The Plan

Ok I forgot to mention The Plan. In the last post I mentioned we plan on setting sail in Spring of 2018, but didn't give you much else. Here's the plan from 10,000 feet. We buy a 30-33' sailboat, sell our house, and start living aboard in the Spring of 2018.

We will spend summer 2018 sailing in the Salish Sea (body of water surrounding Seattle and Vancouver), learning how to live aboard a boat, and getting the boat and gear dialed in. In August we will cast off and make a large passage from the very tip of the Olympic Peninsula, WA and sail down to San Diego. Many people who are headed to California from Washington leave in August because it's usually the best month for calm weather and no storms. This passage should take anywhere from 10-14 days, where we will be approx 90 miles from shore.

Once in San Diego, we will most likely take several weeks to get reorganized and outfitted for spending the next few months in Mexico. We will sail down the Pacific Coast at our own pace, round the corner at Cabo San Lucas, and sail up into the Sea of Cortez for (possibly) several months. 

We will then head south along the Pacific side of Central America, to Panama. We will transit the Panama canal, and start exploring the Caribbean. The plan is to end up in the US approx 1 year after our initial departure from WA.

There are marinas and ports along the way as well as anchorages with no services (where you drop anchor and enjoy the peace and quiet). 

That's our plan! 

Here's our initial route we have drawn up.

Hello again- An Adventure is Abound!

Hello everyone!

I am back on the blog front after a several year hiatus. It occurred to me today that I needed to jump back into the blog scene as there is renewed spirit in the name of adventure. That spirit is coming in the form of a year long expedition in a sailboat. We plan on launching Spring 2018.

Everything we are doing now is within reference to The Trip. We read sailing books, study sailing online, shop for boats, talk logistics for various legs of the journey, plan and.... oh yea:  work on the house to beef up that cruising fund (we will sell our house prior to casting off).

I don't want to say that my old blog's posts started tapering off because the adventure aspect of living in Washington wore off, but I will say we really started to feel settled in the Evergreen State. We got comfortable and have been on cruise control for a few years, playing in the Wenatchee Valley and working the 9-5. Not to say we haven't been busy- in the time since my last blogpost, Jenny and I got married, got a dog, and bought a house. The standard doings for young newlyweds I suppose. Now that we have this trip planned, we've taken the first steps on a road less traveled. We're back on an adventure. Even with it over a year away, we are living and breathing the adventure today and everyday. So I'm back on the blog to make sure I capture the whole thing. The journey is the destination- and I'm ready to report in on it.

A big part of what we spend our time on these days is our house...... This is me warning everyone that I am planning on posting on a lot of home remodeling/project stuff.

We are kind of flipping our house that we currently live in. The plan is to put a ton of work in our somewhat dilapidated house and turn it into a decent little farm house, which will ultimately give us a cruising kitty to live off of while on the sailboat.

And when I'm not working on projects around the house, I am reading sailing books. I've knocked out about 5 books so far this year- studying on how to liveaboard a boat, read the weather, anchor types, how to buy a boat, etc etc. There's a lot to learn besides how to sail. Jenny and I being novice sailors means we have a lot to learn.

We have so much to do to prepare for this trip. Because of that, I feel like every day and every hour are super important. If nothing else, having a cast off date has made me appreciate and value my time more so than it if we didn't have this plan.

It feels good to have a big project like this. My plan is to continue posting here to give updates, new information, and plans we have in the works.

We are back on a grand adventure and I hope you enjoy following along!

Cheers.

Current House Project: Remodeling Existing Bathroom

For up to date pics and progress of house projects please visit: Instagram with Mac's Projects

The new bathroom is done! Here's the before and after. Many long hours worked, and lessons learned, but it was all worth it in the end! #diy #ihatedrywall #timeforanewproject @jennysass04

A video posted by Mac Fraley (@partymac247) on Oct 9, 2016 at 9:51am PDT

Old project where we added a bathroom to the Master Bedroom

A small sample of my textbook. I feel like I'm back in Engineering school with all this studying!