Step 1: Inception of a plan

Magewind moored in the Bight,
Norman Island BVI

A desired goal is nothing without a plan for execution.  Think about it.  Let's say you want to build your dream home.  Hammer, nails, saws, and wood don't simply start flying around in a flurry of construction.  Your home starts on the desk of an architect, who carefully and painstakingly devises drawings and specifications for your future personal castle.  Likewise, even the most ingenious plans lay completely useless unless a home owner puts them into play by supplying monetary resources and a crew to handle the labor.

And plans, life plans or plans to build a home, are not one dimensional.  They are complex, with lots of moving parts all needing to merge together towards the common goal in harmony.  Seldom does a plan go executed smoothly, nor is it common for a plan to flow in a linear fashion.  As the pieces come together, there are hangups and setbacks.  Research and dedication of resources are committed in iterations until all pieces of the plan have been managed and massaged into that one uniform end goal.  If executed correctly and successfully to completion, the final product of all the hard is a close version of the original proposition.

Currently, we are slightly past the inception of a plan.  We drew a line in the sand and started formulating a loose approach for a new life, a new chapter.  This first important step of declaring a plan and starting to determine the required pieces usually requires some sort of stimuli.  At some moment in time, something is required to set a new direction in motion.  For us, there were a few things.  We have always had the desire to make some sort of life in the Caribbean - eventually.  We initially pictured this as a plan for retirement.  As we traveled more and sailed more, a life on the water began to attract our interest.  Add in the stress and lack of life quality in Connecticut, and our thoughts of a move at retirement started getting pushed forward to an escape from misery.

Steven Ulrich and Debora Ruffe

Next, a plan needs a catalyst - something to spur an idea to life.  Enter Steven Ulrich and Debora Ruffe, owners and operators of "Magewind", a 46 foot catamaran sailing yacht which Sharon and I chartered last fall in the Virgin Islands.  If there ever was a catalyst for change, this was it.  Steven and Debora are charming and doting, and shower their guests with a luxury vacation for which life lasting memories are surely to be created.  Well worth the price of admission to say the least.  But above and beyond being amazing charter hosts, they exude energy and inspire positive thought.  During our time aboard sharing fabulous food, cocktails, and stories, Steven and Debora offered a new point of view and encouraged us to question ourselves and our situation.  While we had been meandering in a Caribbean direction for a few years, this was the spark that ignited a fire and made us look at our loosely gathered ideas as more of a plan, and less of a dream.

Group shot aboard Magewind before saying goodbye

Although at the time we didn't have all the pieces to a plan (and we still don't), it was clear that if we couldn't confidently sail, then there was no future in the plan at all.  Obviously, this is the first and foremost step we needed to take.  If we were going to be serious, it would be required that we commit some time and resources towards exploring our new found direction.  At first it was decided that I would learn to sail.  Quickly I realized this was a half-baked solution.  To be realistic we're talking about living aboard a 20-30,000 pound sailing vessel, on the ocean.  We're not talking about ski boats and lakes here.  The only probable solution was for us both to learn, and both gain confidence in our ability to live at sea.  Operating a boat of this magnitude is mostly a team effort, and add to that the possibility of one of us getting hurt at sea...  Both of us would surely need to get trained.

So this is where we would start.  Our little exploration into our possible future would require quite a bit of work in studying, a week's worth of vacation time for the actual school, and some monetary resources to pay for it all.  Worst case, we might fail in which case we would incur the loss of committed resources.  Second worst case, maybe after going to school we might decide we didn't want to live aboard.  All in all, not bad really - we would still learn to sail yachts which could be used for future sailing charter vacations.

The beginnings of a plan had hatched...