The Plan – the short version

The word plan is used very loosely.  So… please don’t hold us to it!  We realize though, that friends and family want some kind of framework to put around our upcoming travels.  They need a visual idea of what the heck we are planning to do.  So… HERE IT IS!!!

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The Rout – This map lives on our wall at home, a great source of conversation and imagination.

Timeline

March 2015

Leave from the Napa Marina and slowly coast hop down to Mexico and up into the Sea of Cortez.  We have decided to chill out in Mexico for the summer and following winter… or rather, bake in Mexico.  We have been hearing so many great things about the Sea of Cortez, especially through SV Del Viento’s Blog.  In addition, it’s a perfect place to get our feet wet and get the kids used to the cruising lifestyle.  It also makes it quite easy for me to pop back home and check in on my wines.

Spring 2016

Head out on one of our longest passages from Mexico to French Polynesia.  We plan to island hop through that area (Marquesas, Tahiti, Tonga, Fiji) until we have to hide from the cyclone season.

November 2016 – April 2017

Head to either New Zealand or Australia.  Cameron will possibly work a bit in the wine industry.

April 2017

We should be back on our way over the top of Australia, through The souther Indonesian islands and off across the Indian Ocean in order to arrive in South Africa at the end of 2016.  There is a chance that we will want to take more time in Asia for a detour to see Malaysia, Thailand etc.

November 2017 – March 2018

South Africa!  Cameron hopes to do another harvest there if possible to feed his winemaking bug.  We may try to get to Madagascar on our way to Cape Town or we may just head straight to Cape Town.

April 2018

Head up to the European continent via the Islands of St. Helena and Ascension (Atlantic Ocean) and tool around for a full year in Cameron’s old stomping ground (The Med).  Cameron would love to work a harvest in France as this is so hard to do when gainfully employed in California.

Spring 2019

We would love to go through the Kiel Canal into the Baltic sea and spend some time in northern Europe.  To get there, we might just pull the mast off of the boat and barge through Europe from the Med to the English Chanel.

November 2019

We should be back to the Canary Islands for a jump across the pond toward the Caribbean.  At this point the plan gets very fuzzy and is entirely dependent upon our cruising kitty and our desire to keep going or flee home.  In truth we know that we will likely diverge from this “plan” at a much earlier stage so figuring out the details beyond this point seems like wild fantasy.  We have talked about traveling through the inner coastal water way, or going through the Panama Canal and back to Mexico, or we may want to sell the boat as soon as we hit land and sink our toes back into some good Napa Valley soil.  Who knows…

Dream, Plan, Pray, Live……