Retirement: A Sailing Adventure

 

A friend of mine did something that the rest of only dream about.  Chris and her husband retired and sailed to New Zealand.  No cruise ship for this intrepid couple; they did it themselves.  Chris was kind enough to share a little of her story and to encourage others to dare to follow their dream.

 

“Seven and a half years ago my husband Tom and I set out into the wild blue yonder to live a dream that Tom had had when we first met in 1996.    Sailing off into the sunset to see what we could see.  It was a wonderful adventure with months of bliss interspersed with the odd moments of sheer terror.

 

Some of the worse weather we faced took place shortly after we left home, while sailing 64 miles off the Oregon Coast on our way to San Francisco.  We had decided to sail that far off the coast to avoid the fishing boats, but had not planned on 48 knots of wind for three days in a row.  Nor had we thought we would be trying out our new storm sails so early in the trip.  Actually they were only up briefly because we were going too fast for comfort.  We ended up doing 7-9 knots under bare poles.  There is nothing like pushing the envelope and finding out how well you can cope during those first days to give you confidence.

 

Actually most of the rest of our cruise was a piece of cake compared to that, so if you can hang in there and not be put off by the unexpected you will be glad that you did.  The untouched beauty of the Southern Lau Group in Fiji, which was only one of the special places that we visited, made all of the trials and tribulations worthwhile.  I vividly remember saying, “Look at that,” and then “Look at that,” and “Look at that,” as I craned my neck every which way.  Imagine a paradise of white coral sandy beaches, turquoise water, and tiny muffin shaped islands, and not a person to be seen.  What else could you wish for?

 

All together we sailed 34,000 miles and I wouldn’t have missed one moment of it for anything.  It was only the lure of seeing our children and grandchildren that made us want to come back home.

 

My advice to all of you dreamers of the day is…Just Do It!  Don’t wait until everything is perfect or for the time to be just right because if you do you will never go anywhere.  We were gone for nearly eight years so you know that it was the adventure of a lifetime.”