Sailing Away
Retirement living. Sailing or RVing? The latest estimates suggest that over 1 million people in North America are travelling full-time in RVs, most of whom are likely retired. I could not find a similar estimate for retirees that decide to travel the world on a sailboat. I suspect that it might be a similar number.
Lorraine and I went sailing on Saturday. On this boat, a Hunter 39, the Equinox.
We spent an entire day on Georgian Bay although we did anchor for a few hours at Beausoleil Island. Here are a few shots of this island in northern Ontario.
The weather was mixed. Sun and cloud. Wind gusting up to 40 kph, or roughly 25 mph. Enough to warrant reefing the mainsail.
We were able to hit 8.1 knots, , pretty much the top speed of this sailboat, often leaning in excess of 20 to 30 degrees when hit by the strong gusts of wind.
Much calmer once we anchored.
Rob and Evelyn were our hosts for the day. They run a great ship and you can learn more about their expeditions on their website here.
Rob and I spoke at length about the similarities between sailing and RVing — the mechanical challenges and the time spent in maintenance.
There is an appeal to travelling this way however the living space is really tight. Sailing full-time takes minimalist living quite a bit beyond what Lorraine and I are doing right now. Sailing full-time would also be far more demanding in terms of dealing with the elements.
Fun for a day but not something we would consider doing full-time.
We do follow a number of people that have transitioned to sailing full-time. Some, like Nikki and Jason, went from RVing full-time to life on the water full-time.
For Lorraine and myself, we prefer our land yacht.
Richard so glad to you had what we call a “brochure sailing experience”. I still miss Prodeo a lot – being out on the lake with just the wind to move you along – nothing better. It makes up for all the times you have to motor because there is no wind 🙃.
They also say the best two days in a sailors life are the day he buys the boat and day he sells it – in between is a lot of maintenance and expense (once a part is labelled boat, it seems to cast three times as much). But totally worth it for those brochure sailing days.
Hope you’re enjoying summer.
Marg