Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Ok – so it proves I haven’t bored everyone to tears with the recent comments on our home renovation fun.  Thanks for the comments – at least I know it’s the stats engine that’s giving problems.  I haven’t the energy to troubleshoot further.  Will do sometime soon.

It’s taking a little longer to complete the top floor apartment than expected.  The kitchen renovation keeps on throwing surprises each of which adds hours to the job.  Again – we’re making progress but we’re now behind on this element.  Overall we’re gaining ground as we’ve hired a local chap to paint all of downstairs.  That means we’ve just got the downstairs kitchen to do and lighting / fixtures.  This will be easier as there are no walls to knock down – just cabinets to replace.  So I’m guessing we’ll be aboard Dignity around the 29th.

A little more on Plan B.  Now that we’ve had to consider this we’re liking the idea more and more.  To the point that even if the markets dramatically improve over the next 12 months we’re likely to go ahead with this anyway.  While the boat is reasonably new, now is the time.  We’ve been in contact with the folks who host the website Catamaran Sailing.  Early indications are encouraging in that we can make a go of this.  The idea of returning to any of our past lives simply doesn’t appeal.

Of course this will delay our journey west a bit.  However, one option to consider would be to work our way west, Caribbean -> Belize -> Tahiti, with decent breaks between.  Who knows.  Not a bad problem to have.

Anyone reading this blog?  I just checked the stats and it reads as is if noone has been reading for last 9 days.  If you’re reading this, please comment.  That will help me determine what the problem is.

Just to keep things interesting it seems Tropical Storm Omar is heading right for BVIs. Going to have to watch this one closely. Here is the NOAA prediction for Omar.

It feels like an eternity since we bought our investment property. First day in had us creating enough of a clean space for us to get out of the motels and into the place.

Our general focus is to get the top unit ready before the bottom unit. So far we have made the bathroom good, cleared off all the window fittings (top and bottom) sanded windows at the top and begun painting, gutted the kitchen, cleared out miles of old cabling and filled all holes.

In between we have hired a truck and moved all our gear that was in storage into the downstairs unit (for now) then collected all the boxes to go to St Martin and taken them to the shipping depot. I have since learned I need to go back and let the air out of our scuba tanks.

Yesterday the builders started and gutted the basement. It’s mostly done but a lot of clearing is still needed. Once this is complete the basement will be reinspected and termite damage resolved. We have an engineer coming in on Tuesday to fully assess a bowed wall which will require bracing. Once this is done we will have the basement treated for mould. Finally we will have a lockable room put up in one corner where we can store some stuff when we finally get out of here.

The property agent has already been in to provide advice and get the ball rolling on marketing the place.

Today we are going to focus on the upstairs kitchen and more painting. Ben and Sam are coming over to help which should get us ahead of things. The kitchen is still quite disgustingly greasy. First will be to clean everything down. Then we’ll place Formica over the back wall and put down flooring. Then we’ll put on the cupboards and work surface / sink. We may leave plumbing in the sink until Monday when we have a plumber coming in for other stuff. I can handle most of it but the drain is a bit decrepit and in need of professional attention. Apart from replacing the extractor fan that should be it. We’ll probably pop by the carpet guy today and order an upstairs fitting. By the end of this week the top floor will be completely done and we should be well progressed with downstairs.

It’s now looking like we won’t get down to the BVIs until the end of the month. We will leave to St Martin as soon as possible as our gear arrives on November 2nd. Then it’s more projects. No rest for the wicked.

Two messages today.

First is we finally closed on our investment property. Unfortunately the seller left it in the same messy state it has been left for the last year or so. The seller came up to clean but had a death in the family so it didn’t get done. So this afternoon and evening has been focussed on getting the place so we can at least sleep and wash while we work further. Builders are lined up to do the bigger repair work so we’re all go on the house front.

Now for Plan B. When we made the decision to leave earlier this year we knew there was risks to our savings. We structured things so we could go for a couple of years without having to touch the riskier stuff – ie our equities. Our worst case scenario was that if things went badly south we would wait until our primary funds ran out, we would start to figure out ways to earn money while living aboard. We had no detail behind Plan B, merely the faith that together we could figure something out if we had to.

Well, given the crapshoot going on right now we’ve decided to invoke plan B. In the short term it changes little. However, beyond the end of the first sailing season we need to have something going. Our favourite idea is to leverage the boat directly and do some skippered charter work providing full service vacations to folks. Alternatives would be to leverage our past skills and look for ways to make a living remotely or even come back to the mainland doing contract work.

We would do this for as long as it takes for the markets to return to somewhere nearer normal. In some ways this is quite exciting as this will be a big change for us which is precisely what we both feel we need. Once things pick up then we’re back to plan A. For now we must focus on getting our investment property sorted out and rented. Hopefully we’ll be heading to the boat before the end of the month and begin the projects aboard Dignity. Eventually we’ll have time to think more deeply about our new challenges.