Should We Quit?!

When things get in the way of your dream, you have to start taking a hard look at what's standing in the way.  A dream worth working towards takes a lot of time, hard work and discipline.  The typical obstacles of cruising are eliminating debt, creating a savings, and generating an income while traveling.  Once those are removed, it's "smooth sailing" right?  Well, not so fast.

We've eliminated the above by selling our house, paying off all debt and generating income from rental properties but we still have a huge obstacle that often stops a large group of folks from actually achieving their dream ... change and the unknown.  I guess I should also include ... embracing the idea of becoming a "slacker".

If you've been following our Facebook page lately, you know that we've been prepping Nirvana for spraying her deck with smooth and non-skid paint.  We've got her as ready as she's gonna get, but the weather has to cooperate.  Low humidity, no rain and low winds are necessary to spray the primer and paint.  For over a week, we've been waiting for the winds to die down a bit.  Since we haven't been able to spray, Ken took a last minute renovation job from a long-time client.  Why not make the money if we can't spray, right?  Well, as luck would have it ... today is perfect for spraying but Ken's gotta finish the job .. and keep his commitment.  By the time he's done, rain is in the forecast.  Looks like another week at best.

All of this juggling of working on the boat and trying to make a living has been extremely stressful.  At what point do we quit our businesses completely?  At what point do we tell ourselves it's okay to be "unemployed" and start dipping into our savings while fixing our boat?

We've come to the part of the dream that's probably the hardest ... quitting work and "taking a chance".  I think that we've come to a crossroads that a lot of people avoid.  It's time to "shit or get off the pot".  It's gettin' real!

Unless you're financially wealthy, turning the dream of early retirement into a reality is scary.  There are so many unknowns ... will we stay healthy, will we have enough money to last throughout our lives, will our boat become a money pit, will our boat sink?!  Will we be viewed as "failures" if things don't work out as planned?  Will we be called "losers" because we quit working before 50 yrs of age? Will we regret throwing away the comfort of our routine?  But, there comes a time when you have to take the plunge into making the dream a reality ... or continue making excuses.

We figure that while there are risks in moving forward with our plan, there are risks of staying behind as well.  We could still lose our good health on land or get in a debilitating accident.  Ken's construction work is very physical, and he can't keep doing it forever.  Bad things can happen no matter how you live, so we may as well live on a boat and travel.  If we have regrets with our plans, at least we won't be living with the regret of never doing it .. and wondering if we should have.  As far as being a "failure" ... we figure the real failure would be in not going for it.  Being "losers" ... how could we be "losers" by retiring early, yet being self-sufficient?  We won't be living off of the government or hand-outs from others (we will accept a donation for a cold one, but that's not how we're supporting ourselves ... we'd starve!).  

The "comfort" of our daily routine isn't so comfortable anymore.  There's a new life chapter awaiting us, and the routine is no longer good enough.  We have more to learn and experience.

So, we're faced with the question .. has the time come?  Should we quit our jobs?  Even more pressing .. should Ken quit his?  As a real estate agent, I can work from home and don't need to be in an office.  There's no real obstacle in me continuing to be available for a seller or a buyer.  Truth be told, it's not that often anyway.  I've lost the passion to build my business, and instead I'm passionate about working on our dream.

It's hard for Ken to turn down work and long-term clients, so the door hasn't been shut completely.  However, we've agreed that he needs to start turning down jobs and choosing the ones that he takes carefully.  Once we're not fighting against timing the weather and paying boatyard fees, it may not be that hard to pick up a job every now and then in between working on Nirvana.  Heck, maybe we'll pick up a few construction jobs while cruising.

I've often read that the hardest part of becoming a cruiser is leaving the dock.  Again, unless you're wealthy ... I'd have to agree.

Here's to working a whole lot less ... at least for money.  Hmmm ... that doesn't sound right and is gonna take some getting used to.  We need to do as the picture above states ... smile, move on, and never look back!  Oh, and to those already cruising ... feel free to remind us of how great it is!  

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

Six Weeks ...

Taking an afternoon break at the New Orlean's lakefront

Six weeks since we've returned from the Dominican Republic ... time has been flying.  If you've been following our Facebook page you know that we're FINALLY spending some time at the boatyard between work.  I still have one more post to write about our white-water rafting experience in the Dominican Republic, but lately I haven't had the time to get my thoughts and pictures together .. it's coming soon.  So, what have we been up to the past six weeks?

Ken gave our green boot stripe a fresh coat of paint, and we're now busy trying to get Nirvana prepped for painting her deck ... smooth and non-skid areas.  We want to do this right, so just about everything has been removed from the deck.  Ken's been filling the hardware holes we need to keep with silicone, filling the holes left by hardware we don't need with filler, and making repairs to the fiberglass.  A soft spot was found on the deck, which Ken is repairing by injecting epoxy into. While Ken was doing his thing, I wiped down the interior of the boat and cleaned the bilge.  Our newer ports (and everything else on the boat) were covered with over-spray thanks to the boatyard (guys ... how about some plastic?!), so we tackled that project as well.  After several calls to the company that sold us the lexan ports ... "Cruising Concepts" (yes, that's our "Nirvana" on their site!) and all sorts of advice from the hardware stores, we were able to remove the paint.  This wasn't easy, as two-part paint is hard to remove from lexan.  Mike at "Cruising Concepts" was extremely helpful and his advice got the job done!  I'll have more about all of these projects in future posts.

New boot stripe ...

The smooth parts of the deck have been sanded, and we'll scrub the non-skid areas next.  After a good cleaning on the entire deck, we'll be ready to start taping up the ports, hatches, and all the other stuff we don't want painted.  Then, it's time for Ken to spray the primer and then spray the smooth areas of the deck.

The six weeks since we've gotten back from our trip have flown .. and we only have six weeks before the lease on our condo is up!  We figured that by this time we'd be ready to move on our sailboat, but with all the other projects we've tackled this past year ... not even close!  Signing another year's lease is out of the question for us, so we'll just go month-to-month until Nirvana is ready to be our home.  We really miss living on the water, so I've been checking out waterfront condos in hopes of finding a short-term lease, but so far I haven't found anything.  If we don't find any major repairs on the boat (fingers crossed), we hope to become liveaboards this Spring.

Before Nirvana hits the water again, we plan on replacing the stuffing box packing and giving her bottom a quick paint job.  We're anxious to stop paying boatyard fees, so we'll wait until Nirvana is back in the water before painting the non-skid areas of the deck with a roller.  We'll then re-bed the hardware with gray butyl tape and add aluminum backing plates where needed.  The chainplates will be checked to see if they need to be reinforced, the hoses & clamps will be replaced, the electrical and rigging will be checked out, lights replaced with LED, interior teak cleaned, new Plasteak handrails installed, custom companionway sliding hatch parts created (by Ken) to replace the rotten teak ones ... and that's all before getting Nirvana ready to cruise by adding solar panels, batteries, etc.  Yeah ... I think we need a little more time at the condo! 

All of this work and thought requires a break every now and then, which we often find by the water.  The picture above is from one of our afternoon escapes to the lakefront.  Another favorite escape is our hometown of New Orleans.  This past weekend we spent a gorgeous day roaming the French Quarter, and accidentally came upon a festival with one of our favorite local bands playing ... the "Honey Island Swamp" band.  The day was the kinda therapy we needed since we can't get it from sailing yet.

We normally don't see a "beach along the Mississippi River!

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

Slip Sliding Away ...

We followed up our day of concho riding with a trip down the falls ... literally!

We couldn't leave the Dominican Republic without visiting the 27 Charcos, a set of 27 natural waterfalls in Rio Damajagua that requires hiking uphill and then jumping and/or sliding down a set of "natural waterslides".  

To avoid the $70 per person group tour that the other suckers, um .. tourists, were paying in the resort lobby we took the same local bus that we'd taken the day before for our concho ride to Luperon.  About 25 minutes later we were dropped off on the side of the main road and walked a short distance down a dirt path to the entrance.  We arrived just as the tour group from our resort was unloading in the parking lot.  

When touring the falls, you have a choice of climbing up to the 7th waterfall, the 12th waterfall or even higher up to the 27th waterfall during the rainy season.  Since it was considered the "dry season", the falls were only open to the 12th waterfall.  If we'd taken the more expensive tour offered at the resort, we'd only be offered the 7 waterfalls because the tour is limited on time. However, since we were on our own time we paid the extra buck and chose the 12th waterfall.  We paid $8 a person, plus $1 each way for the bus ride ... I'd say $60 per person less than the resort's tour is a huge savings!

With our small entrance fee, our group of four was provided with life jackets, helmets and two local guides ... one to lead us and one to stay behind us.  We wondered how they can make a living with our fee of $8 bucks each!  Our guides appeared to be in their 20's, were very friendly, and were definitely getting their daily exercise.  The tour began with walking over a suspended bridge ...

 

Once we started hiking up the very steep trails towards the 12th waterfall, we understood why we needed tour guides.  We were in the middle of a forest, and there's no way we would have found the falls on our own.  

After about 30 minutes of hiking uphill (and taking a couple of breaks to catch our breath), we walked into a small stream that eventually led to big, smooth boulders and waterfalls.  I had to ask our guides how many tours they usually did in a week.  They said that they worked every day if the weather allowed them to, and they sometimes did two tours a day during the busier rainy season ... impressive!  The guy in the pic below with the red helmet is one of our guides .. 

Gorgeous, and the water felt great!

Our first fall required sitting down and sliding down some rocks ... now I understand the need for the helmets!  Here's a quick little video that our guide took for us ... 

The pic below is just after sliding down ...

  

We walked the crevices towards the next waterfall ... and our guide decided to hide behind a rock and scare our daughter.  He got me jumping too! How did our son-in-law get a picture?!

The next fall required jumping ... or going the "chicken's way" and climbing down some wooden steps.  Note to self ... don't watch a 20/20 show about the dangers of cliff jumping just days before you go on vacation.  Yes, I took the chicken's way out ... all I could think about was that paralyzed guy in a wheelchair.  The kids jumped!

We eventually slid our way down the falls and arrived at the bottom. 

If you're ever in the Dominican Republic, this is another "must do".  These falls were the best we'd ever seen, plus you could actually slide and jump off of them .. a ton of fun!  The hike uphill was definitely worth it.  The tour took about 3 hours, which was just about right for us.  If you want to do all 27 falls, plan on going during the winter months ... and plan on a full day.

Our two guides were great, and we were glad to be able to give them each a good tip with some of the money that we saved by doing the tour on our own.

After a brief wait for the local bus, we were back at the resort for an afternoon of relaxing after all that exercise.  We finished the night off with reservations at the resort's seafood restaurant.  I had grilled scallops and shrimp ... so good!  This was our last night at the resort, as we'd be boarding a plane the next afternoon ...  we hated the thought of  leaving the island.  We tried to drown our thoughts with our new friends at the pool bar ...

Ken swears the guy on his left is related to Obama ... I do see the resemblance.  The guy on Ken's right is holding up the local "poison" ... mamajuana.  Mamajuana is a blend of tree bark, rum, red wine and honey.  Be careful with this stuff!  I took a few sips and it's strong ... reminded me of my college days and "Everclear".

I'm still working on getting pictures from our day of white water rafting, so stay tuned.  The Dominican Republic fun ain't over yet.

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