Kolibrie - About Us| Kolibrie - About Us |
| ____________________________________________1987 Cutter Rigged Bayfield 36 |
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What
do you do for a
living?
Well, as of July 1st
2008,
we’re both officially “retired” from our careers as an entrepreneur in
the
chemical manufacturing business and a secondary high school science
teacher. We’ve officially closed up shop, put the textbooks away
and have
begun expanding our horizon aboard our 36 ft sailboat.
Wayne’s
always held an avid interest in sailing and Pat’s always had an
avid
interest in rocks. Not a good combination if you think about it. But
when the
sailor takes the geologist sailing in the Virgin Islands and the San
Juan
Islands off of Washington State and the geologist also falls in love
with the
salt air (do you think that was his plan???) – you can bet we both
decided we
should try out the cruising life and needed to figure out if this was
something
we could make happen. The idea became more of a reality when we
started
seriously looking at boats and found one in Noank, Ct. For me it was
love at
first sight, and I knew that this was our boat.
Our
original plan was, if Pat could get a sabbatical from teaching,
we’d spend
a year on the boat, setup oceanography studies along the way to share
online
with students and, if all went well, she’d return to teaching for
another 3-5
years, then - go cruising. That plan fell through, but the idea was
still there
- to explore our surroundings via our boat, so after going over all the
pros,
cons, and questioning, “can we make this work?” … We decided that we
weren’t
getting any younger and that if we were going to do this, we had to
make it
happen.
The
summer of 2007 we spent exploring various islands, ports and the
North
Channel while moving our boat around from southern Lake Michigan (our
home for
Kolibrie for 4 years) to Lake Erie. We used this time to see if we
could live
onboard for a couple of months and still maintain our sanity in close
quarters.
We did. So 2007 was a year of some soul searching, discussions and
plans, which
ended in Pat giving notice and ending her career as a teacher. So
here we
are…
So
back to my original question when I started this blurb about us
“What
do you do for a living?” Well, quite simply – We just live… After all,
that’s
what we’re here for – to live our lives. We were blessed to be able to
have the
opportunity (and to make it happen) to explore our world, our lives,
and our
dreams. Are we lucky? You bet, but that luck was not happenstance – we
made it
happen. It’s never been easy, or a comfortable choice to make (to pick
up and
leave everything). It was a decision to get out and live life anew.
We’re trying to stay flexible (as far as planning an agenda). Summer of 2008 we’re taking the boat from Lake Erie through the Erie Canal (Tonawanda to Waterford); Then down the Hudson – short visit and holla to the Big Apple; Then the Chesapeake, and the inter-coastal waterway (aka the ICW, aka “The Ditch”). We’d like to be in Florida by the end of the year then by January or February of 2009 we hope to be in the Bahamas cruising our little buns off… then we’ll decide where to go from there (Caribbean?)… There’s talk of returning home for hurricane season… there’s talk of Trinidad for hurricane season. Then, there’s just a lot of talk… we’ll see… This website was built in hopes of sharing our trip with family and friends and whomever else finds it and wants to see what we’re up to. I probably keep up with my blog/diary more religiously than I do the website. Both are power related, time related, and Internet access related as to what gets updated or worked on (think of it as island time). Any errors or items of interest please email us. We’d love to hear from friends – past and future… Fair W inds and Calm Seas Pat & Wayne SV Kolibrie |
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