The Boat...

Why a Caliber? The Caliber web site has a ton of technical info about their boats that we won't repeat.  So here's why we personally chose a Caliber 40LRC.

For handling purposes, we wanted a boat that was no more than 42 feet, good fuel and water capacity, not a lot of exterior teak, a nice warm salon area since we're going to be living on the boat.  Didn't want a full keel because it is too slow. But wanted the skeg rudder for protection. Cockpit shouldn't be too big but comfortable enough to sleep on if needed. We wanted good storage space.  Our goal to be off the grid required that we store lots of spares, tools, food and paper supplies.

We looked at new and used boats.  We wanted to buy our boat about 4 years before we left so that we'd have experience sailing her and know about all the systems on the boat.  We looked at Valiant, Island Packet, Passport, Tayana and Pacific Seacraft, among others. All well known medium to heavy displacement blue water boats.  We were looking for a medium displacement blue water capable boat.  We decided to go new since any used boats we could afford had all the toys, but would have been 10-15 years old by the time we left. Which meant major dollars for refitting.  At that time we not very familiar with Caliber. 

For two solid years we read everything about every blue water capable boat and went to every boat show between Annapolis and Newport. Finally in a cold January, at a show in Connecticut, we saw a Caliber 40LRC for the first time, and met George McCreary.  The second we stepped aboard we knew we had found our boat.  The 40LRC had everything we were looking for; and we could live with the few subtleties that we didn't like. 

George went through the boat, from bow to stern, with us. He spent over 2 hours at the busy boat show explaining the systems and showing us her construction. He made us very comfortable with the Caliber 40LRC.  Laura, being in sales, always asks the question "Why should we buy your boat compared to others?"  George’s answer definitely sold us on not only the boat but the builder. 

He reiterated the value of his boat, while never even suggesting any other boat was worse; and suggested others might be a bit better for other purposes- "It all depends on what you're looking for.”   For us the Caliber was what we were looking for. A great boat with literally tons of value for the money and was within our budget.  The construction and workmanship was excellent.  We bought her that spring and took delivery in the summer.  The boat was spotless when it came off the truck from Florida. We were so excited.

 
The convertible cutter rig is great. We set it going offshore, and move it out of the way when day sailing.  We've been close reaching in over 35 knots of wind with a double reef in the main, the staysail, and a little napkin of a genoa. We are comfortable, under control and still going close to 7 knots.  We've never been short of fuel or water.  We installed a water-maker not because good water was hard to come by, but because all of the villages relied on rain water and we didn't want to use that resource.  We laughed about the size of the holding tank but we can go close to 2 weeks in an anchorage before we need to empty it so it fits Susan's need to be environmentally friendly. 

Storage? Oh my. Tons of it! The picture Caliber has in their brochure doesn't even come close to giving you an idea of how much there is.  We provisioned in Panama knowing that the next spot with relatively reasonable prices and selections was 11 months away in New Zealand since we were not going to American Samoa.  Don't laugh but toilet paper can be over a $1 a roll, not for "1000 sheets" but 250 sheets.  Tons of pasta, rice, tuna, coffee, salmon, pickles, olives, you name it went into storage.  Spare parts for the engine, dingy engine and systems along with tools, repair manuals, spare hoses.  Other cruisers have lusted for our storage space. Of course finding things can be a challenge, but that is a challenge we are happy to overcome.

We have been living continuously on MYSTIC TRAVELER  for 4 years now, with over 10,000 miles under her keel. Gale force winds, doldrums, large seas and flat seas, long passages (longest to date 23 days crossing from the Galapagos to the Marquesas), coastal cruising and daysailing, white sandy beaches and azure blue water to the murky waters of the ICW, MYSTIC TRAVELER has seen it all, and has performed outstandingly.