One more year

[kunyang]

Our plans are coming to fruition. We have put our house on the market this week. The plan is to down size, get rid of the mortgage, ready for letting in April 2016. Sold Kunyang before Christmas, and now looking for our 40ft to take us safely where ever we want to head. Probably will buy in October as cash will be more accessible then, and have 6 months to prepare and get use to her (should be enough time), if we find something prior to that we'll need a short term loan, but it wouldn't be to bad a problem.

The plan is to head off West Country in the spring, because we love it, across to the Scillies June - July, across to Portugal July - August, Canaries September - October, then across to the West Indies in December 2016. Not to sure if we'll do the ARC though.

Still have a couple of courses to do. Must get me and SWMBO on the life safety at sea course, Radio course so I can email home, probably a diesel engine course, though I just get on with it at the moment. My wife wants to do skipper 1st aid, so i'll look into that. Not having a holiday away this year as were going to be a bit busy.

Still need to sort out the best way to access cash around the world, any insurances required, ad loads of other stuff, but it is getting exciting now, as the house sale will finally mean we will be going. My wife has already advised her manager that she is leaving in a year, so they have time to get her replacement at least. I am not that brave (who wears the trousers in our house).

Any advise, comments on our plans ?

Dave

 

[AndrewB]

Sounds good. Have you and SWMBO actually done an ocean passage yet? If not, it would be worth setting something up for this year if you can. It will help greatly with the self-confidence, and provide a reality check if needs be. More important than some of the courses you plan, IMHO.

 

[kunyang]

We have been sailing for a long time, but never a 'ocean' passage. I think we'll be taking things steadily, via Cape Verde. Not sure if we will have time to get any extended sailing in, but as planned, we build up the distances. We were going to the med first, but Christine wanted to do the distance sailing while we are younge (56 & 58)r. We can always duck into the Med. Nothing is set in stone at present, but the Indies looks good for a couple of years.

 

[RichardS]

Interesting subject.

My "plan" when I retired last June was to spend a few of months sailing in the Med in 2014 and 2015 gaining overnight sailing experience, which was totally absent from my sailing portfolio, with a view to a Caribbean crossing in 2016.

Although we both love the Caribbean and have chartered there many times, I have to say that 2014 served to show us that there is a huge wealth of "warm weather" sailing and stunning sights and places to be experienced on this side of the Atlantic.

We still have that ocean crossing "plan" lurking in there somewhere but I am beginning to countenance the possibility that just cruising the vastness of the Med and the East Atlantic islands may take up the rest of my sailing life.

In the meantime, will just play it by ear and see where we wash up!

Good luck to you and yours.

Richard

 

[[2574]]

How exciting. We (wife and me) are exiting day to day involvement with our business in five weeks time. The boat is ready to go except a small refit this spring. We are then spending this coming summer "defragmenting" our brains and will probably stay local to the West Country (we love it too!) and then next year head off, not sure where, maybe Scotland, maybe Ireland, maybe south. It seems unreal that I am typing this, it has been a decade in the mind but bizarrely it seems to be happening now!

 

[kunyang]

We seem to be selling up the old life, shot guns, motor bike, house. It is hard 'making it happen' but it is getting nearer every day now. We count our selves lucky to have this chance, and are doing all we can to make it successful. We just need to find the right boat and it's hard not just going out and getting one now, but financially, it has got to make sense and now is not the time. I didn't expect to sell our little one so quickly, but I still chalk that as a bonus in todays market.

 

[affinite]

We seem to be selling up the old life, shot guns, motor bike, house. It is hard 'making it happen' but it is getting nearer every day now. We count our selves lucky to have this chance, and are doing all we can to make it successful. We just need to find the right boat and it's hard not just going out and getting one now, but financially, it has got to make sense and now is not the time. I didn't expect to sell our little one so quickly, but I still chalk that as a bonus in todays market.

Good on you for giving it a go - sounds exiting !
Family ties have held us back from living aboard full time but I cant complain (much) at 8 weeks a year in the Med.
As Richard said - dont overlook the Med in your run for the sun

 

[PlanB]

You mention cash - before you leave, get all your finances sorted out into online accounts and get a commission free, charge free credit card and ATM card from Nationwide or similar.

 

[kunyang]

We haven't looked into the credit/charge card situation yet, but we will try to get the best, cheapest, most flexible and safe account for use all around the world. I think it'll be somewhere in the middle of all those reqiuirements. Any advise would be gratefully recieved. And I know that things may change between now and April 2016

 

[madian2]

Hi there, we downsized a couple of years ago, have just got a tenant for our house and are planning to be liveaboards by end April. We've got a blog if you want to follow us - www.rivalady.wordpress.com
We've been researching, following blogs, planning, networking etc for about 5 years now, so if you want to PM us and swap email addresses then feel free. Good luck!

 

[dslittle]

Our Marina contract finishes in May and we are off. Can't wait...

 

[Wife of Lofticus]

We haven't looked into the credit/charge card situation yet, but we will try to get the best, cheapest, most flexible and safe account for use all around the world. I think it'll be somewhere in the middle of all those reqiuirements. Any advise would be gratefully recieved. And I know that things may change between now and April 2016

Norwich and Peterborough current account for free withdrawals of cash abroad. Halifax clarity and Saga credit cards for free transactions abroad. Bank rate for N and P - no commission on any of them. Saved us money over the last four years living aboard. Easiest to be set up while in UK then run over the Internet. Simples......

 

[madian2]

Agree. We've got Norwich and Peteborough bank account, Halifax Clarity credit card and Caxton FX cash card. Hoping we've got it right but so far we're ok with our decision.

 

[NornaBiron]

We use Nationwide credit card where able, no fees and bank exchange rate. The Nationwide debit card charges a small fee for cash withdrawals but we've found this to be comparable with other providers when the exchange rate is taken into consideration.

 

[wazza]

Can't wait until I'm end planning the same... Good luck )

 

[Bertramdriver]

We haven't looked into the credit/charge card situation yet, but we will try to get the best, cheapest, most flexible and safe account for use all around the world. I think it'll be somewhere in the middle of all those reqiuirements. Any advise would be gratefully recieved. And I know that things may change between now and April 2016

Stay away from high street banks and cards. They have a knack of squeezing every penny out of you and are not good on dealing with fx transactions. Explore prepaid credit cards issued by foreign exchange specialists. We have used Caxtonfx for five years with nothing but good experiences. We have a € account but can have any denomination. We get a visa credit card for purchases and online access to transfer larger amounts.

 

[NornaBiron]

Stay away from high street banks and cards. They have a knack of squeezing every penny out of you and are not good on dealing with fx transactions. Explore prepaid credit cards issued by foreign exchange specialists. We have used Caxtonfx for five years with nothing but good experiences. We have a € account but can have any denomination. We get a visa credit card for purchases and online access to transfer larger amounts.

Just for a bit of balance:

That hasn't been our experience with Nationwide. I compare Nationwide to Caxtonfx and Fairfx on a fairly regular basis and the difference in exchange rate and costs is so minimal as to not make a difference. Although we pay for our cash withdrawals from Nationwide we get excellent exchange rates that make up for those costs. Caxtonfx and Fairfx don't charge for withdrawals but their exchange rates are always less than bank rate whenever I check. We use the Nationwide credit card for purchases when we can as that has no charges attached and still gives bank exchange rate.