On this week's episode of Onboard Lifestyle we try to open up a bit more about our past. In part 2 we talk about moving back to the States and working hard t...

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hey guys welcome back to SB basic so

last week we decided to open up and

share with you a little bit about our

back story and we'll finish up filling

in all the blanks that's all the blanks

but some of them some of the blanks and

then we got to get back to work

yes we have a lot to do in the nursing

what is wrong with my mouth we're

speaking English right I got this I am

we have a lot to do in the next couple

of months tea ready to go so we got to

putting this up and get to work such a

slave driver

I know it's always worked but yes we got

to get back because we got a couple more

months before we cut the lines and some

sail so let's get this rolling

okay so our decision to go into sailing

and enter the cruising world was a big

decision to make and looking back now

teal did grow up in the ceiling family

but says he went sailing with his dad

and his brothers back in the late 70s

which I am shocked that he even made it

out alive looking at the pictures

reading his journal and reading all the

log and tree oh come on it wasn't that

bad it was a crazy time it was it was a

fun time no engine didn't need one bad

sails okay Oh give me that no navigation

we had okay we had some navigation we

had paper charts and rdf and on old

aranci so we knew within like 20 miles

where we were at all the time crazy

crazy and your experience was

I didn't I honestly did not have any

sailing experience I didn't know

anything about boating with the

exception of Lake boats I grew up near a

lake so that was the extent of my

experience on the water I I was deathly

afraid of the water

didn't know how to swim and my family

thought I was nuts they were like

you just can't you can't I don't wanna

smell

scare in the water and why would you go

sailing

it's just not practical yet okay here we

are

here we are so our first trip down to

the Sea of Cortez was life-changing it

it humbled us a bit we learned a lot we

we thought we we thought we knew

everything no you you sure once you're

out doing it what you learn about your

boat and how it handles how to anchor

properly where to anchor properly

navigation weather weather was big

weather kind of dictated everything yeah

it set our schedule yeah and if we had

to sit at anchor for a month we'd sit at

anchor for a month we'd find things to

do

yeah but yeah it really does I mean if

you want to travel safely and you're not

on a schedule you go by the weather then

you don't beat up yourself and you don't

beat up your boat

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so a lot of you guys have asked why we

sold a perfectly fine boat and went back

to the States

I mean here we are cruising down in the

sea Cortez everything looks great great

time but but again we're young kids at

the time and no pension no pension okay

we're just living off what we saved not

depopulation yeah it was dwindling and

we had basically a threshold of this is

the amount that if we get close to this

it's time to go back it's time to go

back to replenish the cruza kitty

so we got close and we decided it was

time to go back plus we had to start a

family

yes and so what we had to do was put our

boat up on the hard pack up all our

belongings that was the sad day wasn't

it was a really sad day god we've just

loved our life for the last three and a

half years and and now we're changing it

all and going back to work yeah so I

borrowed an old van from my father

loaded up all our belongings and we

drove north up the Baja Peninsula which

was a fun it was a fun interesting trip

up north oh it was but we're going back

to reality now we end up coming back to

Washington State and now it's time to

get serious we have to sell the boat and

get back into our working careers we

decided actually not to just put it on

the hard and wait until we built up our

cruise and Kitty and

yeah got back to it because we didn't

know when we were gonna go back out at

there again plus as much as we loved our

boat

it just wasn't it wasn't what we wanted

for long-term cruising yeah that was our

starter boat we knew that we wanted to

start a family and we wanted a little

bit more elbow room and a little bit

more for extended cruising now mind you

the last boat was great we loved it but

our fridge was only 1.7 cubic feet I

like how you say that

1.7 watt cubic feet I had to be so

careful right to pack we had 150 watts

of solar yep

so it was a bare-bones boat no interior

shower we ship we do solar showers on

the deck which is fine but if we go into

colder climates that would be a little

tricky so this Pollock was it was

bare-bones and we worked for us it

worked for us at the time so we wanted

we knew we wanted to evolve into a

better and bigger boat one plus we start

a family one that's more comfortable the

my biggest issue from going from the try

to the cat is that try was 41 feet but

it had a bowel spread we really had a

weekly weight we had a water line of

about 34 feet and so it would hobbyhorse

in choppy seas and it was a little

uncomfortable and we saw with the 40

foot boat versus ours the water life so

we would hobbyhorse but that extra

couple feet made a huge difference for

them so for comfort wise as well we knew

we needed more water because the boat is

light already and so it reacts to

weather and chopped really fast right so

that was another reason why that's the

big reason for man and so choosing this

boat we have a forty three and a half

foot cat now with a forty three and a

half foot waterline yeah and so this

should bridge those waves a lot smoother

and be much more comfortable for us and

we can go longer

and we got some elbow room so I mean

we'll go into some of those details

later but that is why we had to sell the

boat

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all right so the other question that a

lot of you have asked is finances how

were we able to afford a boat google

cruising well no big secret there's no

secret no we just worked we worked our

butts off when we decided to to purchase

our first boat we were in debt and we

just we started making lists fearless

yes I remember the list heeled with big

on spreadsheets so we just did a list of

wants and needs there's a your wands are

limitless I mean there's nothing that

you don't want right you want everything

and but your needs are really short I

mean you need food give you shelter you

need a little bit of comfort but the

want list went down to the boat that was

it that was the only thing we wanted so

we we just worked and we saved and every

bit of extra cash we had we were

chunking out the boat the boat payments

and we just paid it off it was amazing

how fast that goes down when you not

you're not spending money on all the

other permalinks and it is a sacrifice

yeah so you don't take vacation for a

year or two or three actually turn that

whole time we just were so focused on

getting that payment every vacation was

just working on the boat so that's our

secret it's not vacation no vacation no

vacation and we knew that the endgame

was that we were gonna go cruising so

why not just save all that vacation and

use it to go cruising that's what we did

yeah and so that's that's how we were

able to afford it did we save up enough

to go no probably not but but I don't

doubt what we did you know we looking

back we probably should have stayed one

more year saved up more but then we

would have lost those experience exactly

and so we can't regret that we decided

to leave a little too early because now

we know that we're gonna do it again

there is there's light at the end of the

tunnel yes again once again yeah and so

that's where we are now so now we're

back in Washington State

and we settled right in the middle of

the state Ellensburg Washington small

little town there's a reason why we did

this so at this point we have not driven

or been in the city or a big city

a few years him three to four years so

it was a lot overwhelming and we didn't

really want to jump right back to

Seattle just yet I haven't driven a car

at that point not forever and then we

had to regroup and figure out what we

wanted to do so teal has family in

Ellensburg Washington which is smack dab

in the middle of nowhere yeah but it was

a great little town or for the next

chapter of our lives I end up it's day

one we decide we need to get jobs we

need to go to work gotta start saving up

some money so I start a construction

company specializing in finished

carpentry I had never done woodwork

until the refit of Savannah and I really

enjoyed it so I thought why not do a job

that I enjoy I'll tell you why because

right when teal decides to start his

construction company the recession hits

that was awesome but we did well yes we

did real well teal was able to work

really hard and get a good reputation of

his work and it just kind of snowballed

from there I went and got my real estate

license but soon after yep

here comes out of affecting Emma so that

changed that plan change that plan so

now we decide to open another business

and now we're running two businesses and

working hard and we work hard for the

next ten years wait

we did but the first couple of years we

started working we and in between this

time we sold Savannah yes and we were

trying to kind of get back into the I

guess real world living on land and we

just weren't quite happy no it was we

tried really hard to just kind of

embrace find it find a groove yeah we

never found and we did it it was just we

never felt quite comfortable and we took

a trip to Bainbridge Island for the 4th

of July it was like one of our first

vacations in a long time and it was what

kind of vacation was that we drove there

and stayed in a Airbnb deal just to get

out of town for but it was a light bulb

moment again for us we were sitting

there and we're overlooking the water

and we were looking all these boats and

I looked at till they go how come we

don't have a boat again and he goes I

don't know I thought you didn't want one

I was like I've always wanted another

one

so that's how we started looking for

second path and all of a sudden

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everything changes fall again I am on

the hunt looking for a project oh yeah a

project bone we knew we're not gonna buy

a brand new boat so that's the next

chapter

so

lemon gives me the green light that's

awesome

spend about three years at this point

and we've been back from cruising came

back started our businesses they're both

running smooth and doing well so this

was gonna be a comfortable decision for

us to both make we had sold Savannah and

we didn't spend that money we put that

money in the bank and it was sitting

there waiting for you know our next

investment and this was gonna be hit so

we start searching and we're looking

worldwide I mean to find what we wanted

we're looking for a 40 to 45 foot cat a

project boat because I had a lot of fun

refitting our last boat and I was up for

it now I have a ton of confidence and I

knew I'm not gonna do a wood boat this

time so we're looking for synthetic and

we look everywhere and we had we're not

finding it didn't take long though

before one pops up we find a forty three

and a half foot custom catamaran 90 car

whole 25 foot beam and guess where it's

sitting in the world about 75 miles away

it was crazy we jumped on it we found it

on a Sunday we made an offer Monday

morning on it and we were the first to

reply and there was seven offers that

came in right after so we got it we're

the first ones in uh thank you Matt

Dunning multi-hole company you're

awesome

so now we go for sea trials we

absolutely love the performance aspects

of this boat the downside was it is a

project boat and we knew it we knew it

going in so we knew it was going to be a

long haul and buying the book at that

point gave us time to refit it so that's

what we did over the next year we gutted

the boat and it took a full year just to

get everything out of the boat we got it

to bear hulls and why it took so long is

because I'm working full-time

we're running another business we have

an infant at home and we'd only come

over to the boat it's in Seattle we're

in Ellensburg so we'd make the trek

across the mountains every Friday night

every Friday night for six years we'd

come over get up bright and early

Saturday work on the boat all day

Saturday spend the night on the boat

Saturday night and some primitive

conditions it was a project and then

head back home Sunday evening and then

work all week long just wishing to get

back to the boat goes on for six years

and it's taking that long because we're

paying everything out of pocket we are

trying to set ourselves up in a position

to go cruising again but we're doing it

six years later we have an opportunity

the boat is coming along to move on

board so we close up one of the

businesses the construction business

because that was the one that demanded

most of my time and we moved to Seattle

Lin immediately gets a job in Thailand

escrow and I run the other business from

the boat which is the millwork brokerage

and I brokered truckloads of wood to

contractors so I could still run that

remotely and work on this boat and now

we're living here so now we're in

Seattle we've moved over and we're

officially on board the boats getting

more comfortable it's not done not near

done but it's comfortable we have enough

rooms done we have a few staterooms done

we've got a head complete we have the

galleys in salons done so we have some

comfortable living areas and lights good

Emma's going to school at John Hay

Elementary right up the hill here Lynn's

working full-time now full time plus

she's working her butt off for a title

and escrow company that's walking

distance away I'm still working

part-time on my other business and I'm

getting plenty work done on the boat I

have enough time that I could just start

chunking out the projects

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but we can't just leave-- everybody

asked why don't you just go why don't

you just leave well couple reasons

you know we're not in a race to finish

this boat we want to make sure the boats

done right that's that's one big reason

we want to set ourselves up so we don't

have to come back so fast like we had

you last time three and a half years was

a blink of our eyes and we want to make

sure that we have saved up enough that

we can see a lot more of this world and

more importantly we wanted to make sure

that we have Emma's education taken care

of before we leave because we plan on

being away for upwards of ten years this

is an open-ended cruise so we have no

idea where it's going to take us but we

want to make sure that Emma could come

back to a full education when that time

comes so we're setting ourselves up for

some good times ahead so that's our

story can't wait for the next chapter

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