New member here
Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2021 6:18 pm
Hello Catalina 350 owners and enthusiasts! Just joined.
My wife and I are getting ready to return to living aboard a boat to cruise the East Coast from Maine to Florida Keys and possibly the Bahamas. We did this before on an Island Packet 40 and then gave it up to enjoy time with new grand babies and got to spend a lot of time with them until now, when they are going to school fulltime. Actually our two grandsons are being home schooled as they are spending their winters cruising the Bahamas with our son and daughter-in-law on their catamaran, which is now hauled out in St Augustine for the hurricane season.
We own a condo here in New Hampshire and want to escape the winters up here.
We've been looking at boats which would suite our cruising needs and also fit our budget. We keep coming up with the Catalina 350. Smaller than our last boat and easier to maneuver and a bit shallower draft. We like the forward centerline birth (tired of crawling over each other as we did in the pullman on our old IP40). Also, not ready to get in feet first and out head first as we did with the previous Catalina 30). Like the separate shower in the head and the galley is pretty good. The cockpit on the 350 is bigger than our IP40.
We would be cruising offshore at times while also popping in and out of the ICW. With the weather aps now, like predictwind, you can decide whether the winds are favorable offshore or make progress motoring in the ICW. We used to do long multi day passages on our IP40, but no longer want to do that. Being in a rush can be exhausting. Relax and give ourselves plenty of time to get where we're going. We were meeting someone, somewhere, at a given time. No more of that.
We've considered wintering in Boot Key Harbor and also Key West (Garrison Bight), but might cruise to the Bahamas, March thru May, and start north in June. Anyway, that's the plan. As they say - "life is what happens, while you are making other plans" or something like that.
Maine and south of Cape Cod are great cruising grounds in the summer. We've done a lot of Maine, but would love to spend more time around Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, the Elizabeth Islands, Newport, and Block Island. Think the Catalina 350 would be great for getting us to where we would want to go and do it in comfort.
We met a lot of great fellow sailors during our previous cruising and we want that once again. At our age, probably our last opportunity to do this as long as we are enjoying it.
My wife and I are getting ready to return to living aboard a boat to cruise the East Coast from Maine to Florida Keys and possibly the Bahamas. We did this before on an Island Packet 40 and then gave it up to enjoy time with new grand babies and got to spend a lot of time with them until now, when they are going to school fulltime. Actually our two grandsons are being home schooled as they are spending their winters cruising the Bahamas with our son and daughter-in-law on their catamaran, which is now hauled out in St Augustine for the hurricane season.
We own a condo here in New Hampshire and want to escape the winters up here.
We've been looking at boats which would suite our cruising needs and also fit our budget. We keep coming up with the Catalina 350. Smaller than our last boat and easier to maneuver and a bit shallower draft. We like the forward centerline birth (tired of crawling over each other as we did in the pullman on our old IP40). Also, not ready to get in feet first and out head first as we did with the previous Catalina 30). Like the separate shower in the head and the galley is pretty good. The cockpit on the 350 is bigger than our IP40.
We would be cruising offshore at times while also popping in and out of the ICW. With the weather aps now, like predictwind, you can decide whether the winds are favorable offshore or make progress motoring in the ICW. We used to do long multi day passages on our IP40, but no longer want to do that. Being in a rush can be exhausting. Relax and give ourselves plenty of time to get where we're going. We were meeting someone, somewhere, at a given time. No more of that.
We've considered wintering in Boot Key Harbor and also Key West (Garrison Bight), but might cruise to the Bahamas, March thru May, and start north in June. Anyway, that's the plan. As they say - "life is what happens, while you are making other plans" or something like that.
Maine and south of Cape Cod are great cruising grounds in the summer. We've done a lot of Maine, but would love to spend more time around Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, the Elizabeth Islands, Newport, and Block Island. Think the Catalina 350 would be great for getting us to where we would want to go and do it in comfort.
We met a lot of great fellow sailors during our previous cruising and we want that once again. At our age, probably our last opportunity to do this as long as we are enjoying it.
. we have one in Lake Michigan and one docked behind our house in Cape Coral. Nuts, I know, but they are perfect for couples cruising and we aren't ready to throw in the towel just yet.