About five years ago we started planning to cast off the lines and live aboard full time. Our girls were all happy and settled so we began a search for "the"  boat and started making moves toward our next adventure.  We looked at many boats: everything from a 44' boat in Ohio that needed A LOT of work, to a catamaran that was really out of our price range. We followed the well-known mantra of seasoned sailors, Lin and Larry Pardy: Go Small, Go Simple, Go Now, and three years ago we found Dagny in Chicago. She is a Caliber 33 sailboat; solidly built, shallow draft, and perfect for our budget and needs. 

Over the past three years, we have upgraded plumbing, electrical, and navigation systems and have updated the interior and exterior of the boat. We stripped the bottom paint down to the gelcoat and added several layers of barrier boat followed by several more layers of ablative paint. Inside and out we refinished all of the teak back to its new, shiny self. Amy sewed all new cushions inside and a new canvas and strataglass dodger to keep the wind, waves, and sun out of the cockpit. These are just a few of the many, many projects we completed to make Dagny a full-time liveaboard boat. 

Hours of work and more hours of dreaming and discussing led us to finally casting off the lines and heading south on a grand adventure. We plan to make our way through the inland riverways to the Gulf of Mexico following the Great Loop Route. Once in salt water, we will travel to Naples and to the Keys before heading over to the Bahamas. This is the tentative plan. We know well that sailing plans change with the wind so for now we are happy just to be on Dagny, and we are enjoying the ride wherever the wind will take us.