The adventure begins...

Last two days of work, oh my, getting ready has been a bit stressful. Ending my career of 34 years in nursing, teaching the my replacement everything in a week; putting my business on hold for the season; packing and packing again...  As of Friday I am a free woman, free to roam the country, free to paint, free to see the world but with any kind of freedom it will come with a price.  I will now have to budget, no more Kate Spade, well maybe a little.  Traveling the world also mean leaving my family for a period of time.  I will surely miss everyone; all my girls have been very supportive of us doing our dream, but I am sure they are a bit sad being left behind.  We will see some of them in the Spring and that should be a lot of fun.  And guess what girls?  WE WILL BE BACK!! SOONER THAN YOU THINK!! Technically, 4 1/2 months, not a lifetime.  In fact we will probably be gone less time than it took me to pack.  No I won't be back for Hannah's birthday, but we will have a party on the boat when she comes. But we will be back for Ashley's graduation and Wyatt & Travis's summer swimming lessons. Summer in Carlsbad and the Food Tour should be great.  You might be asking yourself, what are they going to do for 4 months on the boat?  Well, we plan to read, swim, snorkel, hike, take photos, write in this blog and in general relax and take it easy.  30+ years in a very stressful job takes it toll on you.  I plan to refocus on my health; yoga, meditation, walking, etc.  We are going to be doing our Mind/Body medicine to rejuvenate our spirits. Here is how I see a typical day for us: Coffee on the deck, yoga and meditation in the morning, exploring the island until lunch, snorkeling, diving, kite-boarding and or standup paddling after lunch. Dinner, a walk around town, if there is one, relaxing after dinner, reading, planning for next day and or painting.  Next day, get up and do it all over again. Sounds good right? Maybe some of you would like to join us during some of our adventures; because if we enjoy this year's cruise, then perhaps we will do it again next year, we shall see how everything works out but I have a good feeling about this one, and I am excited to get started; see ya on the water...

What started as a fuzzy dream over 10 years ago is soon to be come a reality. 7 more days and we leave for Panama City to begin a 4.5 month sailing adventure, on a 52 foot catamaran, throughout the Western Caribbean. We'll hit Panama, Cayman Islands, Cozumel Mex, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, a few Colombian Islands (Providencia) and who knows. We have set up a blog (http://sailingcatatude.blogspot.com/) for those who want to follow our adventures, as I don't think we'll be posting as much to FB.
Living the dream - yes indeed.
Brad & Cherimarie

Things to do in the Cayman Islands

http://www.islands.com/gallery/top-10-things-do-cayman-islands?src=SOC&dom=fb

I Travel because...

Sailing Couple getting ready for our trip...

Collecting Pressure Cooker Recipes

http://www.pinterest.com/hlthyfmlyckn/pressure-cooker-recipes/

Living...

Just got all my vaccines for the trip, 4 shots: Yellow fever, Typhoid, T-Dap and Hep A, makes me feel real safe, ya right. The cost even hurt $400, wow not that is painful, but I am still alive and kicking and ready to hit the road on my new adventures...

I travel...

Interactive Travel Map

http://sailingcatatude.travelmap.fr/admin/my-map

I Travel...

Sailing Catatude: Sailing Kinda Catatude!

Sailing Catatude: Sailing Kinda Catatude!: So excited starting this blog, what an adventure we are going to have: Western Caribbean here we  come, make way for JIMMY BLISS with the sa...

Sailing Kinda Catatude!

So excited starting this blog, what an adventure we are going to have: Western Caribbean here we  come, make way for JIMMY BLISS with the sailing kinda Catatude!!

Sailing Life Brad & Cheri: Shopping and packing for the trip

Sailing Life Brad & Cheri: Shopping and packing for the trip

Shopping and packing for the trip

Wow, is all I have to say about how much stuff we have to bring to the boat for a 5 month cruise.
Let see we need:
Diving gear
Inflatable SUP
Cameras
Go Pro
Begone
Wifi stuff
I pads
Laptop
Snorkeling gear
Clothes
Tropical clothes
Mosquito net
Bug spray
Pepper spray
Hats
Boat shoes
Games
Art Supplies
Knitting
AIS
EPRP
Life jackets
New Kites
Kiteboard
etc.etc.etc
I am sure Brad can tell you more...

Our Retirement Dream

Sailing the Caribbean has been our retirement dream for years.  After our first sailing vacation with Sun Sail we decided that we loved sailing in the warm waters of the Caribbean and would love to do it when we retired from our day jobs.  So we started planning and dreaming of the day that we would set sail.  While we waited we enjoyed several more trips to different islands and these trips only solidify our plans even further. At first we were going on a monohull, like the Catalina we owed but then we discovered the Catamaran and that was it.  I believe our first Cat sail was on a Seawind 1160 to Catalina and it was great, so then we wanted not only to sail to the Caribbean but on a Cat.  But I did not want to leave our home for good,  I love Carlsbad and wanted to spend time with our children and grandchildren as well, so we decided that Commuter Cruising was the way to go, cruising during the season and then coming back to our home during the off season, which is May-Jan.  This way we get to spend the summers in Carlsbad and the holidays with our girls, this is a win-win situation for us. Now all we needed was the boat and of course to retire.  So we were plodding along saving for our boat when things began to change.  Work had become more and more stressful and it was beginning to wear on me.  It was very important to me that I do not let the job make me sick, I did not want to miss this fabulous retirement we had been planning.  Then Brad starting looking at the cruising sites to see about maybe going on a boat delivery through the Thornless path to learn the tricks of the trade so that when we were ready, he would know how to get us where we were going. The came David's listing on one of the cruising sites: "Looking for couple to assist with boat in Caribbean"... What!! Sign Me up!! is what I said and then we met with him in Kauai and the start of a great relationship began.  We are scheduled to fly out of San Diego on Jan 5, 2015 to start our adventures on JIMMY BLISS, the catamaran of our dreams...