If you haven't read my previous stories be sure to check out: How I went from creating QuickPay for Quicken to selling almost everything to go live on a sailboat in the Caribbean and Sint Maarten to Virgin Gorda and almost crashing on the rocks
Living our new life in the Caribbean
(Our solar panels and looking at Honeymoon beach off St John)
I can't believe we did it! Here I was at the top of my career creating software and we up and move from our comfortable life in a 3,000 sq ft home and moved to a 44' sailboat in the Caribbean with the living space of a big camper. But we did it! So exciting and crazy at the same time.
How were we going to adjust to our new life? It is going to be so different from what we have been accustomed to. I'm certainly not the outdoors type. I've spent most of my life writing computer software at home and my wife was a hairdresser and city girl. So this new life is certainly going to be different.
Our Boat Setup
One thing about living on a sailboat is that you can easily live off the grid. We had solar panels to keep our batteries charged for the little electricity we did use. Some boats used wind generators which could be a little noisy and some just ran the engine a few hours a day. The extra benefit of running the engine meant you had extra hot showers for a few days which we would do at least once a week.
But most of the time we just showered off the back of our boat in the sunshine after taking a nice swim.
(This is the beach we stayed off of called Honeymoon beach)
Getting Supplies
We called our dingy our sports car and with the 15HP motor we just flew across the water. By anchoring off Honeymoney beach we were only a few minutes away from Cruz Bay where we would bring our laundry, pick up our groceries and dine out.
About once a week we would go over to the American Yacht Harbor in St. Thomas to fill up with fresh water and refuel if we needed. From there it was a short taxi ride to Kmart which made us feel like we were back in the States.
Life on the Boat
Talk about unwinding from life and getting away. After a couple of months we were acclimated to our new environment and we didn't miss any of the previous comforts of home. In fact I remember just relaxing on deck and saying how content I was and that I could do this for the next 30 years.
I would snorkel almost everyday and I would get to see the same fish.
(This huge brain coral was near our boat)
(It's like being in the most awesome salt water fish tank)
Every week we would sail off to another island and come back. One of our favorites islands was Tortola BVI.
One of the most embarrassing things that happened was when we were anchored at Cane Garden Bay and we were coming into shore with our dingy and the waves were really bad. I tried to time it just right but I couldn't lift the engine up and it hit the bottom and flipped us right out with the dingy flying over our heads.
Something like a combination of this:
And this:
Luckily no one was hurt and there was no damage done to the dingy or motor.
Working with Caribbean World Outreach Ministries
One day we get the urge to visit a local travel agent and walked in. She asked where we wanted to go and we didn't have an idea. She was a little confused and so we told her our story how we felt led to come down here. She makes a phone call to her pastor and says "Pastor, they're here!". They've been praying for people with our talents to help with a charity organization. It was a perfect fit. Our gifting is helps and administration and that's what they needed.
So we setup a small office in St. John and helped with the organization. We had a great time helping out and getting to know so many wonderful locals on St. Thomas where the church was. Going to an all black church certainly wasn't dull. Talk about powerful preaching with the congregation praising God.
I also put together a newsletter for the local boaters and community called the "International Islander Almost Daily"
Then Disaster Strikes
Hurricane season is from June to October and this year just so happens to be one of the worse seasons they've seen in a long time. We went through a few storms already and hurricane Luis was certainly the worse one so far.
To prepare for Luis everyone boarded up their windows and we put 4 anchors out in 4 different directions then wrapped the lines with duct tape at the hull to prevent chaffing. Then we took our sails down and went and stayed at our office. The storm turned and left very little damage. People took down all their boards and we put back up our sails.
Then 2 weeks later comes hurricane Marilyn and it didn't seem like it was going to be too bad so most people didn't do much to prepare. Doing my paper I saw that this one might be bad and so we prepared again to stay the night at the office.
We took our marine radio and we heard boaters that stayed on their boats calling out mayday and that they are drifting, hitting rocks and taking on water. The coast guard would tell them to put on their life jackets and that they couldn't do anything. Wow! I those poor people!
Our office was made of cement and did fine but when we walked out there was so much destruction.
(This is actual footage of the damage in St. Thomas from Hurricane Marilyn. Even a big coast guard boat was lifted on shore. Most of our time was spent over there and we saw all this in person.)
After looking at what happened to the boats in the harbor I thought for sure our boat would not be there. I know what faith. As I made my way up the mountain over the downed trees and being careful of the wires I looked down and saw our boat all by itself just floating there right where we left it. The only damage was the wind vane blew off. Wow!
For the next month we did what we could to help people get supplies through the ministry and to comfort our friends that were trying to put their lives back together.
Lessons Learned
- You can be happier with less stuff
- Live your life to the fullest
- Don't be afraid of drastic change
- People are more important than stuff
- Everything can be gone in an instant
Thank you for following our adventure and next time I will share about our time living on a farm in the middle of Puerto Rico.
Sources: Pictures by me and gifs by giphy.com video on Youtube by AP.
Wow really awesome. I wish I had the funds to be able to do this. Beautiful place to do it to!
Well, it really doesn't cost that much. You should see some of the boats people lived on. Plus anchoring is free. The people in homes by the beach pay millions while I was off the shore for free. :)
Do you have a mini wind turbine as well? it would be great to have, would give you constant energy.
Interesting posts. I'll probably run into you someday since I've been planning to do the exact same thing for a while with a 32'-40' boat. If you see a boat named the sea roach, that's probably me. I'm currently sitting on a bunch of gold, silver, and Bitcoin, and my only dilemma is if I want to wait for the economy to implode first to increase my boat buying power further as those assets I have increase, or if I want to try and get out of dodge first lol.
I'm currently focused mostly on silver. If you're not familiar with that market, you should read some of the posts I've made here:
https://steemit.com/money/@r0achtheunsavory/the-r0ach-report-vol-1-it-s-time-to-back-up-the-truck-for-silver
and the second half of this post where I called a $18.6 retracement before silver continues upwards, and that's what it's done:
https://steemit.com/money/@r0achtheunsavory/the-r0ach-report-vol-3-bitfinex-scamming-intensifies-and-more-on-the-silver-and-gold-markets
Well that was in 1995 and we moved to Puerto Rico in October to live on a farm for 4 years before needing to come back to earn some more money because the communications back then were not that great. Everytime it rained which was about everyday our phone lines would go out. But I think they are better now.
Yes knowing when to get out of dodge is a tough one. But we just might end up staying to see the fireworks :)
Wow!
I like the "selling big home and moving into a sailboat idea".
We sold our house and moved to Arkansas... not quite a tropical paradise...
No, but the duck hunting is great.
Really great post. It must have felt great to know you were an answer to someone's prayers. So did you ever get tired of this life? You said you thought you could stay there for 30 years. Did it ever get old?
Yes it did feel good. I don't think we got tired of it but life took us to another adventure on shore in Puerto Rico. So we only lived on the boat for one year.
I guess we'll hear about that one soon :)
what a life!!
Thanks for sharing!
Another enjoyable post! I feel like I'm living my life through your experiences. Thanks!
Thanks Arnold. I'm glad you are enjoying them.
This is something I want to do in the very near future. Minus the boat of course ( terrified of deep water and can't swim).
So you mean moving to a tropical paradise? Just not on the ocean, right? My next story is about our time living on a farm in Puerto Rico in a rain forest. Now that was someplace I also wanted to be for the next 30 years. :)
How amazing- This is the kind of life I want to live- really inspirational!
Thank you. That is my goal in telling my story is to inspire people to get out there and live life. Take chances. See the world.
Wow what an experience Mike! I can't wait to hear about PR. Hopefully a pack of Chupacabras didn't invade the farm!
Thanks, LOL. Yes the Chupacabras reports were many but I never saw one. For people that don't know that means goat sucker.
good for you to find a happy life your way.:-)
Thanks :) And I hope the same for you.
you're welcome and thanks.
This was so great! Really looking forward to hearing about the farm!
Yes, that will be next and what a wonderful experience it was. I really miss it and the people especially. We were treated like family from day 1 and we didn't know any Spanish. We were the novelty around there. The Gringos. :)
Man, that makes me want to go even more! I miss travelling!
I wish I could live in such a beautiful place.
China has many beautiful places too. Also someplace closer for you than the Caribbean is the Philippines. Plus it is very inexpensive. Boracay is a very popular destination: https://steemit.com/travel/@mikehere/tropical-paradise-boracay-philippines But there are so many wonderful places there and again the people are so nice.
Good stuff! Hey Mike your first link at top doesn't work, the html is "doubled up" with http - edit it while you still can!
https://steemit.com/life/@mikehere/.https://steemit.com/life/@mikehere/moving-to-paradise-from-creating-quickpay-for-quicken-to-living-on-a-sailboat-in-the-caribbean-part-1
Oh, thank you so much. It has now been fixed.
@mikehere - at least you're mortgage free, I guess anywhere in the world, in whatever sort of dwelling we may try to live in - there's always a catch so on ; "Live your life to the fullest" - I'll raise my glass with you on that !
Thank you for sharing this.
Yes and you can go off and catch your next meal. :) Yes that is something more people need to do. Thanks.
Beautiful nature.
Love your Mantra. And wow, what a story, such beautiful scenery the Caribbean :) Hopefully more to come!
Yes @lifeisawesome :) Love that. Thanks and yes there is much more to tell. Puerto Rico is amazing! They call it The Isle of Enchantment.
Wow. I'm a big fan of travel. Just haven't done much since we settled down. I do like watching others have fun though! :)
Lessons learned is the best part of your story for me, that is.. But with this said, it does take a lot of courage to stop and drop it all!! Kudos!
This is really cool! Makes me want to consider something like this in the future.....
Very inspirational. What a change from the normal 9-5 to living off the grid! Even more exciting is being drawn to an area that you can help with mission work!! May God continue to lead you and protect you.
Awesome personal story, thanks for sharing! I aim to be able to live off-grid and minimalistically being near the ocean :) Maybe one day I'll be able to relate to your beautiful experiences!
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