The Game Plan

We returned to our world in Santa Fe excited and daunted to begin planning how to make this utterly life-changing vision a reality.

In January, 2020 we created a Sailing Reverse Vision to get really clear about what we wanted by asking the question: It’s June 1, 2021. We’ve succeeded - we’re ready to begin our circumnavigation adventure. … What does it look like? What does it taste like, feel like, smell like?

In re-reading some of the steps that we aspired to complete in the Reverse Vision before setting sail, we kindly embrace our naïveté today. Truth is, we’re just scratching the surface on things that take a lifetime to learn much less master: marine weather, sailing skills, systems maintenance, and navigation to name a few. As if these were fully learnable prior to departure.

After the visioning, we went old-school and used Post-It notes to map out the entire process, one large sheet of paper for each quarter in the 2020 calendar year which turned into a sheet for each month, and then to a countdown of days.

We dismantled our lives in every way imaginable and left the familiar behind. Wendy stepped down from her leadership position at a philanthropic foundation. Peter sold his business of 25 years. There was grieving and goodbyes. Both of our Moms passed away, Wendy’s in early January 2020 and Peter’s in early April 2020, representing the last of our parents. We said farewell to many friends and colleagues, but there was no farewell party during COVID-19. And hardest of all, albeit temporary, tears and hugs for our family - Shane and Sam, siblings, extended family, and Kona, our dog.

We conducted an epic downsizing. Wendy sorted through years of accumulated personal photos and memorabilia to pare down things she’d procrastinated about completing for years.

We gave furniture and other belongings away to family and friends. We donated other possessions to various art organizations and non-profits. We took trips to the landfill. We sold our home and sold nearly all of our remaining possessions at an estate sale at the end of 2020.

We took an epic 5,000 mile road trip to Big Sur in early 2021 before selling Peter’s beloved motorcycle. With no place to live, we were lucky to land at the home of our generous friends for a couple of months before we left New Mexico with a few bags in Wendy’s VW Golf R which we later sold just before setting sail.

Back to the Post-Its, one of the notes simply read: Buy a boat — easier said than done. We had to break it down further. What do we need to know?

Answer: a lot more than we did at the time.

Months of diligent research followed. We devoured books and articles, consulted seasoned sailors and world cruisers, and traveled during the rolling shutdowns of COVID-19 to look at boats around the country. We visited the major sailing centers like Annapolis, the Connecticut shore, the Seattle area, Tortola, even lesser-known places like Port Arthur, Texas, and Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana — we went wherever there was a boat that might fit the bill. We walked thru many major boatyards and marinas and closely examined dozens and dozens of boats.

Eventually, our focus narrowed to one of the first boats we saw - the Outbound 46. We loved its robust construction, practical layout, and it’s built for purpose design. Yet the few available used Outbounds for sale weren’t quite right. They needed costly repairs or upgrades which made it financially unattractive, nor did we want to spend the time required doing the work.

We followed the advice from more than one seasoned sailor: do you want a boat project or do you want to go sailing? That’s when we made the decision: we would commit to having a new one built, and signed the contract for Hull #76 on December 19, 2020 and then went sailing.

At the same time, we knew we had to prepare ourselves. We needed skills and knowledge far beyond what either of us had. One of the best decisions we made was to embrace experiential learning.