A difficult decision, to say the least!… 2.1.2011

We’ve had another great season sailing the coast of Mexico these past couple months. We visited new anchorages, made new friends, spent time with old friends, and generally enjoyed life. It was also during this time that we sat & discussed and made a very difficult decision – to sell the boat.

Yep, our ‘dreams & goals’ have once again been adjusted. Sniff, sniff…

After we finish this cruising season, we will spend one more summer working in Alaska, then we’ll do a 2-3 month ‘Road Trip’ across the U.S. to the East coast and then back out to the West coast. This should land us back in Southern California somewhere in January 2012. Once we get back, Michael is planning to begin a career in professional speaking. Over the past few years he has been working towards this path, writing a book, preparing a handful of speeches, building a website, and working with a friend in the industry who has been kind enough to guide & encourage him to share with others the things we’ve learned while achieving our dreams & goals over the past 10 years or so.

To give Michael’s dream every chance of succeeding, we need to ‘buckle down’ and focus. While we’d love to continue cruising during the wintertime, we have come to the realization that it just doesn’t make sense. This decision will ultimately take us out of cruising for at least 2 years and most likely closer to 5. Yikes!

Leaving her for such an extended period of time would not be fair to Ahea Kali or to us. We decided to put her up for sale and find someone who will love her the way she deserves instead of making her sit and wait for us. We have put a lot of blood, sweat, love, money & tons of tears (especially while making the decision!) into her over the years and in return she has provided us a comfortable home, a vehicle to visit new places, meet new people and safe passage on all of our voyages.

Now emotionally, this decision is one of the most difficult we have both ever made. Although it is just a boat, she is definitely NOT ‘just a boat’! But logically, it’s the right decision. We know how much time, effort, & maintenance, not to mention money, it takes to keep the boat in the tip-top condition she’s in and we just can’t imagine doing it from afar.

Here's the boat listing, if anyone knows of someone looking for a GREAT boat! :-)
http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1975/Fuji-Ketch-2309817/Mazatlan/Mexico

We’ll keep everyone posted on this next chapter in our life as it begins to develop.
More to follow!
Rene & Michael