Leaving Land Life

We sold the house and have the check.

Previously we shared some of our efforts related to clearing out the attic and having a yard/moving/estate sale. Here we continue with some more of the adventures.

60 Pounds of Kitty Litter

We found a lot of surprises in the attic. Most of it was not suitable for the yard sale and needed to be thrown out. (Yeah, so why did we not do this before? We asked ourselves that same question.) We counted 25 cans of paint that had accumulated over the 25 years of home improvement projects.  Most of the cans had labels, but quite a few did not. Many were nearly empty and were latex paints. (Again you ask, why did you not throw them away?). A few cans were more than half full of oil based paints, which posed an added challenge for disposal because the cans cannot contain paint that is still liquid. We read that we could mix the paint with kitty litter! It took 60 pounds of kitty litter but by the end of the day we had solidified all the paint for proper disposal.

Just pour in the kitty litter and stir!

Fossils in the Attic

Hidden in one corner of the attic we re-discovered Tracy’s “rocks”.  After 25 years of avid collecting, Tracy had accumulated about 25 file sized boxes filled with fossils, shells, and bones. Most of these treasures had been collected from sites and beaches in North Carolina, with a few shells from the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii, as well as some fossils collected from Ohio and Illinois. Tracy took four days to carefully sort through each box, and each box within a box, to decide which fossils and shells she would keep, and which she would give away. You might wonder how difficult it was to get rid of something that was so highly prized for many years.  The truth of it all was that it was completely refreshing to only keep those that were truly special.  Tracy didn’t get rid of all of her collection, but brought it down to a manageable 6 boxes. 

Half the effort in getting rid of stuff is finding a new home. The bones went to a good friend, Gail Cannon, who is also an avid collector of fossils, shells, and bones.  A neighbor suggested that Tracy should donate some of her shells to a charter boat in Beaufort that takes visitors to the barrier islands. They hand out shells to the kids that come back from the beach empty-handed.  Rather than donate some fossils to the Aurora Fossil Museum, which would involve a day trip to Aurora, she donated them to the Duke Marine Lab.  The marine mammal fossils went to a couple of researchers studying dolphins, and the invertebrate fossils went to an invertebrate researcher who runs an outreach program.  

524 Books

As scientists and avid readers, we have been collectors of books.  Combined in the attic, two bookcases, and the bedroom closet, we still had hundreds of books despite previous purging efforts.  Tracy had donated two truck loads of textbooks, technical, and leisure books to the Duke Marine Lab.  Some of Bud’s technical books and textbooks went also to the Duke Marine Lab.  His large collection of fiction and nonfiction books were donated to the Webb Library a few blocks from our house. We had regularly visited this library over the years and were well-known to the staff. We hoped they would want some of this collection. Asked by the staff how many books we had we said we really hadn’t counted – maybe about 10 boxes or so.  When we arrived back an hour later and opened the bed of the truck, the librarian was a bit shocked.  We probably had twice that amount of books, 524 to be exact!  The library was pleased and assured us they would find some new homes for the books.

A subset of all the boxes of books.  Liquor boxes work the best! 
No, they were not from our consumption!

You Have Been Summoned

Neither of us had served on jury duty in all of the years we had lived in North Carolina. Of course it would be most inconvenient now just before closing on the sale of the house to get a summons. Bud was summoned to appear before Superior Criminal Court in Beaufort on 14 May! Recall we were supposed to close on the house on 7 May and that we expected to be aboard Leilani by then. We read in the summons that Bud could be excused from jury duty IF he could show proof of a new residence, such as a piece of mail with our new address. The problem of course was that we hadn’t moved yet, and we had no mail.  Fortunately we had address through a mail forwarding service in Green Cove Springs, FL. We figured we could send a letter to ourselves as evidence of our new address. Coincidently, and even better than our letter, we also received a letter from an internet provider welcoming us to our new address.  We requested the mail forwarding service to scan the contents and send us a pdf, which we could then send on to the courthouse. We had only a few days before closing on the house and we needed to find out if Bud had been excused. We received notice of mail from the Superior Court in our mailbox. The St. Brenden’s Isle Mail Forwarding service has proven to be incredible. We asked if they could open the letter and then read it to Bud over the phone! He was excused from jury duty. We had not anticipated how valuable this mail forwarding service would be in allowing us to view our mail and decide whether to shred it or forward it.  They will even deposit checks for you at the bank!        

The Last Load of Laundry

The last couple days before closing on the house were a bit of a blur.  There was so much to do. We rented a storage unit for the few pieces of furniture and other keep sakes. All of our remaining belongings were now going be held in a 10’ by 7.5’ unit (75 square feet) or on the boat. As we quickly realized our truck would not be big enough for all that we needed to transport to Leilani, we rented a 5’ by 8’ U-Haul trailer to take stuff to the storage unit and then on to Leilani.  Between packing up clothes and the kitchen, shuttling stuff to the storage unit, taking donations to the local thrift store, securing Layla, and packing up the trailer, we were exhausted. When we finally arrived at Leilani in Brunswick, GA, we took two naps a day just to recover!  A few miles down the road on the trip to Georgia we remembered we left the last load of laundry in the dryer! That was going to be a surprise for the new owners- a load of underwear and socks.  We laughed and wondered how long it would be before they discovered the “unmentionables” in the dryer. It took only a couple of days to hear from them.

Our shuttling trailer

Our storage unit still has room for more stuff!

The attic did get emptied!

A last look through the house before leaving.

All that was left were the few items that the new owners wanted.

Nothing left in the bedrooms but the beds.

One last look at the house before heading to Brunswick.

UPDATE

We are finally living on Leilani full time. As we are no longer burdened by having to maintain a 160 year old house AND a boat, we feel liberated!

We spent a month in Brunswick, Georgia unpacking, purging, and finding a place for all of our stuff aboard Leilani. One month to the day after arriving in Brunswick, we were on the water and headed south.   

We had lots of stuff to sort through before we could head south.

A manatee greeted us on our dock before we left.

Leilani heading out from Brunswick Landing Marina.

We are now in Fort Lauderdale, provisioning and waiting on several packages before we head down to Key West.  Stay tuned for our next post where we will reveal more about where we are going next. 

You can see where we are, often in real time when we are underway, by clicking on the link on the map above on the left side of our blog.  If you are viewing the blog on a mobile device, you will need to scroll down to the bottom and click on “view the web version” to see the map and related panels.  

Anchored at Cumberland Island the first night.

Sunrise on our overnight passage from St. Augustine to Vero Beach.

The seas were very calm and the winds very light for most of our trip down to Fort Lauderdale.

Dispatches From the Yard Sale and Prepping to Sail

Previously, we told you we accepted an offer on our house and that shortly we would be houseless, but not homeless. The immediate plan was to sort, sell, pack, purge, and then move aboard Leilani. 

 “We should have bought more crap”

Now just days before closing, it is all beginning to sink in. We have really “done it”. Once we made the decision to sell the house, we are now tumbling down a path from which we will not turn back. This is going to be someone’s new house and we must be out of here.

As most Americans, we admit we have been on an acquisition spree for decades. Despite sorting and purging in our previous moves, it was overwhelming how much stuff we had. You too are probably grimacing as you ponder all of your stuff. We have seen that in our friends and neighbors. It’s OK, just do what we did - postpone the painful process and go back to doing anything else EXCEPT sorting and purging. It will be there when you think about it again. That’s pretty much how it all goes, and the years just go by and the piles get higher. We all need to face it -That pile of stuff represents chronic deferred decision making.

Chronic deferred decision making in the attic now demands attention

Living room BEFORE the sale and chaos

Living room AFTER the sale and amid the chaos.  These will eventually be taken to Leilani.

Fireplace room BEFORE the sale and chaos

Fireplace room AFTER the sale and amid the chaos.  These will eventually end up in a storage unit.

You will be surprised, as we were, with how liberated you feel once you start to unload that weight off your shoulders. Of course there is no way around it – it is a lot of work and it is exhausting. 

We chose a Friday and Saturday for the Estate/Moving/Yard Sale “EVENT” and advertised on CRAIGSLIST and Yardsales.net. We also posted several signs along the roadside. This was a real challenge and we are thrilled to have it over. No, it is not really bitter sweet as some of you have asked. It feels so good to get rid of all of that and we know some of it has gone to some good homes.

We have compiled some of those moments as well as some of the lessons we learned from the two day Estate/Moving sale event.   

Adults behaving badly

Apparently, it is a very common that estate/moving/yard sale people arrive early - sometimes very early. We heard that some early birds may arrive before sunrise armed with flashlights to “peek at what’cha got”. Despite posting that the sale would begin at 8:00 am, a few shoppers began to show up at 7:00. After suggesting to one of the early birds that he should just grab a cup of coffee and come back later, he grumbled to say, “No I am leaving and probably will not come back!” We began to realize, as others appeared, that this early bird behavior was not uncommon and not at all innocent. This was a buyers strategy to beat the competition. 

View of just part of the "organization" of the sale

That brings us to that smaller subset of the “professional” shoppers that are distinctly different from those simply looking for interesting items at bargain prices. We have heard them described as bottom feeders.

The joy of the selling and buying experience is completely lost on these folks. Its just business! They scurry around taking items and making a pile, which they protect aggressively, snapping at those that stray too closely. These shoppers are keenly focused and determined bargainers. The objective is not necessarily to find something special, but rather to reduce the price - no matter the original price. After dealing with one particular aggressive shopper who asked that we reduce the price of an item from $2 to $1, Tracy said flatly, “No!”. She had had enough of that. A short time later, the shopper paid the $2. However, another shopper gave a fist pump and exclaimed “I won!” when we relented and reduced the price on an entire box of items.

Just hours into the yard sale, things are disappearing.

Kids buy the darndest things

    

The sale was comprised mostly of adults, but a few children accompanied the parents and grandparents and showed us they were particularly good shoppers for all of the right reasons. They saw something they just had to have, even if the adults did not agree.

The hermit crab and the pink snake

A tall white-haired man holding the hand of a petite girl with oversized glasses walked slowly through the back yard. We said, “Welcome”, as the little girl gazed up at me through key lime green glasses. The man guided his granddaughter to the area where we had a box of stuffed animals, games and assorted toys. The little girl was very eager as we helped her sort through the animals and pulled out an unusual stuffed hermit crab. Grandpa handed me a dollar. Contented with their purchase, they walked down the street to their house.

About a half hour later, they returned. This time the little girl was even more determined and rushed to the toys as her grandpa explained his granddaughter needed to find a toy for her sister who was at school. The little girl sorted and selected a “pink snake”. Tracy was a bit concern about the selection and attempted to steer the little girl to the stuffed sheep that went “Baaa” when squeezed.  “But my sister’s favorite color is pink”, the little girl explained to the worried adult. There was no way to change her mind. Tracy turned to the grandpa, and suggested that he remove the identification tag before giving the “pink snake” to his other granddaughter. 

This stuffed animal is a GIANT microbe for the pox, syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease. Tracy had picked it up from the Infectious Disease Group when she worked at the Centers for Disease Control! She was concerned that the STD microbe might make for an awkward show-and-tell presentation if the tag, which includes information about the disease, was still attached. But, you know, you may never be too young to learn about STD’s.

Cute little STD critter "pink snake"

 DNA and thee - Don’t make a mutation

A dad and his son sorted through the remaining games and toys on the second day of the sale. By this time, many were sold, but the young boy picked up a container that resembled tinker toys. I explained that this was not really a toy but a real model for a DNA molecule. Although the young boy remained interested, the dad seemed less convinced that this was good choice. I said, “It appears you may have a budding scientist! ” I continued, “It is not challenging to assemble, but you might need to help. You certainly do not want to introduce any mutations.” The dad shook his head and remained unconvinced of the wisdom of the choice and, apparently, not appreciative of my attempt at a nerdy science joke.  The kid smiled and the dad handed me $2.

Capturing children

As we learned from selling the house, “staging” can be an important tactic in selling. Our attempts at selling a backpacking tent the previous day showed little interest, as it sat enclosed in the stuff bag. In the middle of the night it came to me that maybe the tent just needed some staging. Of course the next morning this was foremost on Bud's mind and just as he had imagined during fitful sleep at 2 am, he  assembled the tent, and moved it to the curb in front of the house. Bud thought it might highlight the yard sale. Little did we know that it would also attract children.

Within minutes of setting up the tent we had captured two children. These first kids did not convince their parents to buy it. Some time later the tent caught a couple of adults, but they escaped in a few minutes. Later, two more kids were found inside. They were opening a closing zippers, peering through windows and having a great time. The fun was not lost on the parents, our neighbors from two houses down. Bud urged the parents to buy the tent- a real bargain at $25.  

By the end of the day, our neighbors returned and walked with the completely assembled tent in hand to their back yard where the kids were once again captured. 

Sweet home Alabama- The thrill of the grill

Late in the afternoon of the final day of the sale during a lull in the shoppers, a pickup truck with a business logo on the door pulled up. Two young men, one with an “A”, for University of Alabama, T-shirt greeted us and asked if we had any fishing gear. A bit disappointed to hear the gear was already gone, they continued to sort through tools and the remaining goods. Tracy guided one fella inside the house to select a couple of novels, which he was happy to find for 50 cents a piece.

The Alabama boys explained they had the day off from working as contractors on the beach bridge. They cruised around town and stopped when they saw the sale sign.

At one point in their search, they huddled around our very old “Aussie” charcoal grill. We had cleaned the grill for the sale, but with a very rusty bottom and faded paint, it was one of those items that I assumed we would be taking to the dump. We offered it for $2. The boys walked around the yard a couple more times and then came back to the grill. “We are getting the grill!”, one Alabama boy explained, obviously quite pleased with their purchase.

“We now know what we are going to do for the rest of the day”. “Man, you made our day”, the other Alabama boy exclaimed. “Hey, wait just a minute” I said as I ran over to the shed and grabbed a broken bag of charcoal. “The charcoal is included!” They loved it and as they returned to their pickup, offered to run to the ATM to get more money to pay for the charcoal. We declined their offer, laughed and sent them on their way for what we imagined was going to be a fun evening.  

Happy hour as Bud and our friend Stein wind down after the yard sale 

How did it all go in the end?

We discovered that estate/yard sales are great for meeting your neighbors. We met so many new and old neighbors. It was challenging trying to balance the selling with all of the stories we were exchanging. One exclaimed, “You know your stuff is scattered all over around the neighborhood! YOU may be leaving, but some of you will remain.”

We probably sold about ½ of our stuff. We sorted then through the piles again and selected 3 pickup loads for Habitat for Humanity, 2 loads for Hope Mission, and 1 more load for the dump. Also we selected items to recycle including electronics and a printer. Nobody wants those. There is still more to sort and distribute. Considering that we had labeled a lot of things for $2-3, we collected over $2000! There were a lot of bargains taken by many.

Hope Mission was just one of the several places where our belongings now reside

NEXT TIME: Come back to see how we survived the move from the house and the move aboard LEILANI. Please leave us a comment below to let us know there is someone out there reading this.

Soon To Be Houseless, But Not Homeless

Our home is where our monkey is. Bonzai, our constant travel companion,

sits here in our tent on one of our road trips.

Recall we were taking personal inventory and considering what we might see for the coming year in the previous blog posting. Events over the last several days have demonstrated how quickly things can change that force us to move on with new plans. It can be very exciting and it can be very unsettling.

Wednesday our realtor placed a sign in front of our house at about noon. By 4 pm we had two competing offers, and by the following afternoon, we had a purchase contract. If there are no glitches, we will be houseless by April 30. 

This old house...

We had two showings and two offers on the first day of listing the house.

After we bought Leilani it was becoming apparent that once again we needed to have a serious discussion about whether we should continue with both a boat AND a house, or if it was finally time to give up on the home base here in North Carolina. The subject of maintaining a house and a boat is a commonly debated subject among people who sail “full-time”.  Some will argue that it is best to have a home base as something to come back to, particularly, because you need a break away from the boat at times. A home base provides some comfort and a familiar place to plant your feet back on soil. The other camp says, “sell the house, sell everything, free yourself”. There are those who argue something in between with the option to rent the house, or to have family and friends live there.   

Porch repair demands seemingly endless attention.

There is something satisfying about repair.

Now ready for painting!

We adopted the “keep the house as a base camp” plan when we became “voluntarily unemployed”. It made a lot of sense to have a home base as we jumped into this cruising life. As the initial stages of the cruising life were dominated mostly by working on the boat, the house provided the convenient base from which we could work in a boatyard or a local slip. Anyone who has tried to live on a boat or in a house in the middle of a renovation knows what a relief it is to get away from the chaos to take a shower and relax. After our various shakedown excursions and more extended travels, coming back to this old house was welcoming and a comforting luxury.

This is not Bud's favorite job - sealing the chimney on the steep roof.

Replacing siding can be easy or hard.  This section was more difficult than it looks.

Bet you haven't seen a fireplace like this.  Just a bit of caulk and paint was all it needed.

We learned that having a house, particularly an old house here in the harsh southern coastal environment, also meant that when we were not on the boat, we needed to work on the house. It did not matter if it was a boat trip or a road trip that took us away, when we returned to the house, this old gal wanted attention. Of course, many others might simply open the wallet and hand over the cash to have someone else do the work. We chose to do much of the work ourselves partly because we tend to be fearless about what jobs we can tackle (whether we are good at them or not can be debated) and partly because we were appalled by how much it costs to have someone do the work, often poorly. So, it became a cycle of “work on the boat, travel by boat, return, work on the house, take a road trip, return, REPEAT”.  

Tracy sewing new helm cushion on Leilani.

"Some days you are the bug, some days you are the windshield" - Steven Tyler. 

A common view on the road in Texas.

   

Most recently, our view of all of this began to change. We truly love this old house that we have owned for about 25 years. It has “character” but demands a lot of attention, not unlike a boat. We were becoming slaves to the labor demanded by both the house and the boat. It was exhausting. Friends and family have often expressed the false view that we were immersed in a glorious, adventurous life. Yes, our life fit that view some of the time, but certainly not as much as we wanted. The joy of owning the house was dwindling as we began to realize the house owned us.

We also wanted to simplify our life.  We did not want to be owned by our belongings.  And finally, we came to the realization that we weren’t ready to settle down- not here, not now and not as far in the future we could see. Having a house in North Carolina meant that we would have to come back at some time, and that might not always be where we wanted to be. We wanted to have the true freedom to go where we wanted, when we wanted and with less baggage.

What is next? Part of the answer is obvious – we have to move out of the house before the end of April. And there is a lot to do before then…a lot to do.

The potential buyers have suggested that they may want “everything in the house, including the dishes”, which will reduce the need to sell most items at a yard sale or to store them. We still expect to have a yard sale, donate many other items, and store a limited (hopefully very limited) number of things.

Living room staged for prospective buyers.

Farmhouse table made from heart pine reclaimed from Georgia barn.

Fireplace and reading room all pretty.

We will soon be houseless, but not homeless. Our home will be Leilani. We will pack up the remaining gear to transport to Leilani in Brunswick. We expect to depart from Georgia before the first of May if possible. The remaining details about how all that will come together will come later.  

Bye for now. Please let us know what you think. Comment below.

Taking Inventory- A Life Inspired

To voyage from the shallows of land's end to the deep

This is the time of year in which many of us become philosophical as we take personal inventory of the past year- what is memorable, what have we learned, and what might it mean for the upcoming year. As we have been preparing Leilani and working on this new blogsite, we combine some thoughts we wrote before we quit our jobs with insights gained since we began our “voluntary unemployment” and cruising on Layla.  

We remain preoccupied with thoughts and plans of a journey beyond the horizon, out of the shallows to the deep and beyond.  It is a romantic notion, of course, to explore beyond all that is familiar, to cruise over colorful seas to exotic lands. Most people have gone to these places in their mind as they stare out the office window distracted from the routine of daily life. For some, the vision is merely that- an ephemeral and wispy dream that may provide respite and amusement, but is nonetheless, simply fantasy. For us, the journey we have envisioned is not merely from the shallows at land’s end to the deep of the open ocean, but a journey also from the shallows of contemporary civilization to a deep and authentic life presented best to travelers.

Due east from here (Abacos) is Africa.

In his inspirational book, The Cruising Life: A Commonsense Guide for the Would-Be Voyager, Jim Trefethen states, “We must cross oceans to far continents and pursue our quarry where there are no roads.” He argues this quest embodies a group of goals, and that the ultimate goal, death, while certainly is ultimate, it isn't a goal we should be working for. So, our goal should be life itself and those things that hasten us to the ultimate goal should be avoided if at all possible.

A worthy simple goal- a beautiful view from Man 'O War Cay.  

Trefethen continues, "Acquisition and consumption-driven goals...while they are highly stimulating to the national and world economies, they can be hollow, superficial, and once stripped of the mantle of materialism - meaningless."

Last drive to work in Atlanta- I may be the only happy one on this road.  

From the voice he heard in his head while stuck in a traffic jam, Trefethen observed evidence in support of this argument, "...the guy in the snazzy new sedan didn't look any happier than the guy beside me in the battered old pickup." He continued, "This leads us away from the objective goals of acquiring prestige and property to the subjective goals of acquiring knowledge and ideals. Thus, the ultimate goal of life can't be the security in old age, which is a ridiculous oxymoron, anymore that it can be death. It must be the pursuit of truth and enlightenment." 

Trefethen acknowledged that it is one thing to come to terms with this goal and quite another to pursue it. He reasoned there is need for a compact and mobile environment in which you can function during the trip, "What then, if not a Winnebago or mini-van? If we must cross oceans to far continents and pursue our quarry where there are no roads, then what about a boat?"

What about a boat to cross oceans? Leilani is ready to go.

This was the epiphany- a sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something. Of course, the epiphany had to include a boat. As with Jim's dramatized dialogue with himself and the voice of reason, we had same conversation as we pondered the fundamental question - Why should we go? As Jim agreed with himself, we too were convinced that, yes, we could do this thing. We really could do it.

We had that epiphany, several years ago. We came upon a fork in the road, passed the point at which we stopped merely dreaming about a life at sea, and started working towards living it. We realized as Jim had warned, when you reach epiphany, crossing oceans to far continents ceases to be something you would like to do, or dream about, it becomes something you must do.

Beyond the fork in the road

Now after a couple thousand miles of voyaging from North Carolina to the Florida Keys, and back, on to the Abacos, Bahamas, and back on Layla, we are moderately seasoned salty cruisers. The original intensity of the epiphany has not faded over time and space. We sometimes struggle as we return even temporarily to the land life. We try to tone down our compulsion to speak fervently as evangelists about what we have experienced. We hope to show others that even if they don’t embrace the cruising life, they too may find their life inspired.

Sometimes you need a different perspective

We recognize that we are probably hopeless romantics, compelled to move about the planet at a pace slower than you can drive in a school zone. We think that pace suits us just fine. We welcome you to come along and Ride the Blue Sea with us. Best wishes to you on your journey to find what inspires you.  

Sometimes you just need to watch a sunset