Before we left on the Veranda we were both actually responsible adults. Christy was a licensed massage therapist while Bill was the foreman in a large aerospace machine shop. We both had dreams of retiring to a life on a cruising sailboat. Fate stepped in and we both found ourselves “downsized” within a few months of each other. I took a job in a local marina so I could absorb as much maritime repair knowledge as I could while Christy took a job at West Marine for the fabulous employee discount. We sold the boat we owned, became Ebay masters, sold everything, bought our vision of a cruising boat, installed what we thought we needed, grabbed the dogs and set off.
The plan stayed the same except that the time table was accelerated by 5 years. Our original plan had us cruising the east coast of the states for the first year. You know, trying to break everything we could while we were still within walking distance of a West Marine.
We figured that spending our second year in the Bahamas would be a good step forward and get us some international experience. Next we had envisioned a circumnavigation of the Caribbean and after that who knows.....
The first thing you learn while living on a sailboat is that planning is pretty much a waste of time. We did cruise the East coast the first year, spent the winter in the Keys and absolutely loved it. It really makes you proud to be an American as you meet the locals and see the sights all from the deck of a small boat as you travel the coast.
Once we arrived in the Bahamas we realized that we had found our Nirvana. We're both water babies and the water there is nicer than anything I had ever imagined. The people are wonderful, they speak English and are as generous and helpful as anyone I've ever met.
We decided to blow off the rest of the Caribbean. There are over 700 islands, spread over thousands of square miles of beautiful water right there in the Bahamas. So we return every winter and couldn't be happier.....
