How did cruise ship shore excursion change my life?
Well in the most popular cruise ship destination in the world... Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands... a four hour shore excursion with two other couples from the cruise ship exposed us to sailboat living... we went out on a 36 foot sailboat, for some sailing and snorkeling.
As the cruise ship left the harbor that night I toasted several dozen sailboats bobbing at anchor in the harbor below, including the one that we had been on earlier in the day, and pledged that I would retire to my own sailboat and toast the cruise ships as they left the harbor within five years.
I was off a year, we actually did it in four years.
What's the big deal you say?
We had never stepped foot on a sailboat of any kind prior to that day... we went from zero knowledge about boating of any kind... to safe and competent sailboat cruisers.
Of all the frugal retirement living lifestyles we have enjoyed in the last 18 years... our sailboat cruising adventure tops the list for fun.
For eight years, for 6 to 9 months he year, our home floated... safely and securely.
Our cruising grounds were the Virgin Islands in the north... through the Windward Islands and Leeward Islands... with a southern border of Trinidad and Venezuela... up and back we went each year, enjoying every island... many of which we had visited before on cruise ships.
We would laugh when we happened to be in a harbor with a cruise ship in port and remember how we wished we could stay for longer period of time on the laid-back islands we've visited only for a day.
We met some now lifelong friends... never had a bad experience... we are still constantly asked about safety, pirates, and living in the Third World... our answers are always the same... we were safe, comfortable, never ran into a pirate, and loved our lifestyle on each and every island.
I have made a 45 minute PowerPoint presentation with the same title as above... to several local service and travel organizations... and once on a cruise ship on a transatlantic crossing.
Do we miss the lifestyle?... we certainly do, but such an adventure is best undertaken as soon as possible while you are young enough to physically perform the daily maintenance routines required on any boat.
So how did this 4 hour shore excursion change our life?
The life it led to was more fun than anything we had ever done before We went from an "ordinary life" to a life far from ordinary We proved to ourselves we could learn new skills It enabled us to retire early It opened our eyes that nothing was impossibleIf we can do this so can you.
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