Unfortunately, I didn't just purchase a boat but someone did. If you follow the blog and podcast of TeddyJ over at Sailloot you'll know he finally got some of his own sail loot and purchased a beautiful boat. If you're not following and listening to his podcast, you should. He covers different ways to make your own sail loot so you can finance your dream of sailing around the world on a boat.
His pretty, new boat was sitting in St. Thomas, USVI when he purchased it. This is obviously a great location for sailing, but when you live over 1,000 miles away it does pose a few logistical problems if you want to sail frequently. Teddy, being the resourceful guy he is, decided to sail it back to the mainland. He'll be sailing from St. Thomas to Fort Lauderdale the last week of May and he was looking for a few crew members to tag along. I was originally scheduled to go back to Kenya for a few weeks and wouldn't be able to make the trip. Luckily for me that trip was cancelled so I emailed Teddy as soon as I found out to see if he still had room. He was able to squeeze me in and I started making plans to get myself to St. Thomas before his departure time. My Kenya trip was cancelled just 4 days before his crew had to be in St. Thomas for the trip to Florida. I quickly started to check all my airline miles to find the best free flight out of North Carolina. American Airlines has a flight into St. Thomas that cost me about $6.00 and a bunch of airline miles. I quickly booked my seat and started packing.
The packing was my next challenge. All my "boat stuff"; jackets, shoes, snorkel, PFDs, etc is on Starjewel. We keep Starjewel in Oriental, which is 3 hours away. We usually only drive down on the weekends since it is so far away, it makes for a really long day to try and go down after work. I grabbed what clothes I had around the house, a camera and a few hygiene items and was all ready for a week long adventure.
Throughout all this Lisa was happy for me, but really disappointed that she couldn't go along. She would have loved to go sailing across the Caribbean too, but since her surgery Lisa's knees still swell up after a long day at work. Several days at sea would be pretty hard on her right now. She'll have to make due with whatever stories, pictures, and video I'm able to come back with.
By the time you're reading this I'll be somewhere in the Caribbean. I can't wait to get started. I'll see you guys on the other end.
His pretty, new boat was sitting in St. Thomas, USVI when he purchased it. This is obviously a great location for sailing, but when you live over 1,000 miles away it does pose a few logistical problems if you want to sail frequently. Teddy, being the resourceful guy he is, decided to sail it back to the mainland. He'll be sailing from St. Thomas to Fort Lauderdale the last week of May and he was looking for a few crew members to tag along. I was originally scheduled to go back to Kenya for a few weeks and wouldn't be able to make the trip. Luckily for me that trip was cancelled so I emailed Teddy as soon as I found out to see if he still had room. He was able to squeeze me in and I started making plans to get myself to St. Thomas before his departure time. My Kenya trip was cancelled just 4 days before his crew had to be in St. Thomas for the trip to Florida. I quickly started to check all my airline miles to find the best free flight out of North Carolina. American Airlines has a flight into St. Thomas that cost me about $6.00 and a bunch of airline miles. I quickly booked my seat and started packing.
The packing was my next challenge. All my "boat stuff"; jackets, shoes, snorkel, PFDs, etc is on Starjewel. We keep Starjewel in Oriental, which is 3 hours away. We usually only drive down on the weekends since it is so far away, it makes for a really long day to try and go down after work. I grabbed what clothes I had around the house, a camera and a few hygiene items and was all ready for a week long adventure.
Throughout all this Lisa was happy for me, but really disappointed that she couldn't go along. She would have loved to go sailing across the Caribbean too, but since her surgery Lisa's knees still swell up after a long day at work. Several days at sea would be pretty hard on her right now. She'll have to make due with whatever stories, pictures, and video I'm able to come back with.
By the time you're reading this I'll be somewhere in the Caribbean. I can't wait to get started. I'll see you guys on the other end.