We are, by nature, pretty analytical and tend to be a bit cautious. Some would say overly cautious, but we prefer to think of it as being thorough. It was all a bit shocking to us how rapidly we had leapt into boat ownership and let’s face it we had leapt, boots and all, into the ownership of a fairly substantial sort of a boat at that.

Of course we were excited and thrilled but it was about then that the collywobbles started to kick in. What the hell have we done? Are we seriously going to sell up and sail off? How do we know we’ll actually be able to do this for more than a few weeks without going mad?? I’m sure plenty of our friends were thinking that it was too late for that, we quite clearly had gone round the twist. But of course, nothing was irreparable, we hadn’t fully committed to anything we couldn’t back out of and so we set about devising a plan to make sure this really was what we wanted to do.

First thing we joined the Island Cruising Association (www.islandcruising.co.nz), a fine organisation of cruising yachties ranging in experience but generally a massively valuable mine of information and support. We also happened to meet some cruisers at Musket Cove’s Island Bar, some of whom became firm friends who were proving to be invaluable sources of information and encouragement.

The first part of our plan was to go sailing and see if we liked it. Having been on racing yachts where the verbal volume and excitement levels of the helmsman regularly got to quite high levels I was pretty keen to make sure that we tried as hard as possible to keep calm and quietly and efficiently get the necessary tasks done. Ade’s level of experience wasn’t that high (mostly consisting of sailing a surfcat at Mt Maunganui and a trip on the Spirit of New Zealand) so it was pretty much essential that she didn’t get turned off by frantic gibberish instructions screamed by an apoplectic monster that used to be her husband. If nothing else though Ade is a very quick learner and not only thinks things through, she can anticipate and afterwards will analyse and think of ways to improve systems .... just a few of her many skills and fine attributes.

We started off with day sails on perfect days, then overnight trips with friends (experienced cruisers) onboard and progressed to sailing two up for longer periods and over longer distances. The only real problems have arisen from my failure to curb my yacht racing instincts and manage the boat in a more comfortable mode (reef early and often) rather than have her tipped on her ear creaming along with me grinning like a Cheshire cat and everyone else on board nervously hanging on and looking forward to the end of the day. Ooopps. Sorry, I’ll try to do better.

Of course coastal sailing is one thing, but long ocean passages would have to be undertaken in order to get places so we had to try a passage or two to gain some experience. I got a crewing position on a Swan 51 sailing from Auckland to Fiji with a very experienced and confident skipper in June 2010 and I learned a lot on that passage. And Ade and I both flew up to Fiji to help a friend sail her Peterson 46 from Lautoka in Fiji to Opua in New Zealand. Once again I learned from that passage, and Ade found it quite interesting. I was worried that she wouldn’t enjoy it, but I found her scribbling in a notebook one day and she told me she was writing down ideas of things to do to make our passages on Seaforth more comfortable. I took that as a positive sign.

We’ve found a few teething problems ... systems that require a bit of maintenance, but overall she is soundly built, well set up and without major vice. All in all, a great big teddy bear to sail and capable of a reasonable turn of speed too. We have a wish list of jobs to do, sails to replace, etc .... but that pretty much comes with the territory.

So, we’ve pretty much confirmed that this is what we want to do, we think it’s going to be feasible and we’re pretty sure that it’s the life we want. Now we just need to do the scary bit – get rid of the ties that are keeping us on land. Sell the house, the cars, the furniture, etc ... declutter and simplify and then plan our voyages. Scary ... but in a good way

Rock on!