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Small Steps, Big Adventure: 6 Steps We Took to Kickstart a Year of Travel

sailawayblog
Aug 25, 2016
6 min read

"Because the dream first went to the end of the dream... then beyond it.”

– Bernard Moitessier

When you have a big dream, like the kind that makes you so excited, your heart pounds and drops into your stomach, it can sometimes feel overwhelming, and you wonder, “How am I ever going to do this?” My husband Ben and I know the feeling well.

Two years ago, we became certain that we were going to sell everything we owned, leave Missouri, buy a boat, move aboard, and go sailing the Caribbean on a larger-than-life adventure. Did we have any sailing experience? Nope. Did we know if we’d even like living on a boat? No. Did we know where this journey would lead us in our lives? Hell no. But we knew we had to have this adventure before we turned 30, while we were young and excited about life, and while we still had the freedom to leave everything we knew behind in the name of wanderlust. We knew we had to do it, or we’d resent ourselves forever, no matter how much money we made or how successful we had become in our careers, for not having the guts to take the leap.

For Ben and me, the hardest part was BEGINNING. It was committing to this once-in-a-lifetime goal, and making a plan to get to the end of it. We broke our big adventure’s first phase into a few simple ideas, which would jump start us towards sailing the tropics. With one, then two, then more small steps, we began to see that our effort added up to serious progress. It took over a year, but each time we reviewed our headway, the goal became more possible, more real, more affordable, and more achievable. We could do this, we would do this… and we did. We went from a life of mortgage payments, yard work, traffic, and cubicles, to sailing, beaches, turquoise water and sunshine, and we haven't regretted a single part of this journey.

We want to share with you the small steps we took in the beginning, which initiated a catalyst in our lives, and put us on a road towards success of achieving a life as full time Caribbean sailors.

Read, Watch, & Learn

If you’re a sailing beginner, like Ben and I were, then best to start learning ASAP. Read books, magazines and blogs, watch educational YouTube videos and follow vloggers, take courses, and get certifications. Learning not only prepares you for your journey, but also keeps up the momentum as you fuel your interest. Here’s a few of our personal favorite sailing resources for beginners:

Sailing for Dummies, A Reference for the Rest of Us!: It may sound stupid, but this book did a great job of introducing us to new terminology and simply explaining complex sailing concepts. In a word, they really “dumb it down” for us, and we appreciate it.

Don Casey’s Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual: Getting to know the systems of a sailboat is infinitely important for caring for your own boat. Get ready to be your own plumber, engine mechanic, and electrician.

S/V Delos Vlog : These guys have been sailing the world for SEVEN years. The owner, Brian, left his successful job as a corporate software developer to become a crusty world sailor and now carries around a pretty large crew. Their videos are honest, entertaining and informative. Follow them, here.
Passages South, The Thornless Path to Windward: This, or a different guide book for the locations you want to sail, are wonderful for understanding the intricacies of passage making. In this guide, the author details the safest, quickest and easiest ways to make passages throughout the Caribbean. He even describes anchorages in detail, how to check into customs, provides maps, coordinates, and suggests places for lobster diving. Books like this help you understand that passage making is achievable for people like you and me, with study, practice and attention.

Quit Buying Stuff

Stop buying stuff (you don’t need.) This means, anything that doesn’t help you towards your objective. This rule advanced our goal of live aboard sailing twofold. First, it helped minimize our belongings. We knew we’d have to downsize when we moved on board anyway, so it was totally wasteful to continue to buy clothes, shoes, furniture, makeup, tools, etc. Second, it helped us save loads of money towards our sailing fund. Taking a year off work to travel means we'd be living off of savings, so every penny saved was crucial. Instead of buying that fab dress I really wanted, I could put an extra couple hundred dollars towards an epic adventure. Hard to swallow sometimes? Definitely. Worth it? Absolutely.

End All Unnecessary Expenses

We evaluated our bank statement for things we could live without, ended them, and put that extra cash towards our adventure budget. Things like cable, book and magazine subscriptions, and apps that charge monthly slyly drained money from the bank account. We opted to use Netflix instead of cable, or steal internet from the coffee shop or our neighbors. No shame.

Minimize Necessary Expenses

We all know food, shelter and transportation are necessities, but this all can also be evaluated and probably reduced. If you’re driving a new car with a hefty payment, consider downgrading, biking, or using public transportation. At the grocery store, we nixed the expensive liquors (which initiated my love affair with boxed wine!), and other commodity items from the list. We focused on basics. If your house payment is bogging you down, consider selling, and renting instead. We said no to fancy dinners, and extravagant purchases. Although it wasn't always easy, living below our means was one of the biggest way we were able to squeeze extra cash out of our daily lives. Over a year, it really adds up.

Evaluate Your Commitments

There will always be another obligation, another wedding, baby shower, football game or birthday party to keep you from actually picking up, and leaving town for your adventure. At some point, we had to draw the line on promises which would keep us in Kansas City. We stopped RSVP’ing to weddings six months in advance, and buying event tickets with friends. Although we loved our friends and family, and wanted to spend time with them and participate in their life events, we needed to focus on ourselves and our priorities.

Additionally, we minimized everyday commitments which diverted money, time and effort from what was most important. Happy hours with coworkers got cut, and Ben had to end weekly golf with buddies. And I loved volunteering at the local library, but ending reliance on me was key, considering I would be laying in hammock in the Caribbean in a few months. I helped the library find a replacement, and happily focused my time and effort on my life goal. At times, it felt selfish, but there’s no shame in putting importance on our personal goals, instead of everyone else’s.

Don't Try to Convince Everyone

If you’re feeling anything like Ben and I were at the beginning of our adventure, you’re totally busting at the seams right now with excitement and joy about your plan. We wanted to tell everyone who would listen about our once-in-a-lifetime voyage.

But, as we were jabbered away until our faces turned blue about sailing, we were met with lack of interest, confusion, concern, and sometimes reprimand. People not only didn’t share our enthusiasm, they totally didn’t understand, and thought we were absolutely insane, not to mention careless and irresponsible. Sometimes after trying to explain endlessly, to get others to be as excited as we were, we felt diminished, let down, and disheartened.

Eventually we realized, this isn’t everyone’s goal, and we had to stop trying to force people to be joyous about sailing. There’s probably something in everyone’s life that excites them, and it may not be traveling, and that’s ok. Nobody can force me to be excited about wrestling, or crafts, or car racing, or painting.

To maintain good morale, it was best for Ben and me to contain our gushing excitement between us. It helped to remember that others don’t have to be thrilled, or even understand our passion or the journey... Only we do.

We hope you found this information useful for planning your own, once-in-a-lifetime adventure! Set your budget, and get to saving and planning! The last bit of advice we can give you is, when you're cruising your own boat from beach to beach, enjoying the Caribbean that most people never see... it is all worth it.