Here we are, already December 2016 and it's been almost a year since our last blog post. There probably was time that could have been made to keep up the blog on our progress although it never happened. Beginning January 1st we held garage sales and gave stuff to Charity. We put our house on the market for sale in mid February and thought we were on track with a sale May 1st. This buyer offered to buy the house furnished buying all our furniture. The deal fell thru but he left with all the furniture, that was a real help in the unclutter of our lives.
We bought a 15 x 8.5' cargo trailer to secure all our worldly possessions that we couldn't part with and everything had to fit. We hitched up our trailer and towed to the nearby RV resort where we would live we thought until we bought the boat.
We followed our plan and I sold my interest in the car dealership to my business partner Mir on April 30th.
I also sold both of my power boats including my much beloved and completely restored classic 1978 Sleekcraft 27' Ambassador.
On June 1st we towed our RV home and cargo trailer to San Diego, California. Amanda was able to transfer with her employer and we settled in to a new RV park 3 miles from the coast. Chris started selling cars to continue to feed the cruising kitty. We went to a boat show and looked at several brokerage boats during the summer while we were still waiting for our house to sell.
We had the realization that our plan to depart on our voyage would not be happening this year by October with our house still for sale back in Arizona. But as the Baja Ha-Ha fleet departed without us on November 1st we got an offer on the house and could finally begin planning to buy a boat so we could depart this time next year.
We are big believers in everything happening for a reason. The southbound fleet was caught in a late storm on the way to Cabo San Lucas with several boats knocked down and one boat crashed on the rocks ending that sailors dreams. Could that have been us?
We were also glad as it turned out that we would have a full year to be in San Diego as we have lots of family here. Also, we would have an opportunity to outfit and really get used to our new boat before we headed out on our voyage. We belong to a southern California Yacht charter club and were able to do some charter sailing to keep up our skills and enjoy the great San Diego weather. We also took a marine diesel maintenance course.
YEA!!!! On December 1st our house was finally sold. Back in July we were able to get into a rare 2 bedroom apartment became available in the RV park where we had been staying in the RV. We had hoped to move up to the boat from the 27' trailer which we found was simply too small to live in while working. Now that we are totally debt free we could once again look for our new cruising home.
We got excited about an 40' Irwin CC which seamed to be at a bargain price. After spending $2k on haulout and rig,engine and hull surveys we found out why and quickly backed out.
We fell in love once again with this completely cruise equipped Morgan 46' CC and quickly made a realistic offer to the owner after much research. Sadly, the seller was more in love with it then us and after going back and forth in negotiations wouldn't get to a price that we would have been comfortable with. So off we go still looking for the right one.
Looking back as we conclude the 5th year in our quest to begin our sabbatical we have reached most of the goals we originally set out and are light years away from where we began. We expect 2017 to be our year as we will find and refit our cruising home and untie the docklines next fall. Follow us thru the final countdown of our plan of escape.
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