The universe is conspiring.
After spending years talking about quitting our jobs, selling all of our possessions, buying a catamaran sailboat (specifically a Lagoon 380, 410 or 420) and taking off on an around-the-world trip, this summer sealed the deal. We went sailing.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure how it would feel to sail on a catamaran. Would I hate it? Would it feel any different than sailing on a monohull? Or would I still be sea-sick the whole time? Would I die? Would we feel cramped and hate each other? Would we ever really do it?
We’ve considered chartering a Lagoon catamaran to “try it out” in Florida or Caribbean, but those charters cost thousands of dollars. And when you are trying to get out of debt and save money, spending that much seems counterproductive. So when we made a trip to the Texas coast for Matt’s sister’s memorial service, I found a catamaran charter for a few hundred dollars.
The website showed an older Gemini cat that was a bit smaller than what we would purchase to sail, but I thought this would (at the very least) give me an idea of what sailing on a catamaran would be like… because the only other sailing experience I’ve had was as a teenager on my dad’s boat when he was learning how to sail (we were pretty sure we were all going to die the entire time.)
I booked a four-hour sunset sail.
When we arrived and walked around the marina to the dock, in the spot where we were to meet the captain for our charter, there sat a Lagoon 410. A Lagoon? Maybe that’s not for us… maybe there is another charter. Why didn’t I book the Lagoon charter? The woman on the boat called out, “We are just finishing up and we’ll be ready for you!” Matt and I both looked at each other with an excited look that screamed, “OMG I think this is what we are going to sail!”
Sure enough… we were going sailing on a Lagoon 410! Their Gemini was wrecked a few weeks before (a speedboat just rammed into them), and their friend was letting them borrow his boat (Did I mention it was a Lagoon?) to finish out their charter season. Such horrible luck for them. Such AMAZING luck for us.
We climbed aboard. And we motored out of the marina through a pretty long channel. Are we actually going to sail? Like with the sails up? Why are we still motoring? I was worried I wouldn’t get the full sailing experience! But as soon as we entered the Inter Coastal Waterway, the sails went up and the motor shut off. We were sailing. On a catamaran. A Lagoon catamaran. (Okay, WE weren’t sailing the boat. The captain was. But we were sailing!)
It was Magical. Happy. Giddy. Cathartic. Freeing.
I was not sick. I didn’t even think about being sick.
But I did think about everything else…. Can I cook in this galley? How cramped will it be around the table? What would it feel like to live in this space? Are the boys comfortable getting around the boat? Okay, I lied, I did think about being sick. Will I feel sick if I go below deck to the cabins? So, I answered all of my questions… right there on the charter.
- I faked like I was cooking to see if it would work… Yes, I could totally cook in this galley.
- I sat at the table in the salon… it was a little tight, but the table out in the cockpit had plenty of room. And quite honestly, we’d probably be outside most of the time anyway.
- The overall interior space was bigger than we remembered on the 410, and plenty of space for the boys (and whatever comforts from home they would want to bring.)
- The boys were awesome. They loved the trampoline. They loved being independent. I think they would be excited to have “jobs” on the boat. And they absolutely LOVED the kayak and Stand-Up Paddle board (SUP) that we used when we pulled up to a remote beach to anchor. (Note to self: purchase toys for boat.)
- After specifically going below deck to test my motion sickness, I must say, it wasn’t the worst… The only time I felt a ping of sickness was when I was trying to re-tie Austin’s swimsuit after he used the head and he was still wearing his life jacket and couldn’t see to tie the drawstring. The combination of looking down and concentrating on tying with the motion while below deck sent a quick wave through me. But that quickly dissipated when I returned back up on deck. It didn’t linger, which was a great thing!
We spent a bit of time at an island beach, where we were able to see a ton of hermit crabs, let the boys kayak, SUP, and swim. The captain said we could spend more time at the beach or we could sail some more. We chose to sail! I loved it.
On our way back, I told Matt, “Well that just cost us a couple hundred thousand dollars! Now we have to buy a boat!”
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