel the world!

Now of course if you have checked out our boat you will know that Southwind is hardly a candidate for a family of our size to live aboard and travel the ocean.  So we have been on the search for the perfect boat for our family and we think we have found her, there will be more on that in another post.

We have already been working diligently putting a plan together, selling all of our belongings, and getting things in place for becoming permanent liveaboards.  We have set goals and are working hard everyday to prepare and plan for a journey of a lifetime.  We will be moving out of our current home at the end of September and the girls and I will take a trip to the east coast to spend some quality time with family there.  Once we return we will spend our time prepping our boat, selling off final things like our cars and anything that we didn't sell before and getting ready for a huge journey.

And, if all goes well, we will begin our adventure in the fall of 2016, leaving with the Baja Haha group from San Diego and heading to Cabo San Lucas.  We then plan to sail further down the Mexican coast and in the late spring of 2017 we hope to leave Puerto Vallarta for French Polynesia.

We will be keeping our blog up to date so you can follow along with our progress as we embark on this adventure, selling our stuff, buying our boat and sailing around this great amazing world.  We hope to be able to share the beauty of the people and places we visit, participate in humanitarian efforts along the way, and make a difference not only in our lives but in the lives of others.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Anchors and Fireworks

We were very fortunate that Tom had the whole 4th of July weekend off this year! With his crazy work schedule it is a hit or miss for holiday time off.  The family loaded up the car on Friday and made the 2 hr trek to Chula Vista to get in some sailing on Southwind.  Everyone was really looking forward to this weekend.  The plan was to get down to the marina, install some nav lights on the boat and head out to the anchorage for the day where we could play and then watch fireworks from the bay.

Things were a little more crazy than usual because we had a couple of extra little visitors with us.  We were helping out some friends and watching their two granddaughters for them, ages 18 months and 6. Wow the energy of little ones, if only we could bottle that stuff!  So sailing was going to be a little more challenging with three little ones on board.  Luckily our older girls are super helpful and I had been prepping and planning for weeks in an effort to have things run smooth.

Our visitors had never sailed but were excited about the boat!  We maintained our rules for little ones in life vests at all times, even on the dock! Safety first! The girls did great and everyone had a great (and exhausting) time. The little ones enjoyed paddling around with the big kids in the dinghy and fishing (without hooks). Zoey had fun showing her friends how we do things on the boat.


With a fleet of kids in tow we headed out on Saturday morning to the anchorage at Glorietta Bay.  It was really crowded but we found a spot and anchored without any issues.  Let the fun begin! The kids played in the water, we cooked hot dogs on the grill and then...came the fireworks! We all settled in on the bow of the boat with blankets to stay warm and cozy to watch.  The whole family agreed that this is one of our best Independence Day's yet!


It was a great time had by all.  After two nights aboard Southwind it was time to head back to Huntington Beach.  We are always bummed to have to leave but everyone needed to get back to work. After having two extra little ones on board I have to really say that I don't know how Brittney and Scott from Windtraveler manage with three under three on board full time. They are amazing parents giving their little ones an amazing life! Check out their blog here http://www.windtraveler.net  Who knows maybe we will be joining them in the big blue before long,  Zoey will have to be at least four before that happens! ;)


                              Look at this monkey!