is more challenging than getting the boat ready. During
the years Jamie and I harbored dreams of cruising, three
children, a house and cars, and an incredible amount of
Milltech Marine
stuff were added to our lives. Emptying the house was so
much harder than we expected. We began going through
Complete AIS Solutions
closets and selling things a year before we left. We learned
that casting off meant dropping the idea of selling things at The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is the
what we perceived was “market value”. It was simply too
latest collision-avoidance solution for boaters.
time consuming. Instead, I tried be grateful for what these
things added to our lives at a time when they could be AIS receivers enable AIS-capable chart plotters
appreciated, and found joy in matching something I didn’t
and navigation software to see other vessels.
need any more with someone who was delighted to receive
AIS transponders allow other vessels to see you.
it. Resources for selling like Craigslist, eBay, and the good-
old-fashioned garage sale were helpful, but eventually, we
simply couldn’t give enough away. Freecycle was at the top
of my inbox. Vans full of furniture and household items were
donated to charitable organizations such as The Sharehouse,
which provides furniture to families transitioning from
homelessness to permanent housing.
Many cruisers opt for storage units; ours is a closet at
my parent’s home on Bainbridge Island, for those heirloom
items we truly couldn’t part with. In hindsight, even this
relatively small cache of personal things feels like it could
be reduced- but more important was that it allowed us to
be ready enough to make our departure date. Taking time
to refine it more carefully became a casualty of our looming
deadline. The reality, in hindsight, is that we simply don’t
notice the radical reduction in things we own. On the
occasions we think about how the quantity of things we’re
living with has changed, it’s generally lament that we still
AIS WatchMate displaying AIS targets
have too much on board.
Milltech Marine offers complete, low-cost AIS
For years, we kept a laminated copy of one of those
credit card ads in a prominent location at home – it’s now
solutions from Comar, Smart Radio, ACR, Vesper
mounted in the main salon, appropriately masking an
Marine, Rose Point and others including:
under-construction-project (a hole in the bulkhead where an
outlet used to be) as a reminder of getting over the hurdle of
] AIS receivers from $189
departure:
] AIS transponder kits from less than $700
• camera for voyage you didn’t get to take ] AIS WatchMate display from Vesper Marine
back in 1964: $250
] Coastal Explorer navigation software
• engraved compass for voyage that fell through
] Antennas, cables and other accessories
in 1972: $122
• bottle of wine for voyage you had to cancel
Class B AIS Transponders now available!
in 1985: $65
• setting sail: priceless
On our path to go get ready for cruising, there were
many sets of plans. The ten year plan, the five year plan, a
reset of the five year plan (whoops, third child- bigger boat!),
then counting down each month in the final two years. It
would have been very easy to stay another year, or longer,
to be more “ready”- but we left on August 21, 2008 – and
since then we’ve continued working on getting ready to
be cruisers for over 3,000 miles now. The experiences since
that time have enriched our lives and our family far more
For more information contact:
than the incremental improvements we might have made
on board. The truth is that we still aren’t ready– but we’re
Milltech Marine
ready enough, and tremendously grateful to have this time
and opportunity to be cruising. More than eight months
(206) 299-2217
after leaving, we still aren’t ready. I’m OK with that.
www.MilltechMarine.com
48°N
48° No r t h , Ap r i l 2009 pA g e 39
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