The Beginning
April 21, 2000
By Tom

We first began kicking around the idea to go cruising (sailing) in the early winter of 1998 when we were trying to decide what to do for our honeymoon (and wedding) coming up in the summer of 99. After some looking around, we thought about chartering a sailboat for a week and just kind of floating around for our honeymoon.

We had some much fun on a weekend charter with a sailboat, we decided to get our own instead of renting someone elses for a week. So in lue of a traditional honeymoon somewhere abroad, we bought our first boat. She was a Bristol 27 that we named "Chasing Amy". All winter and up to the end of spring(99) were spent readying "Chasing Amy" for the water.

To make a long story short, we got married on the fore deck of the Bristol and spent two weeks cruising around the Chesapeake Bay. We had a great time and after our return, the rest of the year was spent making weekend long (and longer) outings. We began to really enjoy our time on the boat, and constantly looked for any excuse to go sailing.

It was about this time that we began to talk (dream) about maybe getting a bigger boat in five or so years and just checking out. Move on board, leave our permenant jobs, sell our house and cars, and just travel with the weather. As it turns out, a few years turned into maybe three, then into two.

So that pretty much brings you up to now. We have a new (to us), much larger Chasing Amy that pretty much needs a complete refit. You can follow our rebuild progress and eventually our cruising progress in the updates section of the web site.

We both currently have work commitments that will keep us here until December of 2001. It sounded like a long time off when we started this, but now I wonder if the boat will be ready. Actually, I suspect the boat will be habitable sometime in July of 2000, but it is still hard to believe how much work there is to do.