New Year; Last Year

As we ring in the New Year, 2018 will be our last full year in Singapore. It’s only been a few days since 2017, but my goodness does the perception change. We are now leaving next year!

Our minds are racing at this point, with a lot to squeeze into 2018; learning how to sail, earning enough to pay for the boat, raising two young kids, selling up, finalising options, and visiting as much of SE Asia (on a budget!) as possible. We have begun to realise that some of the things we do will now be for the last time. We have never been a couple to reminisce much and don’t typically get too emotional about final goodbyes and farewells. But this one will be a big one. Whilst our eyes have firmly been on the future for the past 2.5 years, it is going to be a fast and furious 18 months until departure… Full of compromise, highs, lows, and of course, giddy excitement!

We are still in the midst of awaiting what we hope will be a mid-size boat from Fountaine Pajot . We are currently semi-committed to the 44ft Helia but with an option to drop to the 40ft Lucia. We feel the Helia is quite a financial stretch, but will really be worth the space to grow into. On the other hand, the 40ft is very liveable, but could feel small pretty quickly. Of course, anyone moving onto a boat would be downsizing, but we’d like to do it in a comfortable way which gives us the best shot at sticking with it in the long run.

In terms of finances things are loosely on track, but it’s actually very hard to forecast where we will land. However, having sold one rental property, we are much closer to our financial goals.

Our youngest sailor is 5 months old now! So it’s also going to be a big year for the kids as they grow up fast and we drip feed them on the upcoming changes.

Happy New Year!

-Ben