Our dream is very simple. We would like to spend at least one year, possibly more sailing around the world together as a family. We don’t necessarily want to go “around” the world as in a circumnaviagaiton, just around the world to visit interesting places and see interesting cultures. We want to take time while are children are young and impressionable to teach them about the world they live in, both with respect to the natural wonders of the world as well as the fascinating people and cultures that inhabit it. We want to slow down the pace of life and enjoy life and our children together as a family.

How The Dream Started

The dream probably started with Arno's 7th grade teacher Tom Clemmons, when his tales of sailing the south pacific to our class held all the students spellbound. Then when he made coconut milk for everyone using a traditional coconut grater I was hooked. He loaned me a copy of the Bounty trilogy and I read the whole book non-stop, bombing pre-algebra in the process. As luck would have it Sunshine and Arno moved in next to the Deckers, Bruce, Kathleen, Adam and Christy. Adam and Brad were in the same grade at the same school and soon became best friends. The Deckers’ were warm and welcoming people who always opened their house to us for food and drinks, and always had tales to tell about their own cruising adventures. As a young couple in the 70’s Bruce and Kathleen spent several years cruising the Pacific. Then as a young family they had home schooled their children on the boat and spent 4 years in and around the Bahamas. Their tales of cruising and the fact that they had cruised with their kids planted a seed that grew and grew inside both of us. But the dream might have died there had it not been for Sunshine’s and Arno’s 4th wedding Anniversary that they celebrated in Santa Barbara. They needed something romantic to do, so they went for a sunset cruise on a Morgan Out Island 41’. Arno started reminiscing about his sailing days in college (1 season on the race team) and many summers as a camp counselor at the aquatic center, and realized that sailing could be the perfect family activity. On returning home they researched all the options, from buying a boat to renting from a club, and settled on the rental option after crunching all the numbers.

Now as the date has grown closer a cruising sailboat has been purchased. It is a 1989 lavranos 44' steel cutter. She has needed lots of work and will need more, but everything is falling into place, slowly but surely.

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