Preface - How the adventure began

When my father’s estate was settled in November 2003, we realized that we had the opportunity to accelerate our long term plan to go cruising by sailboat. At the time, David owned a 40 foot racing monohull called “O-My-God” .. a name he tried to live up to with daring exploits such as sailing over shallow banks on a falling tide.

O-My-God

We had a lot of fun on O-My-God, sailing in many races in Puget Sound and out into the ocean. But converting her to a cruising platform would have been a lot of work, without necessarily a comfortable result. So we decided we would look for a different boat, and specifically a catamaran. This type of boat met some very different criteria from each of us: David wanted a boat that was fast, light and shallow draft, while my preference was for stability, sufficient and accessible storage space, and a set up that I could handle by myself in case something happened to David.

David became interested in an Australian designer named Lock Crowther, who produced a number of designs that were built by individuals, and also did some work for the production company Catana. A limiting factor was our budget. I figured that we had about US$100,000 to spend on buying and outfitting the boat, which is a lot less than many of the newer boats on the market. So we were looking for an older boat, which we hoped would be less expensive so we could spend some money on up to date enhancements like navigation instruments.

There were several boats in which he was interested, one of which was sold to another buyer after we were promised we’d be notified if there was any activity. Prospecting trips to Florida and Australia yielded several leads but no results. Upon getting back from the lengthy flight from Sidney in January 2004, he noticed a new listing for a likely looking 40 foot Crowther in Cornwall, UK. “Hurry up and get on the plane!” I urged, fearful that this one, too, would be sold quickly. So off he went to see a 31 year old boat named Hi-Fi, who had been built by the current owners, Maurice and Anne Marie Nathan.

Maurice and Anne Marie Nathan

Maurice and Anne Marie had no children, and had sailed Hi-Fi around England, in the Mediterranean and back and forth to America. She had been sitting out of the water for several years while they came to terms with the end of their sailing days. We weren’t the first to be interested, but they immediately warmed to David and our plans to go on an extensive trip. It seemed very much a case of putting their “fiberglass child” up for adoption to the best set of parents available. A month of negotiations and a large wire transfer later, meant that we were the owners of a catamaran in Cornwall. The first thing we did was rename her Cheshire. Many catamarans have “cat” names (such as Jaguar, Ocelot, Aristocat..) and we like the image of a disappearing cat, with the smile lingering on after the rest has vanished.

Cornish harbor

Now all of a sudden, our trip began to seem real. We decided to aim to depart at the end of the year, given the time needed to prepare ourselves and the boat, and our intended first passage across the Atlantic to Portugal. Looking back, I can safely say that this year was the most difficult part of the entire trip. So much needed to be done, and so much was unknown. David went back to Cornwall to work on Cheshire in June. He called up long time partner in crime Sam Chapin to help sail her to the south coast of Portugal in October, so as to get across the infamous Bay of Biscay off the French coast before winter storms set in. I meanwhile had one of the busiest years at work that I can remember, while trying to research and initiate the process of packing up our lives and leaving.

David installs the depth sounder

Dolphins play around the boat

We decided to rent out the house, but to get rid of most of our stuff. There was no good place to store things in the house, and storage units seemed expensive and possibly risky (we heard stories of flooding, and of bills that didn’t get paid which resulted in the stuff being auctioned off before the owners could respond). We kept only things that we couldn’t replace and/or that had significant personal value, such as furniture made by David’s sister Judith. These were divided between storage at Judith’s and our friends Lisa and Paige, and our safe deposit box. We sold the O-My-God to friend and long time crewmember Dan Decker.

We were allowed 4 suitcases at 44 lbs each to take with us to Portugal, and the high cost of shipping boxes led me to decide that we would buy anything else we needed there or en route. I could go on at length about the process of downsizing and leaving in general - there were days I was not sure we were going to make it, but thanks to the help of many friends and family we got to the airport on January 30, 2004 for our transAtlantic flight.

Rossi Square by Luca Galuzzi www.galuzzi.it

Upon our arrival in Lisbon, we took a week to be tourists with a rental car, going up to Oporto and then back down to Portimao where Cheshire was berthed. It seemed so strange to finally see this boat I had been part owner for a year. She is not very big or fancy - there is just under 6 feet of headroom in the middle of the cabin. But she was sound, and we hoped to haul her out in Portugal, put on a quick coat of bottom paint and be off. As often happened on this trip, that was a bit optimistic! But a tenet of the cruising life is that there will always be unexpected delays or obstacles, and you just have to roll with it and adjust accordingly.

Looking back nearly 5 years later, this has been an incredible journey on many levels. There have been difficulties along the way, and now we are facing the challenges of trying to get back into work during a world-wide dep-recession. But the rewards have been priceless: the chance to visit remote places, meet new friends from many countries, and simply take time to enjoy where we are.

Our hope is to stay and work in New Zealand for a while, in part because we want to eventually go cruising again in the South Pacific. New Zealand is about 1,000 miles or 7-10 days sailing from several great destinations (New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga). We feel we could spend the rest of our cruising days exploring as far as Thailand and not exhaust the possibilities. We will see what happens!

Susanne Ames
Whangarei, NZ
June 2009