Escaping it all to sail the Caribbean
June 25, 2010 7:54 a.m. EDT
The couple's 42-foot sailboat Receta is seen anchored off St.
Pierre, Martinique.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Couple quit their jobs and decided to sail around the Caribbean
- "People thought we were crazy," Ann Vanderhoof says
- She and her husband live on the boat most of every year; come back during hurricane season
- They feast on local dishes like curried crab and dumplings, explore local culture
(CNN) -- Sitting
in mind-numbing traffic, dealing with another deadline at work, feeling
stuck in a concrete city, you may start hearing that little voice that says,
"Wouldn't it be nice to quit your job and go sailing around the Caribbean?"
Meet a couple who did just that.
Ann Vanderhoof and her husband, Steve Manley, interrupted their careers
in 1997 -- she was a magazine editor and he was an art director -- and took
off for two years to sail around the Caribbean.
Reflecting their love of food, the couple called their 42-foot sailboat
Receta -- the Spanish word for "recipe" -- and their dinghy Snack.
In 2006, they took off again -- a journey that's ongoing and chronicled
in Vanderhoof's new book, "The Spice Necklace."
The couple lives on the boat most of every year, coming back to Toronto,
Ontario -- their home base -- for a few months during hurricane
season.
While sailing,
they get to see a Caribbean few resort-bound tourists ever do. They also
feast on local dishes like curried crab and dumplings, seacat (the West
Indian term for octopus), and torments of love (pastries filled with coconut
jam).
Ann Vanderhoof on board her sailboat Receta in the Caribbean.
Then there's the rum, banana wine and Saba Spice ("an eye-crossing"
fennel-flavored liqueur based on 151-proof rum, Vanderhoof writes) to keep
things interesting.
Vanderhoof recently talked about her experiences with CNN.com. The
following is an edited version of that interview:
CNN: What made you
interested in sailing?
Ann Vanderhoof: I
met Steve, my husband, and he was a sailor. I had never been on a sailboat
and he would take me out and I absolutely loved it.
But I had no interest beyond that.
One cold winter night in Toronto, I came home from the office complaining
about the weather, complaining about the deadlines and Steve jokingly said,
"Why don't we just sail south?" That planted the seed of an idea and it grew
and grew until we finally decided it was better to take the risk and go than
forever think, "Oh gee, what if we had done that?"
CNN: You quit your
jobs?
Map:
Receta's route
Vanderhoof: Yes,
I'm afraid we did. We quit our jobs, we put our house up for rent and our
belongings into storage and moved on board the sailboat with very few
possessions.
CNN: How hard was
the decision to quit your jobs?
Vanderhoof: It was
extremely difficult because we both had terrific jobs that we loved. People
thought we were crazy.
CNN: For most
people the biggest obstacle would be the money. How do you make a living?
Vanderhoof: We set
a five-year plan to see if we could save the money for the [first] two years
away and pay down the mortgage on our house so that it could be rented out
and make some income for us while we were gone. We really set a savings plan
and it worked for us.
We do some work, writing and editing on my side and Steve as well does
some work from the boat.
I realize that not all professions allow that, but we've met in our
travels software developers, computer
programmers... [who] find that with the availability of wireless
[access] that they can do business from the boat.
CNN: You're living
everyone's dream. Is it as idyllic as it sounds?
Vanderhoof: People
say that to me all the time and I have to say that this isn't like a
two-week holiday, where you go to a resort and you're laying on the beach
all the time and the palm trees are swaying. It's a lifestyle. Being on the
boat requires constant maintenance.
Things are harder on a boat. For instance, to do some shopping could be
the better part of a day.
But... if I were living on land where things were easy back in my house,
I wouldn't have adventures like catching our own tuna for dinner and turning
it into boat-made sushi a couple of hours later.
So, yes, there are wonderful, wonderful rewards.
CNN: What is your
favorite island?
Vanderhoof: It's
hard to pick a favorite. ... I have a very soft spot for Grenada, also for
Trinidad, Carriacou,
and others, including Dominica. For different reasons. Each place seems to
have something special about it.
CNN: What does
banana wine taste like?
Vanderhoof: How am
I going to put this delicately: I don't think I would return for another
bottle. Your first flash on it isn't banana, your first flash is kind of a
sweet, almost sherry-like taste. But it's not like as if you were going to
scent a banana or scent a banana extract.
CNN: Can you
explain the importance of "liming" in Trinidad?
Vanderhoof: Liming
means just kind of chilling out, kicking back, relaxing with friends, it
usually involves good conversation, music and always food and drink.
One of the things that I learned when I left my job and left my old way
of life behind is the importance of liming, the importance of relaxing and
not running your life according to a schedule all the time.
I find that when I'm back in North
America, Steve has to remind me to take time to lime.
CNN: You write
that you had to get used to what you call "GMT" -- Grenada Maybe Time.
What's that?
Vanderhoof: When
someone says something is going to happen just now, we assumed that meant it
was imminent. But that just means it's going to happen sometime soon and
Grenada Maybe Time [means] things don't take place according to this same
fixed time schedule. I wear a watch a whole lot less than I do when I'm back
[in the city].
Things happen, but they happen a bit more slowly.
CNN: Many people
who go to the Caribbean just go to the resorts. What do you wish they knew
about the real Caribbean?
Vanderhoof: I wish
they would, when they're at the resorts, take an opportunity to get outside
that resort community and see something of the island. Since my love is
food, I always suggest that people find out where the local market is, take
an empty bag, and a pocket full of small change and go off and visit the
market. They're often great places to buy real souvenirs, but also buy a bit
of fruit, ask the person you're buying it from how to eat it.
CNN: What's your
advice to people who want to escape to the Caribbean like you did?
Vanderhoof: I
guess what I would say, without being flippant, is just do it.
We didn't want to find ourselves in the position of being -- 10 years
from now -- looking at each other and saying we really wish we had done
that.
Make a plan, even if it's a few years off ... then see how you can make
that plan work. It may be you can carve out a year.
Don't view it as an impossible dream, see if there's a way you can make a
plan and put it into action.
CNN: How long do
you want to continue doing this?
Vanderhoof: As long as I can. Steve and I say to each other, we'd like to keep doing it for part of every year as we're doing now, as long as our health and our family situations and our finances permit.