From a five-year plan… to full-time cruising

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We’re Jaclyn and Mark — and we’ve always had a thing for adventure, spontaneous decisions, and pulling up the anchor when life starts feeling too rooted.

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A few years ago, we realized we wanted more than fancy corporate jobs and a nice apartment in the city. We wanted stories worth telling. Sailing seemed like the perfect recipe for that — except, we had no idea what we were doing.

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We hatched a five-year plan to escape the rat race. But patience isn’t our strong suit, so that five years became two. We bought a boat, realized it was a floating death trap, learned to sail (badly), and bought a better boat. Then we sold everything, moved aboard, and waited for our weather window — literally and figuratively.

Now, we’re full-time cruisers, figuring it out as we go.

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Meet the Crew

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The Captain

 

Mark — IT Consultant by day and full-time fixer of things at night. When he’s not climbing the mast or crawling into weird compartments, he’s rewiring, refitting, and keeping the boat afloat.

The Admiral

 

Jaclyn — Writer, chief navigator, and semi-capable sewer. When she’s not plotting courses or sewing cushions at anchor, she’s feeding the crew and documenting the wild, chaos of boat life. She lives by the motto: “One sailboat is a sailboat. Two sailboats is a regatta.”

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Bonus Crew

Sprocket — Senior dog. Food enthusiast. Squirrel chaser. Stick collector. Generally unimpressed by cats and very much in charge.

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What You’ll Find Here

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Hard Departure is where we share what it’s really like to live this life — from learning how to anchor (the hard way), to figuring out how to work remotely while underway, to the anchorages that made us fall in love with cruising all over again.

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We write for the dreamers, the planners, and the soon-to-be sailors. Whether you’re still on land or already on the water, our hope is that what you find here helps you get closer to your own hard departure.