Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited

About 18 months from our departure date we started looking for boats on-line. We knew we would have a hurricane season between when we bought and left, but also didn’t want to be stressed about being able to get a boat. As with everything post COVID, boats were hard to find. We were super excited when a catamaran came up in Florida that looked like it might work. We started the survey or inspection process and Cale and I flew out to look at it. We didn’t know what we were doing. At first it seemed okay, but the list of items and things that needed to be done quickly became overwhelming. At lunch, we were still thinking we could make it work, but by the time we got on the plane to go home the next day, we were doubtful. A few days later, we backed out. It would have needed a complete re-fit, not something we could have done from Idaho. We had to cancel our spring break trip with the kids to see the boat. We were all sad.

Not long after a boat popped up in the BVI. We decided to make an offer and go down for the survey. We stopped in Puerto Rico for a night on our way down and saw Extasea, a 46 Leopard Catamaran. The survey wasn’t perfect but went pretty good. All in all, we felt pretty good about the boat. It was used as a charter boat and they still had several charters to do on it so the timing worked out well.

They finished their charters and we closed on the boat on June 1st. Cale came down to be at closing. I brought the kids down as soon as they were done with school on the 4th. We spent days going through every storage space minimizing and adjusting to make it work for a family of 6 instead of vacationers for a week. It was a daunting job. It was so well stocked, we started joking that if we wished for something the boat would provide it for us. Again and again, we thought we need this or that and within an hour it would show up. We had to downsize a lot of their fancy dishes and plates so make room for mac and cheese and cereal. It’s been a never ending job, but so worth it and we are grateful for the boat that we found.

We had an amazing few days exploring St. Thomas on our new boat after some hard work. The kids and I flew home and Cale’s brother and nephew came out and helped him take the boat down to Grenada to be put on the hard, or taken out of the water for hurricane season. There trip down went great, but once they got here a tropical depression came through. We were nervous about him getting the boat out of the water. I was so relieved when the weather calmed down and they were able to get it out. Cale spent several days after that preparing to leave the boat. It was a really hard and stressful thing for him to have to do by himself but he survived.

We felt like Extasea just wasn’t the right name for our family so we started the process of choosing a name. We brainstormed sooo many names and none of them quite fit. Then Cale remembered a name he’d thought of awhile back and when he said it I knew we’d found our name. The kids were quickly on board and excited about it as well. The name is CAVU and is an aeronautical term that stands for Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited. I just felt like I wanted something that really represented what we want to get out of the experience. I love that there is so much personal, intellectual and spiritual growth that can happen when we know that our potential is limitless.

We came for a second trip aboard CAVU in November 2022 in Grenada. Cale again came down early to splash the boat. This time he had help from his friend Glen and brother. I came down with the kids and the Aurich family a few days later. We had an amazing trip exploring the island and spending time with cousins.

I used all of these trips to start stocking the boat. This was a process, but in the end was very helpful since many items are hard to get down here.

Much of my time the months before our trip were spent talking about the trip, preparing for the trip, packing for the trip. It was a long process. An idea of some of the things that had to be done were big things like: scheduling work on the fuel tank and chart plotter and deciding on a destination for next hurricane season to small things like laminating the water maker instructions and getting snorkel gear. There was also the tasks of figuring out school and unenrollment, figuring out internet on the boat and computers for them to do their school. We also were preparing our house for the Aurich’s to come live at our house. It was motivating to get rid of a lot of stuff to make room for them. We are so grateful it worked out for them to be there and take care of our home and Cubby.

As the months and then weeks started counting down it became more and more hard to comprehend. All the years of planning and preparing and it was finally here. There was mostly excitement but as we started to actually say goodbye to people the kids started to have major reality checks. There were defiantly some very sad goodbyes to friends, cousins and of course Cubby. I prefer saying ‘see you soon,’ after all we are only talking about 6 months here.
The last 2 weeks there was so much to do. Everyday I went to bed thinking I’m almost there and then I’d wake up at 4:30 or 5 ( this was not normal I was just stressed) and go, go, go. Organizing, packing, decluttering. It seemed there was no end. When we finally had our bags packed and in the van it was a sigh of relief but mostly just felt surreal. Our adventure was about to begin!