In article .com,
"cruisenews" wrote:

Get a +/- 30 foot boat that was well taken care of by the previous
owner and is set up for cruising. There are usually a couple of these
for sale in most harbors. Choose an area that is easy to cruise in and
has lots of nice anchorages and port towns, say, Chesapeake Bay, the
Carolinas or coastal New England. Don't make any big hops, just sail
from harbor to harbor during the day. Try to anchor out as much as
possible and use the dinghy. Stay in the harbor if the weather is bad,
in fact, just have fun and hang around in the harbors and wait till the
time is just right to sail on to the next. When you meet other sailors,
always take the opportunity to sail with them and see how they have
their boat set up.

Do this for at least 2 months before you buy a bigger boat. It may be
a little like camping at first, but you will learn a lot, quickly and
any beginner mistakes will be made with a low cost boat.

You can also learn a lot from sailing logs, he

http://cruisenews.net/voyagelogs.html

http://cruisenews.net/shipsatsea.html

Dang! Almost exactly what I was going to say!

"No one" wants 30' boats, so there are many for sail, for cheap. I have
seen quite a few for under $15k; I helped survey one I'd take to the
Bahamas in a second that sold for $3,500. That'll leave a LOT of bucks
in the cruising kitty even after you've replaced or upgraded
everything. Nice thing about a small boat is you can't go TOO crazy as
you don't have the room.

The Chesapeake would be an excellent starting point: Lots of easy legs
for you to get experience, a few that'll give you proper respect for
Momma, an easy shake-down of both boat and crew, with a multitude of
repair shops -- you will have things to repair/replace, part of the
drill, so get used to it while you can call TowBoat/US.

After a while, you'll find yourself drifting south most likely. The ICW
(intra-coastal waterway) is a scenic, easy route to FL for a jump to
the Bahamas, where you've got another 3-6 months of slightly more
challenging conditions than the Chesapeake. By that time, you'll know
enough to decide your next step(s) intelligently.

Friend of mine did just that, with far less nest-egg. Was the trip of
his life --and he'd done a couple of years' beachcombing in Tahiti, for
an instance. (Unluckily, he died soon after he'd returned to fatten the
cruising kitty.)

JUST DON'T RUSH! Stop and get to know the locals, explore the gunkholes
and enjoy life. If it ain't fun --for both of you-- you're doing
something wrong.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/