Kanaloa is in the water...and so are we!!

Wow, what a week it has been.  We launched Kanaloa last Monday...Halloween to be exact.  The launch went as well as expected with only a minor engine scare and an overnight on a tough dock.  We boarded Kanaloa knowing nothing about her, or how to work her systems...including the heads (toilets), power, watermaker, shower pump...oh you know, the necessities.  It made for a tough night, but we were finally on our boat and that in itself led to a glorious night...no power and all :)

The next day we moved her to her new home for a month, this lovely marina that Reg (our boat guy and basically most amazing human who has taken us under his wing) told us about.  Here we are working on the rigging, our mainsail (which is stuck), and everything else that goes along with boat ownership.  We also are getting our safety inspection this Saturday so we can register Kanaloa (we are registering her in St Maarten) and FINALLY get on our way!!  We plan to take her out every day, then Tuesday we are going to take her out to anchor overnight so we can watch the super moon from the best seat in the house :)

We have done a lot of projects since putting her in the water, and have failed at some, succeeded at some, and learned from all of them.  It is an investment, our floating home on the water, and we want her to be happy :)  It's not so bad doing boat work though in these exotic locations...we definitely will not complain...life is good.

We are slowly learning everything and in turn, life is getting easier.  The girls are acclimating just brilliantly to this lifestyle and have already made friends, learned to sleep with no air conditioning, and are just two really amazing people.  Robbie and I are learning to get into a routine with life and every day gets a little easier as we learn what works and what doesn't.

We feel so very fortunate for the cruising community and all of the love and support from our family, friends, and new Youtube family.  Really, you guys are amazing and it has made this journey even that much more enjoyable.

Stay tuned as Robbie is going to take over this blog for a few days as we get into a routine with it :)  Goal is to get on a Mon, Wed, Fri routine...we can do it!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Tuesday :)  Catch ya later!!

Hello from St Maarten

It has been 10 days since leaving everything we know to set off on our adventure around the world.  We arrived in St Maarten, never having been to the island or knowing much about it, except for the fact that this was where our boat was and therefore, this was where we would start our journey.

We rented a car online before we left the states.  With it being "off season", we found really great deals.  The rental car is $7/day plus $9/day for insurance.  Yes, the insurance was more than the rental car, but we looked at it as $16/day total and that is a pretty great deal.  They guys at the rental car place were extremely helpful, and although I had read horror stories about renting cars on the island, our experience thus far has been incredibly pleasant, economical, and efficient.  

Our Airbnb was the cheapest one I could find basically at $60/night so I was a bit worried, I will not lie.  We could not be happier with the location, the unit, and the people.  There is a large pool for the girls to swim in, the property is on the beach so we wake up every morning to the clear blue water out our back door, and everyone here is a local and speaks French.  What makes us even happier is that the girls have made friends and although neither speak each other's language, they all play together, figuring out how to communicate by pointing, etc.  Children are amazing.  

The boat broker who we purchased Kanaloa from, has been a saving grace throughout the entire process.  He could have sold us the boat and told us, it was a pleasure doing business, goodbye.  However, he did the opposite and has helped us find people and schedule boat maintenance which has been so very helpful, especially since we were in the US. Reginald Bates from Weather Eye Yachts, we love you :)  

Other than that, we have been learning about the best places to get groceries, wifi, boat gear, etc.  So far, we absolutely love this island.  We prefer the French side, mainly because of its authenticity and our love of France in general, but also because of its slower pace and way of life.  The French have living right.  The Dutch side, however, is where you go to get wifi and do work...so I think they compliment each other well to give you the best of both worlds within one 7 mile long island.

I will start to write more now that we have our footing here.  

Let's Talk Immigration (People and Pets)

Hi people.  I hope you are having a wonderful day :)  

Let's talk immigration...

When you purchase a vessel in a foreign country and plan to sail it around the world, immigration gets confusing.  It is even more confusing when the island is controlled by two separate countries, such is the case in St Maarten where half the island is Dutch and the other half is French.  Most who come to St Maarten fly into the Dutch side and either go to the French side or stay on the Dutch side, but SXM is the main airport and it is on the Dutch side.  Our boat is on the Dutch side, however we are staying in an Airbnb on the French side until we launch the boat.  Confused yet, because I am :)  Something important to note, there is free movement between both sides between people and goods.  Okay, so get this...

The Dutch side only allows a US person to stay for 30 days.  The French side allows a US person to stay for 90 days???  You also need a return ticket, so it will be a long customs conversation on Sunday I am sure.  If anyone knows what we will need, PLEASE email us.  I plan on bringing our "Bill of Sale" for the boat, and I have all contact info and the Airbnb address...am I missing something.  I hope it will not be too much of a hassle, but I fear already that it will...

Next, Pet Importing...

I think the USDA pet import is a scam.  Yep, I said it.  I'll lay out the process below and you make your own opinion, but to me...scam.  The below steps apply to many countries, but not all...I am only referring to St Martin since that is where we are going.  Okay...

1 - You have to get your dog cleared within 10 days of landing.  Not 14, not 11...10.

2 - To get your pet cleared, you need to go to the vet and get them to fill out the 20 pages of forms required for International travel.  Anything the pet does not have, you will need to get, such as flea and tick preventative, heart worm preventative, etc.  The total cost for the exam is about $50 and the cost for the International Paperwork is $80 (at our vet).  In addition, it took a good 1.5 - 2 hours.

All that is fine, I understand having to do that...here is where I have an issue:

3 - THEN you have to head right on over to Fed Ex and take the paperwork the vet just filled out and signed and OVERNIGHT it to USDA (since I am in NC the USDA is in Albany, NY) and on top of that, you have to purchase a prepaid return label so they can overnight it back to you AND write them a check for $38.  WHAT?!?!?  

WHY does the USDA have to validate a form for my pet that they do not even look at??  Think about it, it makes zero sense.  You end up spending over $100 for the USDA to sign a document?  Seriously USDA, I call bullsh*t!  I can only imagine the USDA telling other countries that they need to be the final approval, just so they can keep government employees employed.  Ridiculous.

4 - 24 hours upon landing in the country, you have to take your pet to a vet in St Maarten to get them examined...AGAIN.  

There HAS to be a more efficient and/or better way to do this people.  

So, those two elements are what we have been working through over the past 2 days.  Sunday cannot come soon enough....

Renn

Writing makes me want to stab myself in the face with a screwdriver

I'm more a math kinda girl.  Writing has always been incredibly unpleasant for me...borderline painful.  I'm a smart girl so I did great in school, but deep down inside I plotted the murder of book reports and essays.  Anyway, needless to say, that is why my "blog" is not a daily activity for me and that is what made me choose to "vlog" instead.  For those who have no idea what a vlog is, it is merely a blog in video form.  So, you would receive my writing topic in a video instead of reading it.  I'm pretty sure the person that started the vlog concept hated writing as much as I do...either that or they were a bit narcissistic...hmmm.  Either way, this is the reason I started to make vlogs and I am super stoked to begin the daily vlog of our Adventure around the world, on October, 16th.

Anyway, just came on to let everyone know that i just posted my blog entry via "vlog" for today, so head on over and check it out when you're bored.  It's pretty much the best 6 minutes you've ever had....ever ;)  If you know me, or you have any sense of humor, you know that was a joke.  However, it is made with love and for your enjoyment, so I hope you enjoy.

If you have not already subscribed to our channel, do that so you can stay updated on our adventure.  I am much better at posting there, promise :)

The link is www.youtube.com/c/svkanaloa

Thanks for reading.  You guys rock!

Love,
Renn

12 days of Christmas...or something like that

Update:  We did absolutely nothing today.  Hopefully someone else feels accomplished with their day, because I most definitely do not.  Robbie went to DC for work and the girls and I did a whole bunch of nothing, with the exception of homeschool and an exciting 20 minute walk to the beach.  It was an eerie feeling walking down to the beach with Hurricane Matthew out there somewhere.  Even as far north as VA Beach, the ocean just looked angry and being so close to it, you feel incredibly powerless...it is a very humbling place that will soon be our home.

On a lighter note, I feel like I am 6 years old again, counting down the days until Christmas...where I was so excited I could not sleep, and where time seemed to stop and days would seem endless.  Flash forward to my 34 year old self, and I am back there again.  12 days until we leave, 12 days!!!!  Our new floors should be in by the end of the week and our dodger frame should be up.  This is exciting stuff people, because these few things signify the last little bit we have to get done (by other people) before we move on board.  I need a 12 day hobby to occupy my a.d.d mind.  Any ideas??

Until tomorrow...

Happy Hump Day,

Renn

What remains of my to-do list

Okay guys, countdown is on!  We are less than 2 weeks away from departing and seeing our boat for the first time :)  I can't wait!  In the meantime, we are trying to fill our days with preparation in order to distract ourselves...

Here is what my to-do list looks like for the next 13 days:

- check on visa process for places we are visiting in first year

- change phone plan to international phone plan

- purchase a sat phone

- take my dog to the vet to get him cleared

- look into any international shots we may need 

- sell our car

- flag boat in St Maarten

- get any prescriptions filled we may need, such as antibiotics for the girls, ear drops, etc.

- open new bank account with a more global bank

- get hotel room for St. Maarten

- head to Costco to stock up on anything that may be tough to get in St Maarten 

- get rid of more stuff...ahhhhh

- say goodbye to family

We started this list with about 70 to-do's and as we get them done, we get the satisfaction of checking them off.  These are what remain, so, this is what my next 2 weeks look like.  I am sure I will need to add to it...

On top of that, right now we are getting into a home school routine that the girls like and I do not lose my patience with :)  It is a work in progress.

If you are wondering where we have been, I have taken a break from daily v-logging until Sunday, Oct 16th - the day we leave for St Maarten.  I only did this because our current daily life is one of transition and is just not that interesting :)  So, I will post updates daily, here on the blog and will post weekly videos until next Sunday to keep you all updated.  Daily v-logging will begin again in 13 days...I will give you a countdown :) If you have NO idea what I am talking about, head on over to our Youtube channel and subscribe so you can join our adventure that way.  www.youtube.com/c/svkanaloa

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday!  

Let's talk Monohull vs Catamaran

It's Tuesday, a seemingly perfect day to talk about the great debate, Monohaul vs Catamaran.  For many, there is no debate, one is far better than the other in their minds.  Not us, nope.  When we started to look, we were just looking for something that had sails on it.  However, we did a ton of research and thought we would share some of the key comparisons of the two that led us in our decision to limit our search to Monohulls in the first place.  So, here we go:

There are a ton of articles out there on the pros and cons of each.  Below are the one's we, one, actually understood, and two, actually cared about.

Size:  Obviously with a family of 4, having room for everyone is important.  Many people prefer Cats for their privacy.  With two hulls, you typically can find a master suite of sorts on a cat, larger cockpits, and a trampoline area on the front with lots of laying out and relaxing space.  This is nice, especially if you are only planning on island hopping or you would like to charter the boat and make some extra money.  Cats are great for that and win the size debate in our eyes.

Comfortability:  This one was a big driver for us, more so than size.  We knew we wanted to sail around the world, and that there would be many days at sea.  From everything we found, Monohulls are more comfortable on passages and Cats are more comfortable when at anchor.  You could easily set a drink on the counter in your Catamaran and feel pretty safe that it will stay right where you put, whereas with a monohull, turn around and that drink may be on the floor.  Catamarans also have a shallower draft, allowing you to go into more areas than Monohulls.  You need to ask yourself how you will be spending most of your time living.

Aesthetics:  Monohulls are beautiful, there is no denying that.  There is something majestic about a mono out at sea with full sails, beating into the waves.  You will however, not see that on a Cat.  We also found that Catamarans are a bit frowned upon in the sailing community, mainly by hardcore sailors.  In the end, you are living on it, so beauty really is in the eye of the beholder on this one :)

Price:
Purchase Price:  Catamarans require a much larger budget as they have 2 hulls and are just more expensive.  If you were to compare a Monohull and a Cat that were similar years and lengths, you will see at least a $200,000 difference for a descent one anyway.  Every other variable aside, for us, this meant choosing between buying a catamaran and cruising longer.  We would buy a Cat if we were planning on starting a day charter business in the islands or something, then it would be worth investing in...but not for our current plans and lifestyle.

Marina Fees:  Prepare to pay around double anytime you head into a Marina.

Maintenance:  Catamarans will have higher maintenance fees.  Think about it, you have 2 hulls, 2 engines, more surface area, higher hull out fees, and just more stuff that can break in general.  When building out your budget, just keep this in mind.  I would estimate 10% of cost of boat/year for monohull annual maintenance when doing your budget and 20% for a catamaran.

Safety:  Obviously important to us.  Hmmm, Let's start with flipping.  Say you are overcome by a large gust of wind.  A monohull will more than likely be okay.  It is VERY difficult to flip one.  However, a Catamaran is at risk for flipping, especially if you are a newbie sailor.
Next, sinking.  Obviously, something we never want to happen, but if Moby Dick comes and puts a hole in your monohull, well, you better hop on that life raft and hope you have insurance.  If Moby puts a hole in your Catamaran, it will more than likely be on one hull, so you have at least have a chance to check it out or get to a safer location and save your boat.  Just an over dramatic thought :)

The list could go on and on with differences between Monohulls and Catamarans, with the pros and cons going back and forth between the two.  In the end, these were the important ones to us in our decision so we thought we would share.

Please comment with any questions you may have!

Love,
Renn, Rob, Elle, Berkeley

Circumnavigation Route

When we first came up with the idea of selling everything and moving onto a boat to explore the world, the most natural next step was to plan a circumnavigation.  We had no idea, nor did we really care what others' reactions would be to the whole idea.  We were doing it for ourselves.  After all, we have lived our lives trying to fit within boundaries, attempting to marry what made us happy with the expectations of family, society, the norm...but it has never worked for us and we have ultimately failed ourselves time and time again.  We cared so much about this whole idea of success and what it looked like...we almost destroyed ourselves in the process.  Well, if we had only known then, what we know now, we would have done pretty much everything different.  So, throwing caution to the wind, we are almost off...and our "route" is complete.

How we came up with it:

We are go big or go home types of people.  Both of us were collegiate athletes, both were killing ourselves in the consulting world to fast track to Partner, and that aspect of us will never change....it is like we were born with it.  So, going around the world is not some sort of crazy or out of reach goal for us; in our minds, we have no doubt we will kick ass at it.  

It was time to sit down and plan out a route.  There are typical "circumnavigating cruising" routes out there that help get you around the world comfortably with factors such as trade winds, time of year, currents, etc.  We started from there, and expanded to places we have always wanted to see.  We have no expected time it will take us to get around the world, we will stop in every country, island and atoll we can get away with, and we will enjoy the journey.  After all, it isn't about the destination, it is about the journey.  

Our Route in a nutshell:  * This route can and will change based on...whatever we want :)

Year 1:  St Maarten -- Anguilla -- St Barths -- Barboda -- St Kitts/Nevis -- Antigua -- Montserrat -- Guadeloupe -- Dominica -- Martinique -- St Lucia -- St Vincent/Grenadines -- Grenada -- Trinidad/Tobago -- Grenada -- Los Roques -- Bonaire -- Curaçao -- Santa Marta -- Cartegena -- San Blas Islands --

Year 2:  Panama Canal -- Galapagos -- Pacific Ocean Crossing -- Marquesas -- Tahiti with all of its Islands and Atolls, including Bora Bora -- Tonga -- Fiji -- Vanuatu -- Noemea -- New Zealand -- Sydney --

Year 3:  more of Australia -- Darwin -- Bali -- Singapore -- Ho Chi Minh City -- Hong Kong -- Shanghai -- Hong Kong -- Ho Chi Minh -- Singapore --

Year 4:  Phuket -- Beaches of Thailand -- Maldives -- Cochin -- Dubai -- Dijibouti --

Years 5 and 6:  Turkey -- Croatia -- Greece -- Italy -- South of France -- Spain -- Azores -- Bermuda -- East Coast

As always, please let us know if you have any suggestions of other awesome places or just any questions in general.  We love hearing from you!

Love,

Renn, Rob, Elle, Berkeley

Selling it All - Tips and Tricks

The girls started school yesterday, hence my delay in posting.  It was emotional for me because I was used to being with them 24/7 for the last 6 months.  I realize that it is good for them and blah blah blah, but the truth is that I missed them.  Anyhoo, I am learning to enjoy this freedom of alone time during the day to prepare for the adventure and blog away.  So, I write all that above to make excuses for why I have not posted in 2 days...sigh.

In the last blog post I discussed selling everything; the process and emotions behind shedding your belongings, why we did it, etc.  I wanted to write some tips and tricks on how I sold most of it so if you were in the market of shedding all of your belongings too, you can use some of these.

Furniture:

• Craigslist.  Although obvious to most, it is also a scary thing to some to put your stuff up, have a random person come to your home, etc.  I totally get it.  I tend to judge the responders to my ads by their email etiquette.  So far, I have had pretty good luck, and I have probably sold 100 things on Craigslist in my life.  I sold all of my furniture on Craigslist, nothing else.  I have found that selling clothes, small household items, etc. does not work very well on this site.  Furniture on the other hand, I was able to sell weeks before we moved.  Take good photos and put a simple description to include measurements.  If you are selling your stuff to take off on an adventure, put that in the ad.  People like to know why you are getting rid of your couch, it makes them trust that your stuff is not crap.  I'm just saying.
• Yard Sale.  I had a yard sale to rid everything before moving to our small DC apartment.  I did not do it living in an apartment as it is pretty difficult.  However, before we moved to DC, I set up everything in my garage like a store and posted an ad on Craigslist and put signs up in my neighborhood.  I sold at least 75% of the stuff, so I think this option is great if you have a house or location you can do this.  
• Friends and Neighbors.  Believe it or not, your friends and neighbors are fantastic resources to buy and donate your stuff to.  I mentioned to a few friends and family that we were moving, and they were practically begging to come buy stuff.  I probably sold half of my furniture to people I actually knew.  The downside is that there is always this internal guilt about offering them a deal, but in the end, it's worth it to know your belongings will be loved :)  I also gave away a ton to new loving homes.

Clothes and Shoes:

I used to sell everything on eBay, I mean EVERYTHING, but that was back in the day when they were charging 1% of your sale price.  Now, they charge a whopping 10% of your final sale price, combined with PayPal's 2.2% fee, I was shelling out 12.2% for nothing but a platform.  Those days are over.  On top of that, if a buyer changed their mind on an item, they could make up some ridiculous reason they wanted a return, and eBay and PayPal would just freeze the funds.  It got out of hand.  So, below are what I did to sell everything and avoid all the ridiculous eBay fees.

• Instagram.  I know, crazy right.  I went on one day and made a profile just to sell some clothes on.  I had zero expectation that anyone would buy off of Instragram, but hey, it was worth a shot.  I see many consignment stores using Instagram, so why not give it a shot.  I posted one photo and in the description I put the size, the price, used hashtags (#sellinglilly for instance if it was Lilly Pulitzer), and told everyone to Message me if they were interested.  I charged $2.50 for shipping and when they Messaged me, I gave them my Paypal email address to send the total to.  Using PayPal, I received their address and shipped the item.  To my surprise, I sold 24 items in 3 days.  It was awesome.  I will recommend making sure you have all your items up that you want to sell within a few hours.  I found that it caught on in a massive wave, then after that it completely died and I knew my time was up.
• Local Consignment Stores.  I google'd "Consignment stores" in my area.  Fortunately, I live in Washington, DC so there are an abundance of them.  I knew I wanted cash that day (to pay for boat stuff), so I searched through them to find 2 that offered cash on the spot.  If you are more patient than I am, you could wait until they sell it and write you a check (you make a higher percentage doing the latter).  
• Online Consignment Stores:  This one is a little harder, but I love TheRealReal.com.  They only accept designer clothing and have specific brands they take listed on their website, but if you have anything that they take, they give you 60% commission once it sells.  I have sold many designer items very quickly because they have a huge, almost cult following.  Another new thing is eBay consignment where you can make between 60-80% and someone else takes care of posting, shipping, etc. for you.  The catch is that they have to be able to sell the items for a minimum of $40, but it could be a good option for some of you.  I will note that I did not use this because I discovered only after I had already sold everything using the other methods.

Hopefully, if ever you are in the position to get rid of anything...or everything, you find some of these methods useful.  As always, please feel free to email with any questions!

Renn

Selling it All - The Process

We have moved into our temporary "house", a 2 bedroom Airbnb that is furnished.  We decided to move into a furnished place to give us time to shed our belongings in steps, not all at once.  I work better in steps...

We moved from a 2200 sq foot home to an 1100 sq foot apartment last year.  We thought that we had slimmed down to accommodate city living; boy were we wrong.  When we found our boat in July and knew that she was going in the water after hurricane season, we knew we had to get moving, literally.  We had 3 weeks to get rid of everything.  I have NO idea what I was thinking when I put that timeline on us...looking back, I had probably consumed too much wine.  Luckily, I am an expert at craigslist and before we knew it, we were sleeping on an air mattress and living out of suitcases because everything had sold.  The good part was that we had sold/donated everything we thought we needed to, the downside was that it all sold faster than expected so we were living in an empty apartment and sleeping on air mattresses and blankets...glad that is over.  We moved about 12 plastic bins, and 8 suitcases to the new place.  We are now down to 4 plastic bins and 4 suitcases...this is what we will take. 

Our new "home" for the next 2.5 months gives us what we need.  It has 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a small 4 person card table that we use as our dining room table, a small fridge, microwave, and coffee pot.  It is pretty amazing what you can do with that setup.  Outside there is a grill, so we use that to cook our meat, and the weekly meals are just very well thought out.  We watch youtube videos and research how to make meals with very little.  So, for the 2 weeks we have lived there thus far, we are getting better by the week at planning.  We are very fortunate to have found such a wonderful place to finish out our time here in DC.  With all that being said, it is harder and much more inconvenient than our plush apartment in the sky.  My husband's commute went from a 1 block walk and 2 metro stop ride to a good hour (if he's lucky) each way, and we cannot just throw something in the oven or walk downstairs to our resort like pool.  We have to drive everywhere we want to go and it is so temporary that we are basically living out of suitcases and eating off paper plates for another 2.5 months....

I think by the time some of you get to this paragraph you may be thinking, this kinda sounds like hell.  I agree, it totally could be, and it has come with some days that it is just harder to see the light at the end of the tunnel...but we have made it a priority as a family to have a good attitude about the situation and look at the bright side.  The temporary piece is what is hard, but it is only temporary because in only 74 days, we will be traveling the world in our sailing home, and for that, we are forever grateful.

Till then...counting down the days...

Love,
Renn, Rob, Elle, Berkeley

We Bought a Boat!!

We have finally closed on Kanaloa.  Our beautiful 38' Beneteau who will take us around the world and beyond.  We wanted to share with you our boat buying process, including some sites, how we found her, and the costs to purchase her and refit her.  Hope this helps inspire any of you other dreamers out there...

Our Criteria:  Although new to this process, we knew we wanted certain things in a boat.
          1.  The first being, a blue water vessel.
          2.  Under $70,000 (we did not want to take out a boat loan)
          3.  Monohull (many reasons, but also Catamarans were just not in our price range)
          4.  Length between 37' and 42'

The blue water requirement is pretty self explanatory, and the under $70,000 requirement would just allow us to leave sooner and have enough money to refit her to circumnavigate.  The length comes from our comfortability with handling a boat larger than 42' as well as living on a boat smaller than 37'.

So, we started our search from there.  We went to blogs upon blogs of people who were sailing and took note of what type of boat they were doing it on.  The following websites also provided a wealth of information for comparison:

Yacht World - fantastic resource.  I set it up to alert me when boats within my criteria came up and this is how we were able to jump on our boat (more of this below).
Boat Trader - another resource if in the US, but I found the boats to be overpriced.  Personal opinion.
Cruising World - article on best boats to sail around the world.
Boat Dealerships - we are fortunate enough to live about 30 minutes from Annapolis, MD which has a wealth of boats.  We wanted to get on some, feel the difference between a 36 foot and a 42 foot.

After a few weeks of searching and research, we had decided on Beneteau or Jenneau.  Jenneau actually went under a few years back and the French government had Beneteau take them over, so that is why they were both in the running.

From here, we went to a boat dealership in Annapolis and climbed on some 38', 39', and 40's.  To be honest, I could not tell a difference when I was on one or the other, so I knew we could stick with our length parameters.  Now, onto price.  We found one we loved in Annapolis, a 39' Beneteau...she was a beauty.  As soon as we walked on her we were in love.  She was having a new mast put on and was ready to sail.  When we left the boatyard that day, I would have given my left arm to be able to buy her...but at a "bargain" price (according to the dealer) of $115,000, we would have to work for another 6 months and then be left with nothing to refit.  So, we had to let her go.

I began thinking that there has to be other places to buy a boat, and that is when I looked to yachtworld.com.  The US is expensive when it comes to buying a boat.  In Croatia, you can get 100 Beneteau 40's for $60,000.  Now, these are used to charter, and when done chartering they sell them.  I was not comfortable with taking a former charter boat around the world due to high engine use and wear and tear on everything else that comes with a 100% charter.  So, we began focusing our search on the east coast of the US and the Islands.  I was able to set up an alert on yachtworld and every week it would send me an email with the new boats posted that were within my parameters (Beneteau or Jenneau between 37 and 42' and under $80,000).  Week after week I would get boats that were great, but there was something about it that would ultimately push us over our budget.  We never lost hope, but began to wonder if we were going to need to go up in price or change something else....

Then, one day, my weekly email came with one boat in it.  She had just been posted that morning and we knew that this was our boat.  Her name was Kanaloa and she was a gorgeous 38' Beneteau in St Maarten.  Her owner managed a boat yard down there and had done many upgrades to her in his years of ownership.  He had to go back to the UK where he was from, and because of that, the boat was priced to sell.  She had a water maker already installed, which we had priced out between $8 and $10k.  She had 9 solar panels, a wind generator, new rigging, a new dinghy and outboard motor, a rebuilt engine with only 256 hours on it, and had been loved her whole life.  This boat, which was even better than the Annapolis boat to us, was $49,900.  We knew we had to jump on it.  We called that morning and put down a 20% deposit pending survey.  Our offer of $49,000 was accepted, and on August 15th, Kanaloa joined our family.

Yes, we bought her without seeing her.  Yes, this gave me a few panic attacks along the way, but every day I feel a little better.  She is out of the water (on the hard for you sailors) for hurricane season until we come down at the end of Nov.  In the meantime we are getting a ton of work done on her so she is ready to go when we get down there.

One of the main things we wanted to know when starting this journey was, how much did others spend on their boat and how much did it cost to get "stuff" done to it.  This information is not easy to find, so I figure while it is all fresh in my brain, I will share it with you guys.  Mainly because we want to inspire others to get out there and do this and let you know that once you make the decision to do it, it really is possible.  The pricing is below and could be lower if you did the work yourself.  However, we wanted the boat to be as "homey" as possible for my girls upon our arrival.  We did not want it to be trashed upon our arrival and they get totally discouraged from the start...so that is why we are having someone else do the work initially.

Boat:  Listed for $49,900, purchased for $49,000 (no taxes in St Maarten :) )
Closing/Registration/Flagging costs:  $400
Deep Cleaning of Boat:  $260
Spraying for bugs (preventative): $275
Deep Cleaning of Cushions and Cushion Covers: $370
New Teak Flooring inside the Galley:  $1,000
New Offshore Headsail and Main sail (old sails have 2 years left so we will use as spares): $5500
Engine maintenance to address Surveyor finds: $270

I hope this helps anyone else who is thinking of purchasing a boat, in the boat buying process right now...or even just you dreamers who are putting your feelers out there.

Please feel free to email us with ANY and ALL questions you have.  We will answer, as well as have a Q&A session via video soon.

Love,
Renn, Rob, Elle, Berkeley

The Friday Night That Started it All

For as long as we have been married, my husband and I have talked about leaving it all, buying some business on an island, and living the simple life.  Every once in a while we would pretend to get serious and look around at businesses on islands; we looked into beach bars, restaurants, and even a sailboat that did day charters.  The sailboat charter business was the one we really wanted, but to quit our jobs and sell everything we own to move to an island and buy a charter business still seemed absolutely insane to us.  So, we would close our computers and continue with the daily grind, but hey, at least we could dream.

As consultants for a Big Four firm in Washington DC, working 15 hour days is all we know how to do, and last year when my husband lost 100 hours of vacation days because he had accrued too much and not taken enough, well, we hit a breaking point.  It was not one event, but a culmination of things that made us realize there was no way we could wait until retirement to do this, because at this pace we would die off early from stress.  

So, we did what most people do on Friday nights (just kidding) and started scouring YouTube for anything island related.  We wanted an escape and HGTV had run out of "Island Hunter" shows that we had not watched 100 times a piece, so, we needed new material and YouTube was a jackpot!  Hours upon hours of funny animal videos to buying a business on an island, to island life...we were in heaven.  Then, we stumbled upon videos of different couples sailing around the world.  What?!?!  Who knew this was even an option?!?  Well, those YouTube videos turned into google searches which turned into buying every book Amazon had to offer on the topic, and finally to us realizing, this was our path....now, where to start....