One More Day to Vote for Us!

I posted this a few weeks ago, but tomorrow (Wednesday) is the last day to earn some karma and help us win a new sail cover!  Please take a second to click on the link below that says "CLICK HERE" and place your vote!  It literally only takes seconds, you don't have to sign up for anything, and it's private.  In return for a minute of your time we may just win a $250 gift card for a new sail cover kit!  Thanks and feel free to share or comment!  For those that have already voted and even put the link on your own web site ... thanks so much!  The cruising community is awesome!  Note:  If you don't let me know you voted, I'll never know so give me a shout!

Yes, our sail cover really sucks!  The zipper is broke, the clasps are broke and we need to hold the cover together with bungee cords!  Why are we boring you with this?  Because you can help us buy a new one without having to do anything but click and vote!

We're contestants in a SailRite contest, and the winning prize is a $250 gift card!  We've been having our eye on a "Sail Pack" kit for about a year now, but we just haven't had the extra funds to purchase one.  If we win the gift card, we'll finally be able to purchase the kit.  Then, we won't only have a new sail cover, but a sail "pack", which would be awesome!  A sail pack makes storing the sails so much easier, which means we'd probably sail more often ... yes, we are lazy sometimes!

So, I know you're just itching to vote for us right?  So, all you need to do is CLICK HERE and vote ... it's that easy and quick!  We'd really appreciate your help, and you can even share the link on your Facebook page, site, or anywhere that you choose!

The voting ends August 31st ... so might as well vote now!  You'll be "paying it forward" and buying us something without spending a dime. 

We really need some better luck lately, so we'd appreciate it!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Dock of the Bay!

The "Dock of the Bay" ... on the bay, in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Not much exciting happening with us.  We spent the past week working and recuperating from Ken's birthday celebration last weekend.  Before we knew it, another weekend had come around!  As most of you know, this past weekend was very exciting for the US East Coast.  They were visited by Hurricane Irene, and she was not a welcome guest!  However, it appears that although there was damage and a few unfortunate fatalities, Irene wasn't as mean as expected.  We hope that all of you reading this from the East Coast are well and did not experience much of Irene's wrath.

Even though Irene was far away from Louisiana, it brought about a lot of talk and memories of hurricanes here in Louisiana.  That's because today is the 6 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina!   Six years ago this morning, Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.  In some ways it seems like just yesterday, and in some ways the destruction seems a life-time ago.   We had our fair share of  loss during Hurricane Katrina, as did our family and friends.  I can tell you that unless you were able to drive around and see the damage for yourself ... you just can't imagine the widespread destruction!  It spanned across several states and with the lack of street signs and landmarks it was very easy to get disoriented.  We are happy to say that our town has made a full recovery!

One nearby area that is still recovering from the massive damage is the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  Since Ken and I had not visited the area in about a year, we decided to take the 30 minute ride to this area and check out the progress.  Saturday was a beautiful day for a car ride and we rode along a portion of the beach in Waveland and Bay St. Louis.  While we saw some beautiful new fishing piers and docks, we also saw an amazing amount of vacant lots.  So many beautiful homes have yet to be rebuilt.

We stopped at one of the docks on the bay and soaked up the sun while watching the boats, fishermen, and beautiful views.  We then headed over to the nearby casino for an all-you-can-eat buffet of crabs and brisket with all the fixings!  We'd been craving this for a while now, and with our frugal selves we finally treated ourselves with a "buy one, get one" coupon!  To make things even better, we had a coupon for a $15 chip at the blackjack table.  Ken put the chip on the table, and in one play he got a blackjack!  Woo hoo ... dinner was free for both of us! 

I can eat my weight in crabs!

I won't bore you with the details of our sad Hurricane Katrina story, but I will say it was miserable and exhausting!  It took a very long time to get our life back to "normal".  However, going through such a catastrophic event reminded us of what's important in life.  It all fits in a car (or boat), cause what's really important is carried in our heart and soul!

On a lighter note ... when riding around the coast, we found ourselves on "Vacation Lane"!   This is the closest we've been to a vacation in a long time.  We really need to get movin'!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

NOTB - How Much Will Cruising Cost?

NKOTB (New Kids On The Boat) ... A Weekly Series Sharing Our Thoughts and Questions as Beginner Sailors and Future Cruisers.  NKOTB or Experienced Cruiser ... Tell Us Your Thoughts!

A question almost all future cruisers have is how much will cruising cost?  When trying to find the answer to this question, I often found it to be "it depends".  Cruising, like anything else, greatly depends on the person.  It makes sense that if someone spends a lot of money on land, they'll probably spend a lot of money living on a boat. I did come across a few sites that documented their cruising expenses, and while some of them made me feel confident we could cruise on our small budget ... others blew me away.  Some of these cruisers are spending way more than we currently do on land!

Ken and I have always been frugal on land, so it shouldn't be too hard to be frugal on the water.  We don't care to spend much money on tourist "traps", souvenirs or the latest fad.  We figure that when we're not doing boat chores during the day swimming, snorkeling, hiking or just exploring a new place will be pretty inexpensive.  In the evening good music with a beer or glass of wine while sitting in our cockpit should make us happy.  Although we'd love to hang out with the locals every night at the bar listening to music and making friends, our landlubber budget doesn't allow it and neither will our cruising budget.  Hopefully we'll be able to take part in those "pot-luck" dinners we keep hearing about ... and we'll "bring our own"!

A large sailboat and many nights at a marina can drain a cruising budget pretty fast.  We don't plan on staying at marinas very often, and our sailboat is considered small these days ... a 30 footer.  A smaller boat is less expensive when staying at a marina, and it's supposed to mean less maintenance costs ... we hope so!  However, just like with a house, we know that some maintenance costs are the same no matter what the size.  Luckily Ken is a contractor and really handy with fixing things.

The more "stuff" you have on a boat, the more maintenance costs and energy consumption.  We won't have a/c, and we're not sure about refrigeration and a watermaker just yet.  We'd love a watermaker, but they're not cheap!  We may trying catching our water as a supplement to buying water and see how it goes.   Ken really likes the idea of refrigeration, but it's also not cheap and consumes a good bit of energy.  I never use ice and can live off just about anything, so refrigeration isn't that important to me.  We will have solar and wind power to help maintain our energy consumption and reduce the costs. 

A really big factor in cruising costs is whether or not boat insurance and/or medical insurance are included.  These can really put a big dent in a cruising budget, and we haven't committed to one way or the other just yet.  However, we currently carry both types of insurance (with a high deductible on the medical) and it really isn't too bad.  We just haven't taken the time to look into what happens once we're in the Bahamas or Mexico.  We'll have to wait and see.

We anticipate that our biggest expense will be groceries, fuel, boat maintenance, communication, a rare trip home, and those extras like beer and wine. We saw a post from Distant Shores about the cruising budget, and they estimate that a "comfortable" cruiser can live off of $1500-$2500 a month.  We hope they're correct, and if so we aim to be on the low end of "comfortable".  Even with this figure we'll need to find a way to supplement our cruising kitty.  Ken knows construction and a good bit about boat maintenance, so his knowledge should help us make a few bucks every now and then.  We may have to bartend, babysit, etc., whatever it takes! 

We're also counting on you guys to click on our Google Ads and/or make your purchases from Amazon and our other product links from our site (on the right).  So, if you want to make an Amazon purchase,  learn a new language, make your own beer or record your own music ... purchasing them from our site will cost you the same and we'll make a few cents.  Every little bit helps!  Oh, and dare I mention it ... there's that donation button too!  =)

Until we start cruising we'll never have the answer to this question, but we know we'll make it work and the experience will be priceless!  We know this topic can be a little personal, but feel free to share!  Then we won't have to ask!  =) 

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Note:  Here are the previous posts from this series.  Check them out and feel free to give us your advice.  We've really enjoyed reading your comments!

• NKOTB - Bad Weather!
• NKOTB- The Anchor!
• NKOTB - Sailing Experience Required?!
• NKOTB - The Right Boat!

A Birthday Weekend!

We're on a boat!  (Photo thanks to our friend Ted, who took this from his mast)

Ken's 45th birthday was this past weekend, and an excuse to kick back and have fun was way overdue!  Our friend, Renee, shares the same birthday as Ken and it was her 40th.  So, the celebration started Friday night with Renee, her daughter, our daughter and her boyfriend, and another long-time friend and her boyfriend.  The night started off at the Daiquiri Shoppe (they actually have a drive-thru here in Louisiana) where my daughter and her boyfriend introduced us to "Granny".  "Granny" turned out to be a blow-up doll, which really made for a bunch of laughs.  We even took "Granny" to Copeland's for a late night dinner.  We love to be crazy, and the looks on the people's faces as we walked to our table ... priceless!

Granny looking over the menu at Copeland's       Ken n Renee (the birthday guys) and daughters

Saturday was spent recovering, and Sunday the same group came over and piled onto our sailboat.  Nirvana had never had 8 people (plus our daughter's dog) on her at one time, but everybody fit on her just fine.  We headed out to the lake, dropped anchor, and spent the day with food, drink, music and good company!  Our friend, Ted, joined us on the water in his sailboat as well.  We had plenty of noodles and floaties to hang out in the water for a while to cool off, and the dog even had a floatie to "chill" with everybody. 

Above pic:  creating a work of art!  A few "floaters" got too far away to ever make it back to the boat, so we pulled up the anchor and saved their life!  =)   The above picture is Ted in his boat after picking up our daughter and Renee's daughter.  We went even further out to pick up a few others "floaters".

After everybody was back on the boat, we headed towards home and made a stop at "The Dock".  This is a little bar and grill with live music every Sunday afternoon.  We got there just as the band started playing and enjoyed a few tunes before heading back home. 

"The Dock" ... that's our sailboat mast in the background!        "The Meanies" playing on the waterfront

Ken and I were worried about having so many people on the boat, as well as being in the 90-something degree weather.  However, the day couldn't have been any better!  I think this was the best birthday Ken has had in a long time.  We really enjoyed time with our friends, our daughter and her boyfriend.  In fact, this was actually the first time our daughter had ever been on our boat!  I think she and her boyfriend also had a really good time, and hopefully our daughter is embracing our sailboat a little more now. 

Later that night after everybody left, we sat and thought (as we often do) about how quickly time is flying by.  Ken and I were younger than our daughter when we started dating and now he's 45!  I'll also be 45 in a few months, and yesterday our daughter started her second year at LSU.  It really is mind-blowing just how fast the years pass.  Our daughter recently told me that I still think I'm 16 ... I told her that she's right!  I told her that other than being wiser, we don't think any differently than we did when we were her age.  I also told her that she'll be in her forties before she knows it.  Before we know it ... we should be living on our sailboat!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

*We'll have more pictures on our Facebook page once we get them from friends n family!   They oughta be crazy!

NKOTB - The Right Boat!

NKOTB (New Kids On The Boat) ... A Weekly Series Sharing Our Thoughts and Questions as Beginner Sailors and Future Cruisers.  NKOTB or Experienced Cruiser ... Tell Us Your Thoughts!

If Ken and I had won the lottery or lived in a perfect world, we'd say the "right" cruising boat for us would be large and luxurious with every modern gadget and convenience on board.  However, our efforts at winning the lottery haven't worked out and we most definitely don't live in a perfect world!

When we first caught the bug to go cruising, Ken and I knew it would be on a sailboat.  After all, sailboats are so much cheaper to travel on and it really was the only option for us.  We had imagined ourselves cruising around in a nice catamaran.  However, it didn't take long to realize that those catamarans cost as much as our house!  That's when we really started thinking about what the "right" cruising boat would be for us. 

When searching for the "right" cruising sailboat, it had to be:

• Cheap -   We already had enough monthly bills and couldn't afford to finance a sailboat, so we quickly decided to sell a piece of land that we owned.  I don't think we spent five minutes making this decision.  We knew we wanted to cruise, and we wanted a sailboat to start the journey as soon as possible.  The land sold really fast and it provided us with $15,000 to spend on our sailboat. 
• In Good Shape - Although we needed a cheap boat, that didn't mean a crappy boat!  We didn't want a major project boat that would consume all of our time .. and money.  We already have way too much to maintain and to sell, so we wanted a sailboat that was in good shape.  We were willing to provide a new paint job and some minor repairs, but we required a boat with good rigging, good sails, a good diesel engine, and a lot of loving from their current owners!
• Less Than 38 Feet - Since Ken and I had never sailed, we agreed that 38 feet was plenty for us NKOTB!  Any sailboat larger than 38 feet would not only be overwhelming to learn to sail and manuever, but would also be more expensive to own.  The larger the boat, the more maintenance costs and the higher the marina fees!
• Roomy and Comfortable - We'll be living on our sailboat full-time, so we wanted a boat that we could envision ourselves hanging out in during the evenings and rainy days.  An open layout with a  roomy cockpit and living quarters were a necessity.   An aft cabin was also a requirement for storage and more importantly, for our daughter to come visit!

Our Sail Cover Sucks!

Yes, our sail cover really sucks!  The zipper is broke, the clasps are broke and we need to hold the cover together with bungee cords!  Why are we boring you with this?  Because you can help us buy a new one without having to do anything but click and vote!

We're contestants in a SailRite contest, and the winning prize is a $250 gift card!  We've been having our eye on a "Sail Pack" kit for about a year now, but we just haven't had the extra funds to purchase one.  If we win the gift card, we'll finally be able to purchase the kit.  Then, we won't only have a new sail cover, but a sail "pack", which would be awesome!  A sail pack makes storing the sails so much easier, which means we'd probably sail more often ... yes, we are lazy sometimes!

So, I know you're just itching to vote for us right?  So, all you need to do is CLICK HERE and vote ... it's that easy and quick!  We'd really appreciate your help, and you can even share the link on your Facebook page, site, or anywhere that you choose!

The voting ends August 31st ... so might as well vote now!  You'll be "paying it forward" and buying us something without spending a dime. 

We really need some better luck lately, so we'd appreciate it!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Would You Believe ...

The Louisiana heat and humidity are making the outdoors feel like a sauna!  Throw in some work on the weekends and sailing just hasn't happened lately.  Then, would you believe ... we were told this past Saturday that we're about to have another vacant rental ... again!!  Needless to say, when we did have some time off this past weekend we were still pretty stressed.  At least we were given a little notice this time.

So, not much else going on and instead of moaning and groaning I will choose humor.  This is a funny little video with Will Ferrell called "The Landlord".  If things don't improve I'm gonna start drinking with Pearl!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

NKOTB - Sailing Experience Required?!

NKOTB (New Kids On The Boat) ... A Weekly Series Sharing Our Thoughts and Questions as Beginner Sailors and Future Cruisers.  NKOTB or Experienced Cruiser ... Tell Us Your Thoughts!

When Ken and I decided to buy a sailboat, sell everything and cruise the Caribbean, it wasn't for the "love of sailing".  In fact, until we purchased Nirvana, we'd never sailed before!  We'd been on a catamaran a time or two for a "booze cruise" while on vacation, but since that was a blur it doesn't really count.  We both grew up around power boats, so neither one of us was new to being around water or boating.  We figured sailing couldn't be that much different ... piece of cake! 

Well, now that we own a sailboat and have been on the lake a few times I'd say that sailing is quite different than a power boat.  Although I wouldn't say sailing is difficult (I may eat those words), it does have its own terminology and a whole new set of rules to the game!  No longer can we just push the throttle down and haul ass out of a sticky situation.  Then there's the sails, halyards, rigging and all sorts of things that go along with a sailboat.

I remember sailing our boat for one of the first times and feeling the power of the wind as it filled our sails and moved us along the water.  Even though I'd imagined the experience of sailing, I wasn't really prepared for the sensation of "heeling" (leaning into the water as the wind pushes the sails) and I quickly gained a new respect for the wind. While I actually enjoy heeling (to a certain degree), I now realize just how powerful the wind is and how crucial it is to know your sailboat and remain in control.

It's now been over a year and half since we purchased our Catalina 30 and most of last summer was spent in the boatyard, giving our sailboat a new look and a new name.  We plan to "set sail" in about a year and a half, and we can see our year ahead being consumed with working, selling our belongings, and then preparing Nirvana for cruising.  Although we look forward to some sailing excursions this year, we don't see a lot of time for practicing sailing maneuvers.  Therefore, this week's question as a NKOTB is ... how much sailing experience is required to go cruising?  We're hoping "not a lot"!

We realize that we have many skills yet to learn, such as ... reefing, using our spinnaker (not sure if we're going to spare precious space on board for this), sailing "wing-on-wing", picking up a mooring ball, heaving-to", and being able to sail our boat more efficiently.  Then there's navigation and plotting a course!  But, as so many cruisers say ... don't waste time.  So, once we've sold everything and prepared Nirvana adequately (not completely) for cruising, we're outta here!  While we hope to learn some of the above skills in the next year, we're not hanging around if not.  After all, why hang around sailing in the lake when we can improve our skills as we sail the Gulf coast towards Florida and the Bahamas?!

We will learn the basics of how to read a chart and plot a course before we leave, but with modern technology we'll also be relying on a chartplotter and a gps to keep us on course.  We'll also have an auto-pilot, cause we hear the praises of other cruisers and do not want to be standing behind the wheel all the time!  I suspect that the older generation of cruisers view our new generation as unskilled and too reliant on electronics.  I believe that there's something to be said for being able to navigate by the stars and a compass, and I have great respect for those sailors that did just that.  However, we won't be in that number!

It does appear to us that the definition of a cruiser has evolved over the past decade, and we won't be the first cruisers to learn as we go.  Time is too short to waste!  While there are always horror stories with anything, we've watched (on the internet) many people set sail this past year and they're all still alive and well!  I think some basic common sense goes a long way!  So, what do you think?

Note:  Here are the previous posts from this series.  Check them out and feel free to give us your advice!

• NKOTB - Bad Weather!
• NKOTB- The Anchor!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Spotify - Best Online Radio!

While watching "Clark Howard" the other morning to get the latest money saving tips, Clark mentioned an online radio station that he was really excited about, called "Spotify".  He said that this online radio has been around for some time in other countries, and is finally here in the USA!  What makes this online radio so great is that you control exactly what you listen to.  It's like having a huge music library at your fingertips! You just type in an artist, album, or genre and hit play!  You can even create a playlist and share the link with your friends.

Of course, I wasted no time checking this out and I have to say that Spotify is awesome!  I knew Clark wouldn't dissappoint!  No longer do you need an invitation ... anybody can join!

Another great product I recently found is Replay Music,  which allows you to record music from any online radio or video!  To make it even better, you can set Replay to transfer all of your recordings to i-Tunes and/or to your i-pod.  I love this!

With the two of these products, I'm already working on quite a music library for our sailboat!  In fact, here's a link to a Hawaiian playlist I created that will put you in the tropics.  Of course, you need to join Spotify first to listen to this.  I hope you enjoy it, and check our Facebook page in the future for more playlists.

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

NKOTB - The Anchor!

NKOTB (New Kids On The Boat) ... A Weekly Series Sharing Our Thoughts and Questions as Beginner Sailors and Future Cruisers.  NKOTB or Experienced Cruiser ... Tell Us Your Thoughts!

Our first NKOTB post last week, NKOTB ... Bad Weather, received some great responses and had similar advice ... don't leave without an anchor!  We agree and wouldn't think of leaving without one.  After all, an anchor is so important for a variety of reasons.  Not only is it an important tool when stuck in bad weather, but it's also crucial in avoiding marinas and well ... anchoring!  We plan on anchoring the majority of the time, so this is a biggie! 

We've learned from other cruisers' blogs that we should get a really big anchor, one that is bigger than the suggested size for our boat.  The larger anchor will increase the odds of staying put, and that means we decrease our chances of hitting another boat (or something else) while exploring for the day.  We really don't want to be those cruisers that everybody's cursing!  Just as important ... a big anchor means a better night's sleep.  I need my sleep!  I've read about some sort of anchor alarm that goes off when the anchor starts dragging.  That sounds like something we'd really like to have so we won't be so paranoid at night and can sleep even better.  Hopefully any cruisers near us will also have a big, obnoxious anchor and an alarm!

Currently we only have one little anchor, but we plan on getting at least one more for a back-up and for the different types of anchorage bottoms.  Here in Louisiana the bottom of the lake is really muddy, and our current anchor works well ... a little too well sometimes.  It gets really hard to pull up, and then the bow is covered in wet mud!  (I see an electric windlass in our future).  It's our understanding that the Bahamas are sandy, while other areas are pretty rocky.  We don't have a whole lot of room on our 30 footer, so we'd like an anchor that works well in both sandy and rocky bottoms.  We've heard that the Rocna Anchor is a good one ... any thoughts?  The Rocna link shows the prices, and boy those stainless steel ones are a lot more expensive than the galvanized! 

I don't have the technical mind like a guy and Ken doesn't like to "blog", so I don't yet know anything about the anchor chain and such that we should have for a 30 footer.  You tell me!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Tequila!

Ken and I finally got a break from the rain this past weekend, but sailing was not in the plans.  This past Saturday we spent the day moving our daughter into her new apartment in Baton Rouge.  She's already starting her second year at LSU, and she's no longer staying in a dorm.  Instead, she will be sharing an apartment with three other girls.  So, Saturday was spent lugging boxes up a flight of stairs and getting our daughter set up for the next year.

Sunday showed a good chance of rain in the afternoon, and we really weren't up to practicing how to sail in bad weather.  So, it was off to the French Quarter for lunch and drinks!  We decided to try a place on Bourbon St. called "Rita's Tequila House".  Rita's sells great Mexican food and has just about any kind of tequila that you could imagine.  A couple of  "Top Shelf" margaritas with chips and queso ... really good!

Cheryl with Tom, founder of Republic Tequila

While sitting at the bar enjoying our lunch, a guy sat down beside Ken and ordered a shot of Republic Tequila.  We struck up a conversation with the guy, and it turns out he is one of the founders of Republic Tequila!  His name is Tom and he is a really nice guy.  Tom was interested in our future cruising plans, and he mentioned a couple that he met that took off to travel in a simple manner.  This couple traveled the West on horses, along with two mules to carry their luggage.  Wow, I thought we were thinking "out the box", but that couple has us beat!We enjoyed hearing about how Tom came to make and sell tequila.  He bought Ken and I each a shot so we could sample his product, and it's really good stuff!  I wonder how many bottles of Republic Tequila we can fit on our sailboat  ... hmmm.  We were so glad that we had the opportunity to meet Tom, and we know he will find success with his awesome, 100% organic tequila.  He's already had success with a certain chili I'm sure you've heard of.  Who knows who you'll meet when sitting at a bar!

Republic Tequila is fairly new to the market, and it is gaining popularity across the nation.  It's based out of Texas and founded by two real cowboys!  To find out more about Republic Tequila, check out my post on Pickled Pirate that I wrote!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!