Trips Archives

Sailing the Caribbean

Sailing the Caribbean is our dream. Many might ask, what’s with the dream of exploring the world on water and why? Where did it come from? Honestly, that dream has been with me for many many years (probably longer than Scott). First of all, I grew up on boats. While they were only fishing and water skiing boats, we spent our summers on the water. It doesn’t matter what you are doing, being on the water just brings a sense of peace and adventure.

Back in the 80’s and 90’s my mom and I would vacation in Hawaii and one year we were lucky to sail on the America II Sailboat. The America II was a 1987 America’s Cup Challenger. This prestigious yacht was custom designed and built, at the cost of $10 million, for the sole purpose of competing in world-class racing. After completing her transpacific race she was retired from racing to do sailing tours out of Lahaina Harbor on Maui. Because it was a racing boat, it was bare bones….barely had a head (bathroom).

We sailed it to Molokini and that was the trip that hooked me. The serenity of flying over blue waters with dolphins next to us and then arriving to a location where sea turtles and tropical fish surrounded you is so unreal. I wanted to turn the boat around and go back when we got home!

Later in my adult life, I owned a 27′ “weekender” and spent many weekends up at the San Juan Islands. I remember exploring the islands one day and decided to go north and out of the blue, a pod of Orca whales surrounded our boat. They literally were just feet off of our anchor platform. I took a ton of photos (but this one is not mine). It was one of the coolest experiences I have had.

Scott and I were married in 2003 and we spent our honeymoon in Antigua. We booked two sailing excursions on that trip and soon he was hooked too! We took a catamaran snorkeling trip and then finished it on a sunset sailing cruise. What a honeymoon to remember!

Back to Antigua & Jamaica

We decided after that trip, that we would always include the water on our future trips to the Caribbean. And any chance we had to be on the water, we took advantage of it. It’s the best therapy you can find! We returned to Antigua in 2010 and took those same two trips again.

The following year, during our visit to Sandals Whitehouse Jamaica we had one of the most memorable trips on a Catamaran as we visited Floyd’s Pelican Bar….a bar on a sandbar!

On another visit to Jamaica we took another sailing trip and just our luck, the skies turned dark and stormy. It was still a very cool experience and the S/V was huge! It had 2 Cummins engines and it had a capacity of 100ppl!

Looking for Water

No matter what the situation is, we still love being on the water and forgetting all about the rest of the world. It’s not always a bed of roses, in fact, more often than not it’s work. Scott and I are willing to take that challenge and explore. For now, it might only be a boat show or a day on a family’s boat, but we’re still on the water! We hope to buy a boat in the next few years!

I guess in the end, the water has more meaning to us than we know and everyday it’s a new experience and a new memory. The photo above of my mom, she had so much fun….it was about a year before she died. We also chose to sprinkle Maggie’s ashes (our golden retriever) in Port Susan at Camano Island. It was one of the most spiritual and memorable experience regarding a death…..very peaceful.

When days get me down, I just look back on the journeys we had and remind myself that new ones on the water are just around the corner. Cheers, Ally

Boating Dream – Living on a Catamaran in the Caribbean

Our boating dream would be to retire in the Caribbean and live on a catamaran. How did this even come about? I started a personal blog back in 2009 when I was struggling to have children and was in my early 40’s. I wanted our kids to know the journey we had experienced, but we never had kids and after a few years I stopped updating it. It was a private blog, so it was really more of a diary for me.

Scott and I have always loved the sea and during every vacation to the Caribbean, we would plan at least one (usually two) catamaran excursions. I grew up with boats, had one as an adult and really missed boating. After spending time on the Caribbean Sea, we fell in love with the islands and the laid back life. We always pictured ourselves working or retiring in the Caribbean.

Fast forward to the January of 2011 when we attended the Seattle Boat Show, which included the floating show on Lake Union. It was a cold, wet and dreary day, but we were going to have fun anyways!

That is when we looked at our first (liveaboard) Catamaran, the Lagoon 350. The broker was trying to convince us to get into the charter business in the PNW as it was a great way to buy our dream boat. Suddenly, we were hooked and couldn’t stop thinking about that boat. There was another cat at the show and it wasn’t nearly as roomy or comfortable. From that point on, we knew we needed to do our research and read everything we could.

Magazines & Blogs

I started buying Multi-Hulls Magazine and other Sailing magazines to read up on sailing and cruising lifestyles. I also started following blogs of other catamaran sailors and their adventures. One that hooked me like a novel was the blog for Tritons At Sea. This guy was so particular and I couldn’t wait to read the next blog he posted. It was from 2005, but he had great advice, including lists and requirements that are still great today. When our journey finally starts, we’ll be referencing his blog. Then we found other blogs on sailblogs.com. This was a great site and eventually I was emailing some of the boats and congratulating them on their adventures. It was a great way to erase the dulldrums of the rainy days of the PNW, especially on a slow work day.

See, I don’t have a regular job, but instead own a local wine shop, The Wine Alley and I work here every day. During the week, we don’t get a ton of daytime shoppers, so I would pass the time following many of the sailing blogs down in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean. But that can also simply be adding “salt to the wound”. Reading about their tropical adventures at sea and then looking at the 3″ of cold rain falling didn’t always make life better.

A Trip to Antigua

Every January, we close our wine shop for a week and visit the Caribbean. In 2010 we went to Antigua and during our trip we took a day trip on a catamaran, “Wadadli Cats” that sailed us all around the island. We started on the north end and traveled west into the Atlantic Ocean and then back around to the Caribbean side. What a thrill and for me, at that moment, I forgot all about our problems back home. We were in paradise!

What’s Next?

When we returned home, we again attended the 2012 boat show and collected so much information ranging from toilets to electronics. This was actually a bit silly, considering we knew we wouldn’t “launch” for many years, unless we won the lottery! But it was still fun to look, touch and dream.

Books, Books & More Books!

A few months later, I noticed all kinds of “real life” books on sailing and one that caught my eye was A Sail of Two Idiots . This was a great story about another couple, our age, who sold everything, bought a catamaran and sailed the Caribbean and with no sailing experience! Well, if they can do it, so could Scott and I and we both read that book fast! The author, Renee Petrillo has been so gracious answering all of my emails and answering our questions over the past two years. It’s a great book, so this is a must buy!

The funny thing about me, is that I am not a reader. My mom would read a book in a few days, but books have always bored me. But I love all real life books about sailing the Caribbean and other tropical adventures. I soon found myself reading: The Motion of the Ocean (a book about a local PNW couple), Sail Away: How to Escape the Rat Race and Live the Dream and A Trip to the Beach: Living on Island Time in the Caribbean. For birthdays & Christmas, we found ourselves giving each other books about Catamarans, Nautical References and Galley Recipes. Currently, I’m reading An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude, a story about a Toronto couple that heads down the ICW to the Caribbean. So many people have done it and so many are doing it, that we know in our hearts we’ll be there soon too.

In addition to all of the books, blogs, etc. that I started reading, local neighbors of ours, John & Kelly W. started their dream and trip in August 2012 from Seattle. They left everything and headed south on their sailboat. They made it to Mexico by the end of 2012 and have been enjoying the tropical Mexican life ever since. It’s been fun to follow their trip on Facebook and see where they are headed next. Since then, most of my Twitter & Instagram accounts follow mostly cruisers too.

So we began 2013 year, dreaming of our trip and trying to figure out how we will get there. Owning a business and having debt, doesn’t make the challenge easy. But we know with determination, we’ll get there in a few years. In the meantime, I wanted to share the little adventures, research and events with you so we can reflect on everything we went through to get to our dream. If we can do it, everyone else can too. Cheers, Scott & Ally

Category: Trips

The Dream and Where Did it Come From?