Our plan is to visit interesting places, meet intesting people and drink beer in exotic locations
First Year or Two
After a lifetime of targets and deadlines we both agree that we won't set ourselves any more deadlines. We have a loose plan which we will vary "as and when" it suits us. We intend to stay to stay in the Med initially, within easy reach of the UK whilst we and our family adjust to our new lifestyle
Having bought The Fox in the Med it makes sense to start our cruising there. We intend to be on board by July 2007 and will have some essential maintenance to complete on safety grounds before setting sail. Once that is done we have the loosest of plans to drift towards Turkey where we plan to overwinter and complete the second half of our refit.
We have tentatively arranged to join a party on Cyprus (2007 WOCO Conference) with some of our ex Round Table friends in late September but other than that everything is still to be decided.
So far we have had just the one cruising holiday in the in the Med and it compared very favourably with the rigours of sailing in Northern Europe. We spent a fortnight sailing out of Croatia in 2003 with our friends John and Sue Craddock on their boat "One Off" a Moody 40. We loved it, sailing for the first time in warm weather and visiting ports where little has changed over a thousand years. Hopefully we will meet up with them again, as they have now have a new boat, a Bavaria 40, which they are currently sailing round the Greek islands at every opportunity.
This experience in Croatia has whetted our appetite to really explore the whole of the Med and experience all the different cultures. It will be interesting to see how we adapt to our new liveaboard lifestyle.
After That
Once we have had our fill of the Mediterranean, then a leisurely trip to the Caribbean via the Canaries and the Cape Verde Islands is in the back of our minds.
Beyond that who knows? Matt our son now lives in Sydney and has promised to arrange a berth in Sydney Harbour for us if we make it that far. We will just have to see how it goes; its harder than you think avoiding deadlines......
When we visited Matt we chartered a yacht for the day and sailed round the Harbour in 30-knot winds. Sailing a yacht under Sydney Harbour Bridge that day was an ambition fulfilled. But just how much better would it be to sail our own yacht under that famous bridge?