The Plan

Our plan is to cruise as long as it is fun. Our definition of fun is at least 80%-20% on the fun-to-suck ratio with an ideal fun-to-suck ratio of 90%-10%.

Of course, fun is in the eye of the beholder and we've been told a number of times that people are looking forward to our travelogue because they would rather watch it than live it. It's good to know yourself!

We've tried to set ourselves up for this ratio by:

1) Not buying a project boat that needed a lot of repairs because outfitting a "ready to go boat" and getting ourselves ready is a huge amount of work not to mention the ongoing maintenance.
2) Allowing enough time in our pre-cruise preparations (3 years from boat purchase to cruising) to have fun sailing and non-sailing adventures.
3) Not having any time pressures for our cruise except those imposed on us by the various seasonal weather patterns.
4) Telling ourselves that we will stop or change our type of cruising as soon as the ratio is too much in the suck zone.

So, you might be wondering, but WHERE ARE YOU GOING???!!!

On June 16, 2010 we headed North up the inside of Vancouver Island. We weren't certain where we would go but had some hopes of sailing to the Queen Charlottes. The summer Pacific high had set in solidly so instead of battling headwinds we turned down the West coast of Vancouver Island and spent 3 months enjoying it before being chased off the outside by a series of low pressure systems in late September.

Winter of 2010 was half-time at the dock for part time employment (for Carol) and boatwork (for Livia & Carol) and half-time having other types of adventures (land, air and sea) followed by a month long boat project intensive.

In mid-April 2011 we began full-time boat travel again. We went up the inside passage to the Haida Gwaii and headed down the West Coast of Vancouver Island. In late July 2011 we sailed from Tofino to San Francisco. We spent 7 weeks in San Francisco and continued down the coast of California before crossing into Mexico in mid-October.

Here is where things get really hazy. Do we stay in Mexico for a long time? Do we cruise Central & South America? Do we head West that first April (2012) for the Galapagos and then the S. Pacific or wait another year? Do we completely change our mind and head East through the Panama Canal?

After one season (6 months) we left Mexico for the South Pacific. In March 2012 we sailed several thousand miles from Mexico to the Marquesas in one 26 day passage.


South Pacific - here we come. We're heading West in the Spring of 2012. Can we work it to stay multiple seasons in the S Pacific? Will we want to? Where will we go after that?

We left French Polynesia for the Cook Islands after falling in love with them and after visiting several Cook Islands we returned to French Polynesia. At the end of the non-cyclone season we put our boat on the hard in the Tuamotus and flew back to N America to apply for a long stay visa in order to spend a year cruising in French Polynesia before continuing West. We will return to French Polynesia in April 2013 to cruise a season in the Tuamotus, stay in the Marquesas for a cyclone season and then continue West at some point in 2014.

After that, who knows. Isn't that a great thing to be able to say?


Stay tuned...