Todd and Virginia started buying boats and learning the ins and outs of living aboard and cruising, with their first boat a Catalina 36. They purchased this in Newport Beach CA in 1998. Two years later they sold it after deciding it wasn’t the best platform for a potential around the world cruise, and after an extended search, purchased a Passport 40 in San Francisco in 2000.
They called this boat home for 13 years, and cruised locally in the Bay area, down to the Channel Islands, and enjoyed 2 cruises lasting 6 months on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. In 2012, they shipped the boat from La Paz to British Columbia, where they undertook to clear land and build a cabin on one of the Gulf Islands, continuing to live aboard their boat at a local marina. With funds diminished, they sailed down to Olympia Washington and returned to work to refill the cruising kitty. The next employment opportunity was in Tacoma so they moved their home North. After 2 winters in the PNW, they made a unanimous decision that any future boat of theirs would not be exposed to the frigid temperatures they had experienced.
And they decided they needed a bigger boat! Not just bigger, but a faster and more stable boat to do some extended cruising around the globe. That way they could accommodate friends and family in comfort, without having to share a bathroom!
This is the story of their adventures with their third boat, a Catana 471 cruising catamaran that they purchased from the Catana factory in France. This blog covers the seasons aboard in the Mediterranean. So far there have been 4 seasons with a modified 5th season (more of a relocation cruise) at this writing.
The cruising dream continues, and like most dreams parts of it are amazing and unforgettable, while other parts are much harder than imagined, but you always learn something along the way!