A collection of links, here as much for jarring my own memory as for your outbound pleasure, piers from which you can leap away from Goatwaters if you feel it threatens to drown you in an excess of words.
Currently (sic!) in no particular order:
Sailing Britican – If you don’t know this British (Captain Simon) & American (1st Mate Kim) crew, with their dual-nationality Admiral (young Sienna), you will discover them and their prolific bloggery even without my link. Britican is nearly omnipresent if you begin to research these cruising waters. They are, best as I can tell, the primary font of wisdom for Caribbean live aboard life.
Never Monday – Will & Cat’s adventures in the Caribbean – a young couple who did the trip we’re aiming at, long before we even realized it was a strong potential in our cards. Bless the Corona for this, for pulling the scales from our eyes. Having watched island after island, including our most favored Curacao, shut out non-citizens for months on account of Covid-19, we realized that our dream of owning a small cottage as an island retreat in our retirement was ill advised. There’d be no way to have the place remain partially self-supporting if we couldn’t reliably rent it out & no way for us to enjoy it if we couldn’t get on-island. One thing led to another (to be discussed on the main Setting Sail page), and pretty soon I was researching Caribbean Sail Cruising. And who was there already? Never Monday. Great posts on buying a boat and much else.
On A Boat – Luke & Jessie Yeates. Sailing all over the place, so more adventurous than we intend. I want to skipper in old Patagonia baggies (which requires more running! and less eating!), not heavily insulated foul weather gear, but good on them for tackling North Atlantic waterways and so much else. Fabulous photography and ass-kicking writing. Jessie is a creative soul who found her ideal co-skipper. You can get lost inside their site looking at the images and reading passages.
Frugal Retirement Living (the sailing portion) – This is Gary & Julie Pierce’s blog, which includes an extensive section on their eight years of low-key living in the Caribbean on a sailboat. If I can talk S into eight years of live aboard island hopping, I’ll be happy as a clam in whaleshit. Right now we’re discussing two or three years, but she’s getting more excited about extended travels as folks express an interest in visiting us on the boat…which means the boat must be large enough to accommodate guests for short, but relatively comfortable stays. In other words, social S needs her people. I think she’ll meet plenty of fellow travelers. The Mackenzie is already begging to spend her vacations on the boat (yes, she’ll be out of college before we set sail); Alex, on the other hand, petrified by sharks she hasn’t even seen, doesn’t want to hop aboard until we’ve been sailing for several years and can promise her, absolutely, the boat won’t sink while she’s on it.
Goat Waters 