800

Our sailboat in the travel lift with a freshly painted bottom.
Our girl, with a freshly painted bottom. Isn't she pretty?

We have 800 days until departure. We are going to sail off, and we plan to only return to the US for visits. This blog is about our journey to departure, and what happens after we leave. We are going to talk about what works, what doesn't, how we did it, and provide reviews of what we like.

Some years ago, I (Wayne) decided that I was going to retire and sail the world in 2026. There are many factors that conspired to accelerate my departure schedule; most of those factors are the result of good fortune.

I (Emily) retired last week from 18 years as a bookseller to focus on getting our girl in shape. I'll be learning many of the skills required to do the things on the list below (thanks in advance, YouTubers). Until I met Wayne, most of my boating experience involved the human-powered variety: canoe, kayak, SUP, etc. Did I mention I have a lot to learn?


Cargo bike riding on our third date
On the cargo bike. Wheee!
There is a lot to be done between now and departure. Ideally we will do the majority of this work ourselves. We want to be self-sufficient, off-grid, petrol-free, economical, and above all able to fix anything that breaks. There are no mechanics to call in the middle of the Pacific.

Some of the things we need to do:
  • Change all systems to electric, 12 volt when possible - galley, hot water heater, heating, and secondary propulsion, e.g. replace diesel engine
  • Re-rig standing and running rigging
  • Replace lifelines
  • Repair various hull leaks
  • Replace instrumentation, ideally with open source software and commodity hardware
  • Rewire 12 volt and 120 volt systems
  • Replace all plumbing with PEX
  • Remodel entire galley
  • Reupholster all the things we decide to keep
  • Rebuild the dodger and bimini
  • Learn to sew sails
  • Refine our image pipeline
  • Refactor our boat to be as off-grid as possible
Topics of interest to us are:
  • sailing (can you believe it?!) 
  • boats 
  • sustainability  
  • scuba diving
  • bicycling 
  • cooking 
  • small space living  
  • booze (again, crazy, right?) 
  • marine critters 
  • soft goods 
  • photography
  • open source software and knowledge sharing
  • books/reading
Please join us on our journey. As mentioned, we are going to discuss the things that we tried, what works for us, how we go wrong, and our adventures along the way.

We have some strong ideals around how to present this information and what those formats should entail. We are averse to advertising and begging for handouts that is typical to vlogs, blogs, and similar content. We get to stand on the shoulders of giants and, hopefully, get your input on these tasks. We also hope to offer hassle-free insight to the next people seeking to do similar things.

We will review many places and things that we encounter. We will share our discoveries and lessons both good and bad. Ultimately, no one will accuse us of being tightfisted with our opinions!

A view of Puget Sound and the Olympics from the water.
A view of Puget Sound and the Olympics from the water.


So... here is our journey. 800 days left.





Location: Bremerton, WA, USA

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 6, 2019 at 11:21 AM

    May the wind fill your sails!! What a grand adventure. I come from a long line of sailor friends who have had marvelous journeys!

    ReplyDelete

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