The Great Plan

Shake-down cruise, Maine, March, 2014

We have been planning this almost all of our adult lives - retirement and full time boating! A few years ago we realized that our time to get moving was coming up and we needed to get out of planning mode and into execution mode. We had owned sail boats all of our lives, sailed much of the Great Lakes, sailed Long Island, NY to Maine, and sailed with parents in the Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas and elsewhere. For us, it was time to think about comfort rather than economy; after much research, in May 2014, we bought Carousel, a 1999 Grand Banks Europa 42 foot trawler.

She was in excellent condition at Great Island, Maine. We spent a portion of the summer of 2014 driving every weekend from Long Island to Maine to do some cruising there since we might not be back that way for a while. During this time we both took a diesel engine course (because you can't trust machinery like you can the sails we had always relied upon) and practiced getting her in an out of tight places. We saw some great sights and anchored in some great locations.

Menemsha, Martha's Vineyard

We brought her down to Long Island just in time for 4th of July and spent the rest of the summer getting used to her and making a few minor fixes. We covered some territory, getting up to the top of Buzzards Bay, Hyannis, Martha's Vineyard (finding a new favorite spot at Menemsha), and our East Coast favorite spot of Cuttyhunk. We found that we could deal well with 3 to 5 foot waves at the right speed and, with two 600 gallon fuel tanks, we learned the value of looking for lower fuel prices!

Newport, RI harbor from our back deck

In 2015, cruising between 10 and 15 knots,  we spent several weekends exploring portions of the Connecticut and Rhode Island Coast that were always just a little too far away in our 6+ knot sail boat. But now the planning had to really begin!

Deb retired in November of 2015 to spend full time getting rid of 90% of our collected stuff and getting our Long Island home ready for the market. We started putting on spares, having the mechanic go over the engines in detail, buying extra fenders, updating charts and electronics software, and thinking in detail where everything would be stored aboard.

Now, only a few months away our daughter will be graduating from college and we will be heading up the Hudson river towards the New York Canal System and the Great Lakes! We plan to take plenty of time in the Great Lakes, leaving Carousel there for the first winter with us keeping warm in Florida.

This blog is primarily for us; to discipline us to take time to document our fun. But, many of our friends have asked for a blog, so, here it is! We are also linking this to CarouselCruising on Facebook for your convenience and because we can. :)

Welcome to Carousel's new social media channels!