Hi Flite

In 1999 we bought our Ericson 29.  After some time sailing the Apostle Islands and Lake Superior we started to look seriously at the possibility of going cruising.  We met with a financial advisor to go over our situation and see what it would take to make this dream come true.  Over the next five years we worked on improving our skills and financial situation.  Very often before a purchase the question was asked "will this go with us?"  The decision was made that our Ericson was not the boat we would leave with so we started looking for our "cruise away" boat.

Since then the economy did a few things that were not in the plans and the plan was changed several times.  When Dale got laid off from his job we took a serious look at the possibilities.  We decided that this was an opportunity to put part of the plan into motion.  We put our Ericson up for sale and started looking for a place on the east coast to relocate and get started.  There was a false start when a job transfer to Virginia for Cori fell through.  We then went to work on finding another option.  Looking at a map we started to check into eastern North Carolina.  Cori got a line on a job in Morehead City NC, was offered a position and we started the process.  In August of 2004 we sold the house, stored what we wanted to keep and sold the rest.  We bought an RV and a trailer and moved to North Carolina.  We planned on living in the RV until we can move aboard the boat.  We went to work on finding the right boat and in November of 2004 we bought Hi Flite, our Pearson 424.

Having a boat on the coast we now have a base to jump off from.

Our cruising plans are rather ambiguous yet.  We plan on starting with wintering in the Caribbean and back up the east coast in the summers.  Possibly going as far north as New England.  We talk of eventually jumping off and making the crossing over to Europe and would like to see some of the Mediterranean.  There is also talk of dropping south of the hurricane belt to enjoy summer in the southern hemisphere.

Just about every look at an atlas or world map brings up more places we think we want to visit.