After booking the tickets (in July 2014) we still depended on several things that  needed to happen in order to make this trip possible.

Saying Goodbye to our first vessel

Our financial planing included the sale of our Vanguard 15 sailboat. We wanted to hold onto the boat as long as possible so we could participate in our Tuesday evening dinghy sailing at Severn Sailing Association in Annapolis. August came around and we knew we had to try and move the boat before the winter lull. We listed it on Craigslist and had immediate interest. The boat was sold after less than two weeks on the market. The saying goes that the two happiest moments of boat ownership are buying your boat and selling your boat. We have had some pretty good times on this boat, but this was a very happy occasion. Done

Leading up to the planning of this trip I had wanted to take the Professional Engineering (PE) Exam for the purpose of pressuring myself to study and refresh some of my engineering skill that I haven’t used since school. I was signed up for the October 2014 PE Exam and studying started all the way back in January 2014. This trip added a little more pressure to passing the test, ok a lot more pressure… If I passed, it would set me up nicely on the back end of the trip for potential job prospects. With this in mind, it was back to the books for Nick! A lot of time was spent studying and preparing for the test with more than a couple of nights out sacrificed for the sake of passing. That fateful October day came all too quickly. The test was very tough, and I felt the enormity of the results weighing heavily on me. It took a whopping 8 weeks to find the results… but I passed! Talk about all the pieces coming together nicely, what a relief. We found out the week before moving all of our things down to Florida for the winter. It was just too surreal to grasp and took at least a week.

On top of all this. The USD has been gaining value on the international market, so the exchange rates have been changing in our favor. We asked for a re-quoted balance for our Madagascar room and board and saved ~10%. The South African Rand has also changed about ten percent since we started budgeting. A little extra in the pocket will go a long way for us! You should always pay attention to exchange rates when preparing for a trip.

Now we just needed to complete the move and say our good byes…