We took the leap and left New York City for a life of adventure. So far nothing has been at all what I pictured, but after about 8 years in New York City it was time for a change. This is probably the most different lifestyle we could have chosen. From having every luxury and modern convenience within walking distance to basically camping with the added difficulty of trying not to sink, we certainly signed up for some crazy times.

I still haven’t forgotten the image of exploring untouched islands while spying sea creatures lurking in blue water and then coming home to the boat and sipping a frozen drink and gazing into the crystal clear water as the sun sets over a serene white sand beach. In all of those fantasies never once was I too hot or seasick.

We have a long way to go before any of that becomes possible and frankly a frozen drink is a stretch. We will be lucky to have a fridge, let alone ice and a blender. Boat life is hard and while we are very privileged to be able to do this, we have a lot to learn and even more expectations to adjust. Also, it’s hot, so hot.

This whole adventure started as a joke. We were stuck in our ruts and talked about leaving New York. Not knowing where we would go or what we would do, we mused about being nomads flying around the world, then the conversation shifted to driving around the country in van and as if that wouldn’t be difficult enough we eventually set our sights on sailing around the world.

Do we have any sailing experience? No.

Does one of us tend to get seasick? Yes. Absolutely. Yes.

Research, research and more research consumed our lives for a couple of months. As we got more serious we started floating the idea to friends and family. Then we booked a week long trip to La Paz, Mexico where we lived on a 44′ sailboat with two strangers and a captain. That was in November 2018, just a couple of months after our wedding. Through the Nautilus Sailing School we learned that there was plenty more to learn about sailing, but we both walked away with our ASA 101, 103 and 104 certifications. Which on paper means that we are certified to charter a sailboat without supervision.

With those very basic certifications the preliminary boat search began in the North East, but we weren’t having much success. The cold winter was sapping our energy and the boats that we did see were winterized on the hard. The wake up, go to work, go home, go to sleep, rut that we were stuck in continued.

With the frigid New York winter taking its toll we were lucky enough to be able to schedule a trip to Florida. A little sunshine and shorts weather lifted our spirits and while down in Florida we saw a ton of boats. For more about that check out our boat page.

Anyway, after buying our boat the work had just begun. All we had to do was get out of our lease, get rid of our stuff and get ourselves and our cats, along with our remaining belongings down to Florida. How hard could that be?

I put in my notice at work where I was the manager of a dog walking company in Brooklyn and as soon as my last few scheduled dog sits were over I flew out to Denver to borrow a car from my parents. I made the 26 hour drive on my own with a short sleep in a parking lot somewhere in the middle.

This whole boat thing happened fast.

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

We drove to Albany, New York to meet the old owners of our boat. They had a shed full of boat stuff that they were giving away with the boat. As a trial run Mark worked from the car while I drove. That went well and Mark is still able to work remotely.

The whole experience felt surreal. While conceptually I knew we were leaving our apartment in Brooklyn and moving to Stuart, FL where our boat was waiting for us, I was having trouble wrapping my mind around it.

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

My friend Macey and I unloaded all of the boat stuff from the car and carried it up to our third floor apartment. With the car empty we were able to move a couple of big items, like a corner hutch and bookshelf to Macey’s place.

Thursday, May 30, 2019 – Sunday, June 2, 2019

Thursday through Sunday run together into one super day without any clear beginnings or ends.

Mark went to work in the New York office for the last time and I packed up our personal belongings. A drive to New Jersey yielded a uhaul trailer and then a friend and I began loading the trailer with massive deconstructed IKEA furniture, a mattress, bed frame and a desk for his new apartment. After a ton of stairs and help from another friend, it was time to move the couch to its new home.

As luck would have it, it was pouring rain well into the evening and we were still loading stuff. Our friends are saints and they helped us until about 2am (Friday morning) through the rain to get us packed. Mark and I pushed through until about 3:30am. Apartment totally empty and cleaned we were ready for bed. Unfortunately parking a uhaul is next to impossible on the cramped streets of Brooklyn. We had been parked in front of a fire hydrant in front of our building, which was a recognized unofficial loading zone, but we left the uhaul alone for about 10 minutes to dry off in the apartment and regroup when we had a run in with the cops.

One nasty court summons (no, not just a parking ticket, a criminal court summons) later we didn’t want to push our luck anymore, so instead of sleeping we loading the cats into the car and made our way out of the city. I drove through the night while Mark slept (he still had to work in the morning). Around 6am I couldn’t drive anymore and pulled into a Wawa’s parking lot somewhere in Pennsylvania for a nap. Mark started working from the car, all he needs is wifi, and I slept for a couple of hours and then we were off again.

We stopped in Kentucky to drop off some stuff with Mark’s parents. We slept there Friday night and then Saturday we hit the road again. Totally exhausted we finally made it to Stuart, Florida around 7am on Sunday. We stopped for breakfast, found a storage unit, unloaded the uhaul and made it to the boat late Sunday morning. Stuart is gorgeous and we were so happy to have arrived.

It was hot and humid and there was so much more to do, but at least we made it!

With step one in the journey complete we slept, but how on earth were we going to find a place on the boat for all of the stuff that we had just shoved into a storage unit and how were we and the cats going to adjust to our new space?