Recent content by wsmurdoch

We got back from our five month trip to the Bahamas in our Pacific Seacraft 34 June 20 and have been here at our Tennessee mountain home messing around with our boats on Patrick Henry Lake across the street and the nearby Watauga Lake. Next year rather than make a fourteenth winter/spring trip...

The Flying Fish and Duracraft are at our house on Patrick Henry Lake. The Tanzer22 is in its slip on another TVA lake, Watauga Lake. Our Pacific Seacraft has a slip in New Bern, NC.

I've never had that second day; never sold a boat. Seventy-one years old, and I still have them all... 14' AMF Flying Fish sailboat, 22' Tanzer22 sailboat, 14' Duracraft runabout, a collection of Achilles inflatable dinghies, and a 34' Pacific Seacraft 34 sailboat. We are aboard that last...

Coach Shoe, I just found your note. We also ran into Covid-19 when we arrived in Miami this year on our way to the Bahamas. You might enjoy looking at my wife's blog. The last two postings tell the tale. I can't post its address here, but if you click on my name then look at "about me", you...

We have about 2% of our net worth in our sailboat. It is a 1988 Pacific Seacraft 34 that we bought in 2004 and have taken from North Carolina to the Bahamas twelve times so far. Click on my name, profile, and about me, and your will find a link to my wife's blog. Along with pictures you can...

I retired from Eastman Chemical Company (a Kodak successor company) in 2004 a few years after an unprecedented mass firing of professional employees and a continuing series of voluntary separation plans and benefit reductions. Retirees are no longer allowed on the site for Christmas parties. I...

We are in about the same boat... I retired at 53 in 2004 after using FIRECALC from time to time after its announcement in the Wall Street Journal. Before retiring I downloaded the FIRECALC data into a spreadsheet and multiplied each cell by the probability that either my wife or I might be...

We did this as well. One of our best vacations ever. We went right after Christmas Day. Christmas is Christmas Day to Epiphany. The churches were beautiful. The crowds were not there. The Mediterranean weather was fine. The people were in a joyous mood. From Venice (a hotel room...

We have our kids and grandkids at our house for a week or so after Christmas, race a Tanzer 22 on a mountain lake on New Year's Day, put up the Christmas stuff, drive to the North Carolina coast, move onto the boat, and head to the Bahamas arriving in maybe late February. We stay aboard until...

You all should have a ball. We retired in 2004 in a financial situation similar to yours but at the age of 53. We have spent all we needed to spend, and in dollar terms the balance has doubled. Our boat is a 1988 Pacific Seacraft 34, and for each of the last eleven years we have taken it to...

We have taken our sailboat to the Bahamas each winter for the last ten staying aboard for 5 months or so. This was the last trip. The red line is outbound leaving from North Carolina, the green is the return. My wife keeps a blog of the trips. You can find the address by clicking on my name...

You will have a blast. We have. Our story is in an earlier post on this site. http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f30/thinking-about-pulling-out-of-rat-race-at-32-good-or-bad-idea-63542-3.html#post1245761 Like you, I also worked a little as a limited service employee (contractor) with...

We were a little different. My wife stopped working in 2003 at 52, and I retired in 2004 at 53. We bought a 1988 Pacific Seacraft 34 sailboat in the fall of 2004. We still have our house in Kingsport, TN, but we spend a fair amount of time on the boat. The first two years we took the boat...

We got down to the Bahamas again this year going as far south as the Jumentos Cays. We are slowly working our way back north anchored near Spanish Wells at Meeks Patch. Adair has updated the blog a couple of times since Wrightsville Beach. It was cold there then; it's much warmer here now...

There were three AMF Alcort boats; Sailfish, Sunfish, and Flying Fish. We bought a used Flying Fish in 1975. That was followed by a new Tanzer 22 in 1981, and a used Pacific Seacraft 34 in 2004. We still own all three. The Flying Fish is at home is a TVA lake. We've sailed it (pre-kids) in...