Throughout our 5-year plan schedule to transition from full time work to full time cruising we have had many opportunities to “bailout”. I consider these as milestone decision points, moments where we would do a gut check to see if this is in fact what we want to be doing. Each milestone seemed to have evoked different emotions.
Selling our beloved About Time
This was our first decision point along the five-year plan. It was exciting to sell our boat to make room for the next one, while at the same time terrifying. We really loved our 32’ centerboard Sabre. She was a well-made boat that was fun to sail, and we knew the boat well.
But what if we sold this awesome, great boat to buy a larger boat that is full of problems?
This was just the gamble we would have to take if we wanted a larger boat. I was full of emotions when we sold her, and that is when I first thought about creating a blog to capture some of the feelings that this process brought on.
Accepting the offer on our house in Shell Point
We owned a fantastic, beautiful house in Shell Point that was such a well-built house it could probably take on a larger hurricane. A few points that crossed my mind regarding the house:
Should I question my sanity to leave such a solidly built house in an ideal setting to live in a small space, without the comforts of a water utility, or on-demand air conditioning? And the answer was yes, I do want to give full time cruising a shot.
Then Jimmy and I considered renting it out so that we could come back to it later in life and not lose such a gem of a house. However, we were not interested in dealing with managing a rental house in a hurricane zone from remote locations, so we planned to list the house for sale in a few years.
As mentioned in the Five-year Plan post, the offer from someone to purchase the house came as a surprise and was a bit early in our original schedule, but selling it when we did offered a large piece of mind.
The offer came in March 2021, but the sale did not close until January 2022. A few weeks before closing, Jimmy and I were walking the docks across the canal from the house. As we stopped to admire the house, Jimmy said to me,
“You know we don’t have to go through with selling the house if we don’t want to”.
I was surprised by the comment, but looking back, I am glad he said this because it provided a perfect “gut-check”. I looked at my dream house and truly felt ready for it to become someone else’s dream house.
Selling the kayaks
One of the first items we sold in our downsizing process in 2021 was our kayaks. The downsizing process probably deserves a stand along post, but the process of downsizing offered plenty of moments to ask myself “are you sure you want to do this?”. With the kayaks, I started out excited to start the downsizing process. I spent a morning cleaning them and taking photos. After doing some research on pricing I posted them online and it did not take long for someone in Shell Point to purchase them.
Once they left the house, both Jimmy and I felt sad to see the kayaks go, even though the new owners invited us to paddle them any time we wish. The sadness may have stemmed from the fact that it was a big deal to me when we bought them nearly 10 years ago. I had dreamt of owning a kayak for a long time and when we finally purchased them, we hauled them all over the place to explore lots of cool waterways in Florida. I think it caught us by surprise when both Jimmy and I felt a little blue once they left, even though it was a necessary part of the process.
Transitioning to a single car household
When we moved into our apartment, we were faced with a monthly parking charge per vehicle. We decided to take a gamble and sell one of our two cars.
A few factors led us to go for it. Jimmy and I had worked the same hours in the same office for years, carpooling as often as possible. Our new apartment was one mile from our office, making it very easy to walk to and from work if our hours do not align. In reviewing the costs of owning a car it appeared that we could save $2,500 a year by getting rid of a car that would most likely just stay parked.
Because Jimmy’s car was the workhorse (Jeep Wrangler) and I had a Volvo convertible coup, it made sense to sell my car. I had sold my last car, back in 2011 through a listing on Craig’s List, so I went for it again in January 2022. The car was gone 65 hours later. Since then, we have managed very well with just one car, even when the Jeep spent a week in the shop last month. We just relied on walking, taking the city busses, hiring a ride share, or renting a vehicle for the longer trips. Our costs have come nowhere near the cost of owning that second car and it gives us a chance to get into the cruising mindset since we will not own a car once we leave Tallahassee.
Signing a short lease on the apartment
When we first rented our apartment, we signed a 15-month lease, and had first intended to sign a second 15-month lease at the end of the first lease. Not too long after moving into the apartment we did some number crunching and felt that we already had just enough funds to start cruising now. However, we still had some loose ends to take care of, and honestly, probably not quite mentally ready for the big leap. In taking a closer look at things we wanted to accomplish, and to pad the cruising kitty (savings account) a little more, we agreed to renew our lease with a 7-month term instead of that 15-month lease as we originally planned. Once that lease was settled, we realized that we had a determined, known date to begin our full-time cruising. That felt like a big deal. It was pretty exciting and discussed in our “Signature required here...” post .
Giving our 1-year notice at work
Knowing that we would sign a short lease, causing us to be without a Tallahassee apartment in October 2023, we felt we should go ahead and tell our employer about our plans. I believe that they had a general idea that one day we may do this. They also saw some of the above decisions taking place, but they just did not know when it would actually be happening. I know a 1-year notice sounds crazy, but we felt it was courteous to give them a heads up, and it also allowed us to talk openly about our plans. We are fortunate to work for a municipality where we could be open and honest about our plans, as opposed to some places that may “let you go” if you have plans to leave soon. I will admit, it was strange to publicly announce that we would be gone in a year, yet it felt good to say so. Although they sort of saw it happening, I think it came as a little shock that we had a hard date to announce.
Moving Utopia to St. Petersburg
This was also a major mental milestone. Utopia has spent just over a year in Shell Point, a 30-minute drive south of Tallahassee and we spent nearly every weekend on the boat. Spending each weekend in Shell Point made me feel like I hadn’t quite moved away and was still a member of the community, although I think a few people had already considered us gone since we no longer had a house-home there.
Then we received the message that we would have a slip available in St. Petersburg as soon as January 1, 2023. In my mind moving the boat to St. Petersburg with the plan for her to not return to Shell Point was a big one, kind of like purchasing a one-way ticket somewhere, and sort of like cutting the umbilical cord to our life in Shell Point. It was a big sign and commitment for this future life of full-time cruising.
Being questioned by a colleague about early retirement
Then, a really big test came to me at work one day. Earlier this year a colleague of mine whom I had not seen in a while were discussing some pretty cool projects that I am working on. The topic of my quitting work in October came up. He was surprised to see me talk about walking away from these projects in the middle of construction because he knew how much I enjoyed my work and he directly asked me
“Are you sure that you want to leave work in the middle of these projects? Wouldn’t you rather put of retirement until the bulk of they have been completed?”
His question really sunk in as he asked it and created a surprising response within. It was like I felt the question pass through my bones seeking an answer. It just took a moment for the answer to become clear, and it came with a surprisingly strong feeling: The thought of putting off cruising was frightening me. I felt a need to do this now. To wait further would have been torture for me. This all rather hit me hard, and I was able to respond with a very clear conscience that, “this is something that I really need to do now, and I do not want to wait until later to leave”. I am so glad that he asked me so pointedly about leaving my career early. It provided me with a clear view that this is something I really do want to do now, and it is something I hang on to when some of the fears of planning the final months start to overtake me.
14 Weeks to Go
Now as future decision points come across Jimmy and me, they no longer are check points of “go or no go”, but are acting more like strong magnets causing us to wish we accelerate the plan. And this I hang on to as we reach the final fourteen weeks before slipping the lines, the final three and a half months to put our affairs in order.
My fears are no longer focused on our giving up the familiar, the comfort, and the security in exchange for a cruising life, which entails a lot of hard work, being uncomfortable, scared of weather, constantly learning new things, and giving up stuff that you might need one day. They now turn to the question of what needs to be done to pull this off? Am I forgetting something? Do I have enough time to get everything done? How in the world do I downsize again???
I do believe that it is human nature to second guess yourself, and to be nervous about the unknown. However, we have strong feelings to go cruising. Right now, I honestly do not think we will have regrets for doing this. I feel more concerned about having regrets if we do not do this. I am pretty sure that we could very well experience some lessons learned, but think we are going into this as educated as we can be.
Stay tuned as we work on the final countdown.
23-27
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