Luedke Vacation Blog

I added this late blog entry because several people asked me if we’ve ever been sailing before and how we decided to go sailing for this vacation.

Well, it all started in November, 2009.  Our 24th wedding anniversary was coming up and i was looking for a cool way to celebrate it.  My wife Marie and I hadn’t had a vacation in nearly five years.  First we had a cat that was old and needed a lot of TLC, than I was diagnosed with cancer.  Well our beloved Muffin passed on earlier in 2009, and I just won my fight with the cancer.  So I know a good vacation is what we needed.  So I stared by searching for resorts.  Jamaica was first, then the Bahamas.  I worked my way South into the Caribbean.  www.tripadvisor.com is a wonderful place for reading reviews of all these exotic locations.

I just didn’t like the feel of a big commercial resort, so I started looking at private islands.  These get expensive fast.  They range from Necker Island (which we actually sailed by during our trip) to many smaller less expensive private islands.  The reviews were good, but some had warnings such as no screens on the windows, bugs, no air conditioning.  Then, while reading reviews of one private island a reviewer said, “It’s not really a private island, sail boats anchor offshore and use the beaches as they please.”

That’s when it struck me, I could charter a sailboard and see all these islands, and if I don’t like something I can move on.  I can stop at a resort for a massage or spend a lot of time ashore if we don’t adapt well to sailing.

Next, I started searching for charters.  Having visited resorts around marinas before, I recalled seeing the monohull boats rocking, sometimes rather violently, in the swells and the catamarans just sitting there like a solid stable platform.  I read a few blogs like that at http://tritonsatsea.blogspot.com.  I decided we’d charter a catamaran.  As I search for my requirements, luxury,  location, cost and information I kept coming back to the Catatonic.  My wife and I decided that was the yacht we wanted.  So we booked the charter, and it was worth every penny.

I’d also like to thank Dirk & Sandy for making their extremely nice Lagoon 440 available to charter.  To Pamela for all the answers to my many questions and most of all to Captain Rick and Mate Missy for giving us such a wonderful adventure.

http://www.yachtcatatonic.com/

We’re already planning our next Catatonic vacation!

Oh, and when they tell you not to bring anything, they mean it.  A bathing suit, a nice hat and some decent sunglasses is all you need on the Catatonic.

PS, as Robb from the Triton wrote me, “Sometimes a cigar on the back of a boat in paradise, is just a  cigar on the back of a boat in paradise.”