Making the Decision to Go

Eighteen months ago, we declared that Tim was going to retire in the summer of 2022 and we were going to get ourselves and our boat, Felicità, ready to set off on our world cruising adventure. This decision was a bit of a plot twist, as it was a three-year acceleration of our original plan. From that moment, it was game on. But, let me catch you up on how we made that decision.

Covid’s Silver Lining

The pandemic did not darken our doorstep beyond constant low-level anxiety, social starvation, too much alcohol, and too many carbs–we were beyond blessed. I’d been running my business out of my home for 15 years and because a core service we provide is eLearning, my company offered something our clients suddenly needed a lot of. And Tim, as a sales engineer, serves power plants, so his customers weren’t going anywhere. And, neither were we. We weren’t going out, we weren’t traveling, we weren’t spending much money. That meant we were able to pay off the boat loan and turn our attention to the refit and putting money into the cruising kitty.

Mooring Ball Living

We also moved to the top of the mooring ball waiting list December 2020. We’d been on the list for two years. This meant our slip fees dropped way down since we could move out of the expensive marina onto a cheap mooring ball. Again, this opened funds up for the refit budget and cruising kitty.

OG Wisdom

The other thing that happened was a trip to the Caribbean in February 2021. We flew to St. Thomas post-vaccine to attend a John Kretschmer Sailing workshop. It was me and four OGs (old guys). A few bottles of red wine in, they started grilling us on why we weren’t shoving off now. Tim punted the question to me as I’m the one that was worried about money. I’m a touch younger than Tim so setting off this far from my own retirement makes me a little squirmy. And, it’s not what we’d planned. You’ll hear sailors say that, “plans are written in sand at low tide,” definitely the case here.

After talking candidly about our finances, all the guys doubled down on the, “WHY AREN’T YOU SHOVING OFF RIGHT NOW?” question. And then, Dave, one of our shipmates made a case that I could not ignore. He’s a super fit man who is building a trimaran in his barn as I type, and was 70 at the time. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “This is an important decade. Tim’s body at 60 is markedly different than his body will be at 70. Don’t wait.”

So here we are, two months until we throw our lines off in San Diego for the last time. And one month until Tim retires. Watch this space… lots to share!

~ Gretchen