and so it begins

When Mike lost is job the week of our wedding, we joked that it was a sign from God to sell the house and buy a boat on our honeymoon in the British Virgin Islands.

We got hitched, went on a fantastic honeymoon ... but we didn't buy a boat. We did, however, pour over the yacht ads (yikes! talk about money on water) and dream. Maybe we could sell the house and move down here. I could be the floating librarian and he could teach others to sail or we could schlep tourists around. Sounds great!

Except we don't know how to sail. We both love boats and have always wanted to sail, but somehow never got around to it. It could be that we live in the Midwest, and while there are lakes and a big, muddy river just down the road, we've never had a boat. We don't want a motorboat. We want a sailboat.

We want this:

 

For four days we had this view from our balcony in Tortola (looking to Jost Van Dyke). Once back home, we did something that should have been obvious years ago, but we are young, carefree, and sometimes tunnel visioned: we Googled for sailing lessons or clubs in our area.

Lo and behold, there was one just across the river! We discovered they were holding a catamaran regatta, we crashed it, talked with some members, and the ball rolled.

Last Thursday we completed our basics class on Sunfishes and joined up with the club. Now we are waiting for the wind to come back so we can get back up there before it gets too cold and they roll the docks up for the winter.