As you and your Significant-Other give serious consideration to long-distance cruising do you get sweaty palms, see visions of killer whales, and experience a partial loss of domestic tranquility? Properly approached, cruising can actually be one of the most rewarding times of your life. Our motto is - why watch a National Geographic Special when you can live one! Along with our then teenage daughters Dawn & Jennifer, we spent four years circumnavigating in our CSY 44 sailboat, Jean Marie. We visited over 40 countries and sailed 38,000 miles, all working together as a family. Would we do it again? Absolutely!! In fact, we are already planning our second cruise around the world, which we hope to begin in the winter of 1998-1999. Our first cruise was on the Tradewinds via Panama and the Cape of Good Hope (popularly known as the Milk Run). We intend our next voyage to be a 6 to 8 year circumnavigation via Cape Horn and Suez, with just Mom & Pop for crew.

Cruising affords a man and woman a unique opportunity to slow down, "smell the roses" and really accomplish something together. A willingness to face challenges as a team, a desire to travel, and a commitment to each other are important elements on which you can build a successful and rewarding cruising lifestyle. In order to actually get out sailing, and at the same time have an acceptable level of safety and security, the practical realities of: goal setting, advance planning, and thorough preparation, become quite necessary. To accomplish the worthwhile and complex achievement of putting a cruising boat together, and then to actually sail her somewhere, one has to stay focused on finding the one way to make it happen, not the forty reasons why it can’t.

GOAL SETTING involves a realistic assessment of what both of you want to accomplish in the cruising lifestyle. Do you need additional sailing experience? Where do you want to eventually cruise? You are going to spend a lot of time and money putting this dream together, and you are each are going to have to make personal sacrifices. So get this part right first; it will effect everything from the boat you buy to the way you provision her. Remember what Yogi Berra said, "If you don’t know where you are going, you may not get there..." (Jean sez - With literally thousands of learned people to quote from, why does this man chose Yogi Bera? P.S. Yogi also said, "It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.")

We began PLANNING and organizing for our first cruise about 5 years in advance. Together we searched for the boat, which was to become our next home. Tom covered the deck layout, mechanical systems, and hull configuration. Jean surveyed the interior for overall live-aboard comfort, storage, and practicality of layout (with 2 teenagers aboard we wanted some privacy). We both insisted on a solid, sea worthy, ocean-going vessel; and soon realized that there are few of them available on the used boat market at any one time.

PREPARATION - what to do about the details: money, repairs, food, mail, outfitting, health, and the family back home. The lists may seem endless, but approached in a methodical manner, most of it will come together (but the lists are never done, you just do the best you can and then sail). By prioritizing the items with safety first, mobility second, and convenience third - these lists will quickly sort themselves out. By this process most "emergencies" can be avoided altogether, or certainly minimized. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time mate...In the upcoming issues of the "Lighthouse" , we will each address some of the various aspects of cruising and its rewards, from a his and hers perspective. So join us, start those lists, and crank up your dream machine - it’s never to early to begin!

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.
Psalm 107:23-24, King James Version of the Holy Bible

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From 1987 to 1991 Tom & Jean Service circumnavigated with their teenage daughters Dawn & Jennifer aboard their CSY 44 S/V Jean Marie. Jean is a business manager and accountant for a law firm; Tom is a retired US Navy Diving & Salvage Officer and a licensed Merchant Marine Master. Together they own and operate their own maritime professional management and consulting firm, the WhiteStar Marine Company in St. Petersburg, Florida.