Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kim and Randy Kalisik. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Kim and Randy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
When Randy and I first met, he had a 14′ flats boat in Southwest Florida that we’d take out every weekend and sometimes during the week. We’d meet up on the water with my parents and their friends who’d anchor out for the weekend, rafting up and creating a large flotilla. That was when we decided we would need a larger boat that we could sleep on and stay out for longer trips. So, we started looking at larger boats and quickly realized that we couldn’t afford both a boat and a home with dockage. Real estate in Florida has always been very expensive and owning a waterfront home with dockage for a boat was unattainable to us. We knew that the only way we could afford a boat would be to live aboard it full time. We found a 40′ Defever Passagemaker trawler (that we named Blue Turtle) and knew immediately that this was the boat we’d start our new lifestyle on. After receiving an accepted offer, we immediately sold everything we owned and moved aboard. We’ve been all-in from the start, meaning we got rid of anything that wouldn’t fit on the boat. Lots of cruisers have storage units, but we decided that if it didn’t fit on the boat, we didn’t need it. When I think back now, it was a huge risk for us. Especially if we didn’t like the lifestyle. It did help that my parents were also living aboard their boat, so we knew to some degree of what to expect. The thought of it not working out never entered our minds. We’ve been living aboard a boat full-time now for over 11 years. We sold the trawler 2 years ago and purchased a 44′ CSY sailboat that we’ve started cruising on full time.
This unconventional lifestyle has opened up so many doors. I started a blog about living aboard from the beginning and through it, we’ve met so many great people. We even got approached by Passagemaker Magazine to do educational seminars at their annual Trawlerfest conference. Later, I even contributed an article to the magazine on Cruising to the Dry Tortugas. One thing that we didn’t expect from living aboard is that we were suddenly living below our means which enabled us to get out of debt and save money. Since we paid cash for our boat, we only had marina fees which were minimal compared to a mortgage. With both of us working full time we were able to start investing the extra money we had each month enabling us to retire early and start cruising full time. In the end, we wouldn’t change a thing. The only regret we have is that we didn’t do it sooner!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Randy and I have been around boats most of our lives. We love all things on the water: kayaking, paddle boarding, surfing, snorkeling and scuba diving. Randy grew up boating with his family on Chesapeake Bay and my family cruised the Southwest Florida area and Florida Keys every summer. We decided early on that we didn’t want to wait until retirement age to fulfill our dream of living aboard and cruising. In 2012, we bought a 1974 Defever Passagmaker trawler that we named Blue Turtle. I was 40 and Randy was 37 years old. We decided to keep the boat in a marina in Fort Myers Beach, FL, since Randy and I both worked full time and were raising his 8 year old son, Corey. Randy was a regional sales manager who traveled around Florida and I ran my graphic design and web design business from the boat. We would work during the week and as soon as Friday would come, we’d drop the lines and head out for the weekend. When Corey was out of school in the summer, we’d take longer trips to the Keys and Dry Tortugas. We were at an age where most of our neighbors in the marinas we stayed were 15-25 years older. We were thrilled to get this head start on a dream that so many people wait for until later in life. We also met some of the most amazing friends and had experiences that we would never have had if we didn’t live this unconventional lifestyle.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I’m an old school blogger who loves writing and taking photos and I’ve kept our blog current for the last 11 years. So many people find us through google searches because there is so much content there. Our social accounts were always second after the blog up until recently when we began cruising full time. Since then, we’ve see a pretty large jump in followers and activity. Besides posting our blog content, I also try to focus on the everyday life of cruising and living aboard full time, whether its sunsets and cocktails or dirty boat projects. I think it’s important to show all aspects of this lifestyle so people can get a real feel for it. I also started posting videos of our travels to on Youtube to accompany the blog posts. I think you can get a much better sense of a place or passage from video than from still photos. I originally started the blog and social channels as a way to document our lifestyle and travels for ourselves and families and it’s thrilling that there are so many people out there following along. We would love to inspire others in taking that first step into an unconventional lifestyle.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Well, this is a timely question! I think we are living this story right now. As cruisers, you have to understand that things can change very quickly and you have to learn to adapt. You can’t control the weather, plans change and things break. Randy and I had plans to cruise up to Long Island Sound, New England and even Maine this summer. Our plans quickly changed when we reached Annapolis and suddenly needed our transmission rebuilt. We spent 6 weeks in a boat yard having the transmission rebuilt at a great cost. We knew we wouldn’t have time to make it all the way to Maine this summer, but we could still make it to the New England area. So, we planned to meet up with my sister and friend there to explore the area. The day after we left Annapolis to head north, we had an issue with our main engine and it seized up. At that point, we knew our summer travel plans were over and we were then towed into nearby Delaware City. We now have to have our engine removed and completely rebuilt which means we will be living aboard our sailboat here in Delaware City for the next couple of months. At first, we felt sick and wanted to cry. Some might give up after these circumstances. Not only are we spending a huge amount of money on our engine, but we’re also stuck somewhere we didn’t plan to be. There’s not much we can do about it but make the most of it. I think having a positive attitude and ability to adapt to most situations definitely helps with this lifestyle. Sure, we’re definitely in the midst of a major challenge, but once we’re cruising again the good days will always outweigh the bad ones.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://blueturtlecruising.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blueturtlecruising/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blueturtlecruising
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/blueturtleatsea
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6OksQbqzMWwUH8Wl5l3tgQ/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=0
Image Credits
Kim & Randy Kalisik