SEPTEMBER SEA LLC
DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA

Enough was enough!  Even though I have always loved gardening and mowing and raking... the love of it began to wear thin as the knees and back began to wear out!  Thus, Bill and I both began to dream of a simpler, more fulfilling life.  We dreamt of freedom. The kids were grown and on their own: it was time for Mom and Dad to really think about doing something--in the very near future--something that might be, perhaps, a little out of the ordinary.  We were fortunate that our business is in Information Processing (software development), as Bill has been in that business for thirty years.  I do some freelance writing and photography, and help with the detail portion of running our software company... all of which can be done from anywhere... Yep!  All we'd really need in order to move our jobs aboard would be a high-speed internet connection.  WOW!  That's IT?  Yep.  Pun intended!  So I thought: Why in the world were we still living where dealing with snow and cold, tornadoes, and miserable weather is normal?? We had been to the Virgin Islands on vacation in the past and had once chartered a sailboat for the day.  We really didn't participate much at all, but it sure stuck in my mind that the Captain of that vessel lived aboard.  I recall thinking what a really cool lifestyle.  Didn't give it much thought again until my knees started aching miserably while planting bulbs... LOL.  So I went to Bill and proposed the idea of celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary by selling everything we own and buying a sailboat or sailing catamaran [See my article "The Reluctant Mate" as published in "Living Aboard" Magazine, issue March/April 2005] and saying goodbye to grass and weeds and houses, and We decided to "feel-out" what it would be like to sail and live aboard.  We chartered a vessel out of Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove, Florida.  We would stay aboard and live the sailing and live aboard life for four days.  So glad we did that... by the time our experience was over, we were truly bitten with the sailing and live aboard bug.  We'd talk about how much fun it would be to really learn to sail and how to take care of our vessel.  Oh yeah, we need to find a vessel!  Just a minor technicality... 'cause we're gonna learn all about that too... Wow!  We'd sail and be able to go and explore new things... and take our 'house' with us! It soon became very apparent that the Sea itself, no matter what other name may be attached to it, as it all ends up being the Sea -- is not only free, but allows us to be free as well!  We wanted to embrace, what seemed to us, to be the last of the Great Freedoms of our lifetimes.  So come on along with us as we learn if the more often than not elusive dream of buying a boat, learning to sail, living aboard (and earning a living too!), exploring the tropics like the Keys and the Bahamas and doing this all year 'round -- is it just a pipe dream or is it realistically attainable?  Well, surely for some it is!  But are such dreams realistic for the average person to one day turn into a lifestyle of his or her own?