realistically, there is a huge plan to be laid out when taking off on such an adventure. for years, we've made mental lists of remote, tropical locations, noted unspoiled and/or endangered flora and fauna to be seen. i've lusted after residencies in sun drenched italy or misty ireland, while kevin poured over blog after blog of cruisers in "preparation". now it's time for rubber to meet the road. so while you've been pondering "what's next?", we've been busy busy busy. i've been developing massive changes to this site. creating a shop page, details on "the plan", developing plans for "the book", and on and on. there's the route. putting together those mental lists into actual destinations and working up a map for you to follow. and the important part - the actual boat.
what do we need in a boat? in the beginning, we thought a boat somewhere in the neighborhood of 40' would be a good sized. long enough for safe passage across the oceans, but easily handled by two and not too pricey would fall in that range. something with a shorter draft would be good so we don't have to be too concerned about shallow mooring. we'd love, love, love a catamaran, but we are talking an artist's budget. the length of the boat also determines all kinds of fees - mooring, canal passage, etc. lately however, while looking at different boats, the idea has occurred to us that if we had something slightly larger, a second berth could be converted into studio storage. although i'm not planning on taking the wax supplies with me, there are other supplies and tools i'd like to take along. and there's the remote possibility of picking up new tools along the way. cough, cough! and there will be space needed to accomodate the world's slowest art delivery service. while we were leaning towards a 36-42' pedrick or maybe a c&c, the thought of having a v-berth in the forepeak has a certain appeal.
whatever we end up with, we're anticipating extensive fixing up and renovations along the way. based on the experience and expenses of pat, ali and crew at bumfuzzle, our preliminary budget looks something like this:
- $48,000 boat
- $8,000 miscellaneous boat bits
- $7,500 new sails, main lazy bag and shipment
- $5,400 autopilot with installation
- $3,000 dodger (welder and canvas)
- $2,700 canvas sunshades
- $2,600 backup outboard motor
- $2,045 new hyphalon RIB
- $1,900 ticktack wind/speed/depth
- $1,335 new batters and starter
- $1,060 300' chain
- $960 lines, rigging
- $925 companionway hatch
- $710 EPIRB (emergency stuff)
- $700 engine parts
- $700 inverter
- $650 refrigeration service/parts
- $750 lifelines and cat overboard prevention nets
- $450 charts
so we're looking somewhere around $90,000. that being said, feel free to buy some art. please!