Hey ya'll, Atlanta Ga newbie

[jacket_fan]

Greetings,

Great forum you have here. I have enjoyed my time lurking and reading.

I am a 50 year old aerospace engineer and am doing some retirement planning. Did a Google search and found this forum.

I never thought much about sailing until a group of friends chartered a boat from the Moorings in St Martin. I expected to be seasick, bored to death, have claustrophobia and ready to come home. The experience could not have been more different. The wife and I had a fabulous time. We have since sailed with the Moorings 3 more times and have another trip planned for this June. Having a captain and cook is great, but it is time to step up to the wheel (tiller?). It is interesting how things change. As a boy, my Dad had a 17 power foot boat that we occasionally went out on. My recollection was that it was lots of headaches and hard work for a very short time on the water. I have sailed a Hobie a few times, once on a keel boat and once on a local lake in a 33 foot sailboat. I never had a real desire for sailing. I opted to learn to fly. Now that I am over the hill, relaxing on a sailboat in a temperate clime sounds really good. My best buddy has an airplane now and I can fly vicariously through him. The prime driver is that the wife is ready to get out of the rat race today, get a catamaran and head south. Finances and kids in school preclude that option right now. Although, our 12 year old is ready to drop out of school and come with us. I suppose we could boat school him…

I plan to lurk here and maybe ask a few questions and ponder how I am going to afford to put kids through school, get a boat and cruise the Caribbean.

[Charlie]

As far as putting the kid thru college if you stop working they will probably qualify for lots of grants. As far as boat schooling there are plenty of resources here that will talk aobut kids and home schooling. Just remeber it is not all going to be as nice as with a Moorings boat. After all you won't have a cook, a captain, or a mechanic. Well actually you will they will be you and your wife. On the other hand I wish my wife would throw in the towel and agree to go sailing fulltime. Everything else is ready except for maintenance on the boat and that never ends.

[dacust]

I'm from Atlanta as well (Woodstock, actually). I got here kinda the same way. I've been into boats for a while, always motorboats, though. But I think about sail boats more and more. So I started hanging out in here a few days ago and got hooked. One thing I learned was in a thread talking about the operational costs of sailboats vs motorboats. I had no idea that sails were that expensive! And only last about 5 years under hard use. Yikes. But, still, even though I've never sailed, I can imagine there's nothing like it. I got a feeling that once I do it I'll be hooked.

FYI: You probably have already found this out, but there are sailing schools up on Lanier.

I keep my boat in Charleston and go down there about every other weekend.

[Hud3]

Hi, Mark, and welcome.

Once the sailing bug bites, you're done for. Good luck on realizing your dream!

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Mark,
Welcome aboard! Good to have you here on the forum.
Hope you can follow your dream.
Kind Regards,
JohnL

[slomotion]

Welcome, Mark

Your biggest mistake was chartering in St. Maarten. No wonder you're hooked. What were you thinking? - there's no hope for you now.

P.S. We kind of like St. Martin, er Sint Marten, er whateverver......