How did this happen???

We received a question from one of our Patrons, I thought it’d be a great topic to discuss here! 

The question was geared towards how we’re able to do this…The planning process, financially, and simply making the leap to do it.

The process began just about two years before we bought the Lazy Gecko. We were in debt like most people and were on track to continue the same path if some drastic changes weren’t made. Jeremiah was coming up on his retirement from the Marine Corps and he was deciding what path to take next. People in his field usually go right to work as a contractor for a government agency or large military style aircraft manufacturer. He was on track to go the safe route when he mentioned he felt like he wanted something different. We started searching and found Lahowind, a sailing blog and then Delos. We were hooked. 

We looked at our situation and made some drastic changes. We got rid of every single bill that wasn’t necessary like television, iPhones, etc. The only thing we did keep was the internet since I was still in school and needed it. Not to mention we couldn’t give up watching our favorite YouTube channels. Doing this meant no spending at all…That was the biggest change. No going out to dinner, movies, random shopping, coffee…If we didn’t need it to survive, we didn’t buy it. That way we had money to use for paying everything else off. 

The next step was to downsize. We sold every piece of furniture that wasn’t being used and moved into a basement apartment. We also sold one of our cars and shared the other which was already paid off. This helped us to save, save and save some more. Two years passed rather quickly and Jeremiah retired from the Marine Corps, now it was time to buy the boat. This was the moment that was the “leap”….We weren’t searching for employment…Instead we were searching for a…boat?? It was different. 

Thankfully we were able to move into one of my mothers short term rental properties for 3 months and only had to pay the household bills plus a small amount of rent. We decided to start small and only buy a boat that we needed to get us by for 37k cash. This helped ease the process of knowing if this was really going to work for us. The first 8 months were rather scary since Jeremiahs retirement and disability didn’t kick in right away. It turned out that we were able to live off of $1500 per month for the first little while from our savings. Once Jeremiahs retirement and disability kicked in things got a little more easy for us and we could relax a bit.

We spent two and a half years on the Lazy Gecko saving all we could for our next boat. We continued to live frugally and only spent money on things we absolutely needed to spend on. This allowed for us to make the jump into a bigger boat like Calypso. Its just like buying your dream home, if you know that you want to spend the rest of your life somewhere doing something then why not save and plan for it so you can do it? So we did just that and couldn’t be happier. We now have a mortgage just like a lot of people have on their home or land. This was a hard decision for us since we’ve lived for so long with the motto of being completely debt free but the reason we did that is to get into our dream home, Calypso. 

In short, it first takes a decision…Committing to something, even if it doesn’t fit the mold. Then planning and acting on it such as making a minute to minute effort not to spend. Then you’ve got to take the leap away from the norm and go for it! 

Did I have doubts? Yep…Jeremiah did too…We both didn’t even know that much about boats or if we would like being on one so much. It’s worked out though and we’re loving it! 

I provisioned today…Tomorrow we’re washing the boat and celebrating by (Brittany’s) birthday before staging at an anchorage close to the inlet on Sunday for our crossing to the Bahamas. Do you remember Ted from an earlier episode? We met him at a meet and greet and became friends, he took us sailing on his boat once! Well he’s always asked about coming on the crossing with us. We have an extra room so why not? He’s flying in on Sunday evening, we’ll grab him from a dock and bring him out to Calypso before departing. 

The weather window looks pretty much perfect on Sunday night, we plan to depart from Fort Lauderdale at about 2200 and sail straight to Green Turtle for our check in with 2 stops along the way. 

You’re coming along with us! Remember you can track us as well! See you soon!