A job... 5/18/2008
I graduated college in 2008 and didn't know what to do with myself. I was a 20 something with no desire to plug myself into the rat race - I just wasn't ready to start a career. Rather, I knew the economy wasn't ready for me to start a career. So I decided to get a job, invest in my passions for film and photography, save up as much money as I could (with the intention of traveling), and spend as much time outside as I could.
Brainstorm...
Money is truly useless unless you have a good way to spend it. I needed a good idea, so the
brainstorm session was set in motion. My travel plan went through many stages; teaching English in southeast Asia, backpacking through South America, and every other post-college travel plan one could think of, but a sailing trip became the dominant idea, also the most lofty.
It just made sense...
I founded my fascination with cruising during
SEA Semester - a semester abroad program aboard a tall-ship that sailed through the Caribbean. I crewed and got schooled while sailing to numerous islands throughout the Caribbean.
It just made sense to come full circle and take a sailing trip of my own.
Found the boat... 6/25/2010
After months of searching and studying the boat market, I found and bought the boat. The only problem was the boat was in Alameda, CA, and I was still in Seattle. Why buy a boat in CA? Simply put, there are more boats in California, drives the price down. The same boat being sold in Washington was 25% more expensive.
Save more money... 11/23/2010
I wasn’t making enough money living in Seattle. Since I was already paying moorage down in Oakland, I decided to move onto the boat. I would be away from my girlfriend/crew for the trip, but she intended to come down every other week, so it was a small sacrifice for a big payoff. Also, it was the most logical way I could
save more money. We planned to cruise for a year, and from all the budgeting information I gathered, we would need a bare minimum of $10,000 travel money. Living on the boat made for cheap rent, and I could sail more to hone the salty skills required for such a trip.
A new boat...
While our Hunter 30 was a great day sailor in San Francisco Bay, it lacked the necessary gear to qualify her as a coastal cruiser. After 6 months of owning her, we decided to start looking for
a new boat that would be completely turn-key for open ocean sailing. It would take another 4 months to sell the boat.
In Jeopardy... 08/08/2011
With the sale of our old boat, and the purchase of Panache, we had wasted $6000. It's hard to use the word wasted, but it's equally hard not to describe it any other way. Meanwhile, my girlfriend bailed on the trip (and me), rendering my future sailing plans
in jeopardy. I had the boat, I had the dream, but I didn't have the money.
I am free...
I scrambled to find appropriate crew, launched this website in correlation with a
Kickstarter, raised enough money for the trip, and threw the dock lines off early October 2011. The adventure had started. "Go small, go simple, go now" - Lin and Larry Pardey