WATERFALL SAILING: June 2015

Said no one, ever.

Back in 2008 when I started our earlier Blog, my intention was for it to be a way for me to chronicle a special time in our life as a family. Unlike some internet Blogs, ours was intended for an audience of family, friends and of course, ourselves only.

I started writing about a year before our planned departure date, so I included some background info on our previous boats in the “BK” years (before kids), as well as our first time living aboard and cruising. As we got closer to our departure date there were a few entries dealing with the specifics of cruising, but nothing along the lines of advice, insight and technical information provided in many of the blogs out there right now.

Again, the target audience was very specific; family and friends.

That being said, 5 years later we are at over 14,000 hits!

Now I am sure many of those are, of course, our intended audience. Another large percentage will be people who accidentally came across the Blog during a Google Search. And since I haven't made any new entries in 4 years, I think anyone that might have followed us regularly has probably given up on us by now.

But maybe, just maybe, there were some people out there that were actually interested in what I was posting and what we were doing?

Anyway, I'll go with that.

So while the main purpose of this newer blog is to again chronicle a new chapter in our life, I do intend to cover topics that might appeal to more than just ourselves, our family and our friends.

While there are a wide variety of sailing blogs written from various perspectives (ie: “Cruising With Kids”, “Cruising in Retirement”, “Working and Cruising” etc...) I hope that this Blog will cover more than just one aspect cruising.

Lisa and I cruised on our first boat in our early 30's, no kids, just the two of us.

We then took a hiatus, got Lisa knocked-up and produced two crew-members who we then cruised with as a family.

Our crew are now getting older (Delaney is now in High School, Mitch will be in another year), so Lisa and I are entering a new phase in our lives. We are looking towards the day when we can sell the house and return to the live aboard and cruising lifestyle.

Mitchell & Delaney, NC38 "Fair-N-Sea", 2002

We didn't circumnavigate. We weren't out for years on end. We didn't totally re-fit a boat.

We did live the lifestyle, not once, but twice. And each of those times was at a different stage in our lives. And now we are getting ready to do it again.

Just as in raising kids, there is no “perfect way” to live and travel on a sailboat.

Go before kids , with kids or after kids?

Full-time or part-time?

One year, 10-years or indefinitely?

Multihull or monohull?

No one has the answers to these cruising (or parenting!!) questions, and trying to provide answers will not be the purpose of this blog.

My intent is to simply document our past experiences and progress towards getting back on the water.

It would be great if any of this helps someone else along the way to realizing their cruising ambitions.

14 or 14,000 hits, it won't really matter, it's all good!

“Well, life is (too short), so love the one you got
'Cause you might get run over or you might get shot “, Sublime, 1996.

... in life.

Wow, just over 5 years now since we returned from our trip South on "Charlotte- Ann". Alot has changed, while alot has stayed the same. Time to start working on what hasn't changed!

But before I get to that, let's take a look at what has changed by re-hashing the past 5 years.

I realize this is probably of very little interest to most people, and to anyone who "might" find it of interest ie: friends and family, well, it's just plain repetitive! In actuality, this re-telling of our history as a family really is , first and foremost, for the three other "MacLean's" who have been living it right alongside me. I need to write this stuff down before I forget it!! And "forgetfulness" seems to have become a bit more of the norm for me.

So, where was I? Oh yeah, what have we been up to since the last update on our previous blog (steelestreetoceaneers.blogspot.com) ??

Our final entry caught us at the end of our trip in 2010. The kids were 9 (Delaney) and 7 (Mitchell). After bringing our 1996 Gemini 105M catamaran "Charlotte-Ann" to Indiantown Marina in central Florida, we surprised the kids with a 4-day trip to Disney.

What can I say about Disney???

1. We are really glad we took the kids. They were super excited (as expected, see video on Blog), and Lisa and I did actually have fun.

2. We are glad the kids have never expressed an interest in going back!!

Don't get me wrong, as I said, we had a great time and we as parents feel that a trip to Disney is something that every kid should do. They shouldn't do it at the expense of other trips or experiences, but if, as a parent, you can make it work, you should. I think we did it right in that we only went for 4 days. There are basically 3 main parks, so we hit each one the first 3 days , then took a vote on which one we would repeat on Day 4. Much to mine and Lisa's pleasure, we voted to go back to Epcot. Why Epcot? Probably a combination of wide walkways (not feeling crowded) and the kitschy '70's sci-fi music always playing in the background. The whole place just felt alot more "chill", less frenetic than the other parks. Enough about Disney, tick that box and let's move on.

So the boat was listed with a broker and after about 6 months and numerous low-ball offers our terrific catamaran sold for $1500 less than we were asking. We aren't very good bargainers, and our broker had actually told us that some of the lowball offers were actually reasonable given the current market (we are talking offers 30%-40% below our asking price, but this was just after the market meltdown in 2009). We told the broker that we absolutely would not sell for that low of a price and that if he wanted to drop the listing we would understand. We did not want to waste his time when we were not willing to drop to a price that he (and the market) seemed to think our boat was worth. He said no, he would still list it, that if nothing else it would hopefully get his phone ringing. Well what do you know, about 6 weeks after we had this conversation he called us about a potential buyer that "just seems to REALLY want your boat"!

SOLD!

A bitter sweet day for sure. We can only hope that "Waterfall" (the name we have chosen for our next boat, but more on that in a later post) will suit our future cruising plans as well as our Gemini did.

So now, boatless and back living in Port Colborne, life returned to normal. The kids went back to Steele Street School and fit in without a hitch. Seems like their mother did a pretty good job of home schooling after all! We continued our yearly trips to Cape Hatteras, the kids played sports and went to Summer Camp. I resumed my mountain biking and trail running while Lisa got more involved with her all-female mountain bike club. We also started spending more time on the slopes, with Mitch and I snowboarding, Lisa and Delaney skiing. Eventually Mitchell got to a level of snowboarding that I couldn't keep up to, at which point I reverted back to skiing (not that, after 15 years of trying, did I ever get any good at snowboarding!!).

In 2012, with the proceeds of the boat sale still sitting in the bank and our ski trips becoming more regular, we decided to buy a ski condo/house just across the border in Glenwood, NY. "Spokes-n-Slopes", as we named the house, became our home away from home. If the border crossing wasn't busy we could get from our home to the condo in a little over an hour. Located next to a great little ski hill called Kissing Bridge, we spent as many weekends as we could, but also made it available for rent (typically while I was offshore at work). Outside of ski season we had direct access to some terrific mountain bike and running trails. We have had alot of great times at "Ridgeview" with family and friends, in particular our annual Beer Fests with 4 of our closest friends. But now the house is becoming a bit of a burden, especially outside of ski season.

It caught us both off-guard, but Delaney is now in High School with a very active social life. This typically means the she (and her brother) have more going on in their lives than what we can offer at the condo.

Throughout the past 5 years we have kept busy. Skiing in Vermont. Road trip to the Florida Keys. Kiteboarding in Cape Hatteras. Mountain biking in North Carolina. A 3-week vacation in Scotland. We have spent most weekends during ski season at the condo, as well as in the off-season mountain biking. Travelling basketball for Delaney. Wakeboard competitions for Mitchell.

Kids growing up, working offshore getting stale, years flying by......

Lots of good times, but for both Lisa and I, something was missing.

A NEW SAILBOAT!!