These are some of the questions we have received since selling everything and moving aboard. If you have a question you would like to ask Damon, David, or Ashley, just e-mail us by clicking here.
Who does your web site? We designed and maintain our own web site, and update it when ever we have access to good internet service. This sometimes means connecting at an internet cafe, a restaurant or hotel. While maintaining the web site is labor intensive we enjoy doing it. It gives us an opportunity to share our adventures not only with friends and family but with other dreamers as well. If you have any suggestions be sure to e-mail us.
Why are you doing this? We enjoy traveling, always have. I think that’s why we liked having been in the Navy so much. The traveling bug is still there, and we have always wanted to travel the world, see new places and meet new people. Unfortunately, we’re not rich so we can’t do it by airplane and 5 star hotels. Since we both enjoy sailing, we figured this to be a practical way of traveling, for us anyway. For us this is a more affordable and fun way to go and see places.
What do your family and friends think of what you’re doing? Our families are very supportive. I think there was a bit of shock and thoughts of ‘you’re crazy’ when we first told everyone what we were going to do. My family didn’t think twice when I told them, they knew I was crazy and spontaneous, and I had lived aboard a boat before. David’s family lives closer to us, only about four hours away, so they’ve been down a couple of times. The support of our friends and family has helped a lot during our transition from living on land to living on Bruadair.
What are your biggest fears of doing this? For David, it’s running into a water spout. Never mind the big waves, potential for sinking, ect. A water spout is basically a tornado over water, and has the potential to do a lot of damage. This is David’s biggest fear, a water spout. For me I’m concerned about two things, lightening and submerged objects. Lightening strikes have the potential of wiping out al the electronics, including navigation and communication systems. Though we plan on backing up our navigation with paper charts, a complete loss of electronic navigation and communication systems will present a big inconvenience and financial burden to us. My other fear is submerged objects, such as cargo containers. They are hard to see, especially at night, and can sink a boat in a matter of minutes.
Do you miss living on land in a big house? Nope. We love our boat, the people we’ve met, and the beautiful sunsets from our waterfront view.
Don’t you feel claustrophobic living in a small space? Not at all. We figured our living space to be about 250 sq. feet, but it doesn’t feel like we’re living in a cramped space. We have all the amenities to make our life aboard comfortable, a head and separate shower, a large galley, two private cabins, and a comfortable main salon. We also don’t spend the entire day inside the boat. When David is not working at West Marine, he is usually working on canvas projects at a friends shop. I spend a lot of time outside either working on the boat or visiting friends on their boats. We also like to take dingy rides when the weather is nice. I would estimate we only spend about 10 hours a day on the boat, a good portion of that is sleeping.
Do you wish you had a bigger boat? Yes, sometimes, but when we think of a bigger boat, we’re reminded how much everything else grows. Higher slip fees, more maintenance costs, bigger anchors, larger sails. A bigger boat for us would mean a smaller wallet. Actually, we’re very happy with Bruadair, she fits our needs in so many ways. She’s also the perfect size for the two of us to handle.
What do you miss most about living on land? For me it’s having a washer and dryer that you can use at anytime. We have laundry facilities available here at the marina, but we don’t use them. Instead, we take our laundry to a local laundry mat once every couple of weeks. For 65 cents a pound (don’t take wet clothes), they wash, fold, hang, and bundle our laundry.
For David it’s having a microwave. No, we don’t have one on the boat. Mostly because there is very little room to put one, but also because while we’re cruising, we would have to use the inverter to provide power, and it’s not in our ‘power’ budget. Instead, we boil water in a tea kettle for things like coffee and try to cook only enough to eat. If we do have any left overs, we just reheat them on the stove.
Are you going to circumnavigate? We’re not sure yet. We have discussed the possibility, but our immediate goal is to actually get away from here first, then see where the wind takes us. Anything is possible.
Aren’t you scared? Absolutely, but if we didn’t do things because we were scared, we would have a pretty boring life.
How long will you do this? Currently we have no time constraints, so we’ll continue to cruise until we get tire of it or find something more exciting to do.
How will you stay in touch? We plan on keeping our cell phone until we leave for the Bahamas, and will continue to have access to our e-mail whenever we can find internet access. Once we leave the US, our primary means of communication will be through e-mail. We’ll continue to update this site when we can find internet cafes, and we have already made arrangements to use a mail forwarding service to forward our mail. On occasion when it’s affordable, we’ll use calling cards to call home.
How much food will you carry? Once we leave the US, we’ll carry a minimum of 30 days worth of food at any given time. That’s a lot of food and drinks, think about how much you go through in a month! David and I love to eat different types of foods, we have a very adventurous palette. Once in the Islands, we’ll provision with local fruits and vegetables, and if our fishing is good we’ll enjoy fresh seafood when we can.
How is Ashley adjust to life at sea? Ashley has adjusted wonderfully. In the early morning and early afternoon Ashley spends her time basking in the sun either under the dodger or while napping on top of the boom. She loves to walk around the boat and fortunately she has not fallen overboard yet. She still uses her litter box, though it’s a bit smaller than she used to have. At first she was absolutely petrified when we started the engine, now she’s much more relaxed about it. While underway we insist that Ashley remains down below for her safety, but when she hears the anchor chain being paid out she immediately pops up on deck to see what new place we brought ourselves to. We couldn’t imagine better company than Ashley.
Are you worried about pirates? While we had the good fortune not to run into pirates while cruising in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala we are fully aware that we will be cruising areas prone to piracy, specifically while cruising parts of Honduras and along the coast of Nicuragua. Piracy is very much alive in the Caribbean, though not as common as in the past. We have taken precautions and made plans to minimize these rare encounters. Though it’s in the back of our mind that we could easily be boarded we don’t worry about it. Worrying would interfere with all the fun we’re having.
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