Decadence is described as luxurious self-indulgence.
Self-indulgence as doing or tending to do exactly what one wants, especially when this involves pleasure or idleness.
And while I wouldn’t say our life has been pure pleasure, and it feels as if we are almost never idle, I still contend that this has indeed been our decade of decadence. Hell, look at us, we’ve managed to while away the entirety of our thirties, doing exactly what we want.
Ten years ago today Bumfuzzle was born:
september 6, 2003 : chicago to fort lauderdale
Well, here goes the first trip log. Hopefully, it will be followed by about 1000 more.
We exceeded one thousand a long time ago.
It was about two years into the Bumfuzzle adventures that Ali and I realized we had no intention of returning to our previous life—that we had no desire to. That what we were seeing and doing was what our life was about now. There had been a fundamental shift, and I can’t put my finger on when or where it happened, but it came about without any discussion between the two of us—we just knew. Every year that passes cements further our unwillingness to settle—not only to settle down, but to settle for, or do, anything less than what we want to do with our lives. Lives that are far too short. We got a jump start and yet it still pains us that we didn’t get going sooner. We could have squeezed in a big adventure in our twenties too.
Our thirties, nearly gone. It’s amazing to us, and something that we are incalculably proud of. We did all of this stuff in our thirties that according to common wisdom shouldn’t be possible for another twenty or thirty years. Whatever happens in our forties, fifties, and beyond we will forever consider icing on the thirties cake.
It’s been an amazing run. One that we hope to carry on into the foreseeable future. We’re a family of four now. Our team has grown—and our dreams with it. Man, if we felt like time was slipping away from us before we had kids, now we feel like our timeline has accelerated out of control. There is so much to see and do as a family and yet here we are with only sixteen years left to do them together.
———
I started to go through our pictures to put together a ten year video and it wasn’t long before I realized that it would take me a month of full-time work to go through all of our pictures. So instead I went through the website and chose one picture from each month. Not the best picture of the month—instead I chose the picture that captured an important memory for me—the picture that could serve as the one picture of the month and do the job just as well for me as all the pictures as a whole do.
While doing this I was struck by what terrible photographers we were in the beginning. My goodness. We never took pictures. We spent five months in the Bahamas? Did we really go through the Panama Canal? I almost wept when looking at our Egypt trip. I would have five thousand decent pictures if we went back and did that same trip today. Instead we had a couple of dozen. And looking at pictures of back alleys and drinking dens, then thinking of the state of the country today, I realize that those pictures may very well be of the once in a lifetime variety. I am so thankful that the photography bug finally bit.
And oh lord, don’t even get me started with the state of my writing in 2003. I cringe. I’m not claiming to be some amazing writer, but I think the difference between now and then is pretty obvious. Over time a writer does find a voice—a style—and I feel pretty good about mine now.
With that said, I’ll point out that the predictable thing to write about during a milestone like this is a bunch of lovey-dovey gooey-schmooey fluff about how we’ve changed as people, about what an amazing person my wife is, and what incredible little people my kids are. But the great thing about having this website is that I don’t have to do that right here, in one blog post—instead I’ve gotten to do that over time, little by little, bit by bit. That is the reason Bumfuzzle is so important to me, to Ali, and hopefully one day to Ouest and Lowe.
———
So ten years. How long have you been with us? What brought you here? Do you feel like you know us? Have you gone cruising? Have you made your dream adventure a reality? Leave us a comment and tell us your Bumfuzzle story. Consider it your ten-year anniversary gift to us.
And as a small showing of the gratitude we feel towards all of you—our friends, virtual or otherwise—we’re going to pick three comments at random and send the authors a Bumfuzzle 10-Year Anniversary T-Shirt. And yes, we really do appreciate all of you out there. You’ve driven us to go further and you’ve helped us along in ways you don’t even know.
213 Comments on “Decade of Decadence”
I read your entire ten year adventure over the last few weeks and just caught up to the present yesterday. It’s been a blast watching your whole family grow up in compressed time. I have to agree with you that your photography has really taken a stellar leap over the years. The current stuff is professional grade. Best wishes for at least another decade of self-indulgence. I’m all for it.
I started following your blog about 7 or 8 years ago. My husband and I came very close to selling it all and doing exactly what you did. Life got in the way, and we discarded that dream for another. I never gave up your blog, and it’s now a part of my weekly routine of internet reading.
Hi Pat, Ali, Ouest & Lowe.
Congrats on 10 years. I’ve been following for about 2 years, where I started at the beginning and eventually got caught up to the current.
Love your attitudes (and occasional irreverence!).
Here’s hoping the next 10 years are even better.
Soon I hope my adventure will begin!
Don
Barrie, ON
Canada
Consider selling those T’s. I’d buy 2!
Me too
I would buy 3
If you won’t sell them I am going to open a bumfuzzle store.
Amazing video. Super happy for the four of you and cheers to the next 10 years.
Hey guys,
Please just check out our attempt at living the Bumfuzzle dream at SuburbstoSailing.com. Your stories are the whole reason we changed our lives.
Thank you
Hey guys,
I found your blog because of the so-called controversy you stirred when you first started on your circumnavigation. I had to find out what all the hoopla was about, and in doing so, I finally found the inspiration, encouragement, and courage I needed in order to start our cruising journey…and also to end it in favor of new adventures that better fit our ever-changing dreams.
Your photography also influenced the way I took pictures and posted them on our blog – no more scaled down shots for me. 🙂
Hi Kerri, I’m actually surprised to see you here and read your comments! (In hindsight I shouldn’t be) I followed your blog from the beginning and now miss you and George. (I’m a long haul truck driver, so George is my hero) I love Pat and Ali and envy the life that they live.
The Bum’s, you, and George changed my life! These were the two blogs that I followed daily. I still drive the truck, just now I do it with a sense of adventure rather than fighting every mile. Thank you all for saving my life!
Kevin – no way!! Sorry our blog has slowed down apres cruising, but I didn’t want to turn it into a personal diary. 😉 George still talks about his 6 month turn as a truck driver as one of the most defining times of his life. I guess it was all that time to think and re-define himself. I’m honored to be included with the Bums as part of your go-to for adventure. Don’t stop dreaming!! xo, Kerri
Oh, and Kevin – drop us a line at thefurtherwego at gmail dot com.
Kevin, your statement “I still drive the truck, just now I do it with a sense of adventure rather than fighting every mile” stopped me in my tracks. Do YOU have a blog or a website? My husband and I were team drivers for a year and a half, and while we hoped it was going to be great adventure, it turned out to be much different. I would like to talk to you about each of our experiences.
Hi Kerri, I’m now intrigued…. What is you blog and where do I find it?
HAHA!!! It’s thefurtherwego.com (formerly sailmarquesa.com, which is now defunct and a few people lost us in the changeover.)
Me too but I thought they were one of the disaster stories so I started reading the blog and reading and reading and finally I decided to skip to the end and see what their last entry was. What a shock… they were still going and I’m still reading.
This added after my long post, sorry. I don’t usually write so long winded but just kept going)
Stumbled onto your site about 2005-2006 searching sailing blogs. Quickly read through your adventures up to the then current post and followed you vicariously around the rest of the world by checking in every month or so. I still check your site on a loosely monthly routine.
Definitely feel I know a lot about you and your family, even to the point of feeling, again vicariously your occasional frustrations on the boat at times, elation’s, accomplishments overcoming small and some larger obstacles, some of the proud and protective moments a parent feels with your children and just the simple pleasures of wondering through a new unexplored path or street in some remote or populated location. It seems a bit weird sometimes how I can feel connected at times yet never meeting y’all in person. My wife thought it a bit weird too at first, but now occasionally asks, as well as my children ask what you guys are up to. I don’t follow other blogs with the regularity of your site. Just something about your guys’ blog keeps me interested, connected. It’s not the same feeling like reading a book, fiction or none fiction, because the story is current, or near to being current, unfolding with no certainty of the outcome. I know I can’t just turn to the back of the book and see what happens. I have to wait for your next update which I can tell you, some of your posts have had me on edge and have compelled me to check for an update sooner than the occasional checking in on your site. Being able to feel that connected I would say is a testament to your dedication to the blog, your evolving writing style and your picture taking that help feed and confirm the imagination. Thanks!
Not cruising on a boat, still have about 5 years to retirement, though we do own a boat and have lived very close to a 1500 mile shore lined pristine lake for the last 19 years and very fortunately feel like we’ve been cruising through life at a slow but furies pace gobbling up life’s adventures. I’ve been the adventures type since a kid in Texas with great adventures through my whole life, small and large and have drug my very forgiving wife of 32 years and our children through many more, mostly good but some not so good, but all a good story. We have been very fortunate to have raised our children the way we have, from living in Anchorage, AK, remote Cold Bay, AK and now here in remote NE, MT. Heck , went spearfishing for a couple of hours after a midnight shift yesterday morning and speared a nice fresh water drum, going again this morning. It was one of those snorkeling trips with great visibility, the sun twinkling off of plants, fish and rocks, magical and fairyland like. As far as cruising on a boat in retirement, it’s in the plans, in fact to the point of buying the boat a bit before retirement; we’re still zeroing in on the type so who knows what we’ll end up with, having the house sold and embarking on new adventures a couple of days after retirement, which is 7/16/2018, but who’s counting, uh ME.
I’ve e-mailed you a few times over the years, an invite for a stopover place to stay in NE, MT sometime around your rally period, (you did respond with a polite decline due to routing I believe), a couple more before and after the rally period to let you know I was sharing your post and adventures with our children who were in their college and high school years. Our two youngest are finishing college this coming year. I wanted them to see; and still do, alternative ways to make their way through life, that the 8-5 work week didn’t have to be the norm. I have almost never been in the 8-5 work week category and feel really fortunate for that, and for the life we’ve been able to lead and the time spent with our children enjoying the simple things in life.
We didn’t push our kids into college; they’re just the studious type that really like school and learning. The combination of their upbringing and to a degree I think your site and your first book are what have led to some pretty adventures plans from all three and has been a great inspiration to help keep my dreams churning too. Thanks again.
Not writing to compete for your t-shirt, but if you happen to decide this comment worthy, no offense, but give mine to someone you meet there and tell them it’s partially from a guy in MT. Maybe the muscular 70ish fisherman with no shirt. He reminds me of a 50ish year old man named Tio I worked and lived with on a remote ranch in west TX when I was 19, I’ll split the cost with you.
Take care, Matt
Started following you about a year ago when I read Bumfuzzle. We had a 5 year plan at that time, but you have encouraged us to move that up and we are now a year away from living aboard, but still 4 away from the cruising life. We are in a much different place than you were because our youngest daughter just started college and we would not be comfortable leaving until she is settled in her life. Wish I would have thought of this years ago, but better late than never. We have also listened to your book on audible and I am currently reading Live on the Margin. Thanks for the great stories and the incredible journey!! You are doing life right!!
I’ll stop lurking long enough to wish you a happy 10-year blog anniversary. I started reading about a year ago when I started looking at sail boats on craigslist as some sort of mid-life crisis–I’m pushing 40 and have a daughter a bit older than yours. Somebody linked to you and I eventually read all your adventures. I sailed in high school and college (a one-design without engine in busy Newport Harbor, if that gets me any cred around here), but not since. I’ve had some great land-based adventures in the meantime, so it’s all good. I’m currently living on an island, and a boat would be ideal for exploring the other islands…
Thanks for sharing all your adventures, for showing us some cool places around the world (Haiti and Eritrea stand out in my mind), and mostly for showing us it can be done.
Hi all,
I wrote to you in September of 2011 when I had just finished reading the entire journey to that point online. I share a birthday with Ouest, although we’re 49 years apart! I look forward to reading your blog every day – it is the antidote to the news. I agree with the last comment thanks “for showing us it can be done.” Here’s to the next ten years!! Laurin
Happy 10th to the bums with a dream, bare feet in the sand and eyes on the horizon. I also compressed your lives wile reading your entire blog in about 3- weeks, and now it is a go-to every day. May all of you enjoy this next trip around the sun, and many, many more days of laughter, learning, smiles and adventures! Salud!
I stubmled across Bumfuzzle back in 2007 and quickly caught up on your early years. I have since followed your site regularly and I believe I have read every post. I am inspired by your lives and lifestyle and, urged on by your site and familyonbikes, I have cooked up a few long term adventure ideas for our family that I refuse to give up on. Also, as someone of a similar demographic and a parent of young kids I have enjoyed the latest adventures in parenting and LOVE that you’re raising your kids in Mexico! Thanks for living the dream while inspiring others and also letting the rest of us live vicarously through you and your family!
Linda & I have been following since 2006, Ali even answered some questions for Linda via e-mail. We bought our boat in 2008 and left the states in 2010. Thanks for the inspiration!
February 2004 – As I sit in my cubical at work (which is a portable trailer at the time), the heater struggles to keep frost off the inside of my 1’ x 2’ window to the world outside.
I found your website the night before, but no idea how..
(I don’t sail, or have the desire.. pretty slow for pulling a tube for the kids isn’t it?)
Work is not interesting today.. nor was it yesterday.. come on Friday!!!
The IT department at work sent out a notice a few months earlier.. apparently warning they are monitoring how much time the employee’s Surf the Internet.. ha..
So.. I either need to speed read BUMFUZZLE, get creative, or Get Back to Work.. hummm.. get creative is it!!
I printed off every post in very small print, double sided on 11×17 paper, (they were counting the paper too!)… ha
Ahhh… now I can look busy, enjoy Bumfuzzle, and use the read papers as insulation around my window!! What a SYSTEM!!!
Following continuously, year after year.. power boat after powerboat (for the kozachuks), we spread the word of your website to All we could..
At one point we bought your book for a friend, but I had to Read it First…the pages became bent up, took me many days of pressing it back together with stacks of books on top to make it look new again!!
Eventually the bug hit.. Was it the COLD Canadian Winter… was it the banging of the powerboat hull on waves.. what a stupid boat, we just go to the beach and get off it.. who wants to ride in something like that!!!
We bought our first 35’ monohull in February.. no idea what we were buying.. but the kitchen looked cool.. it had a stove that could rock with the boat!!!
Fridge could hold a case of Beer!… SOLD!!!
Deciding to just figure out how to sail in the spring, was the initial plan.. quickly VETO’d by Robin (Wife)..
Sailing lessons in British Virgin Islands for a week in WINTER was a GREAT experience.. and WARM!!!! YES!!!!
We now live on a sailboat in Puerto Rico…
Thanks Bumfuzzle!!!! I’ll never miss that cubical
Tim Robin Allie Jessi
Ah Bumfuzzlers, how much I love living vicariously through you. I found your blog in 2008 after a tough divorce had me in a slump. Pretty much read he whole thing in about a month, bought the ebook and have been checking in weekly ever since. Your tenacity and humor in the face of adversity inspired me to fight for, and win custody of my sons (then 7 and 4). While I haven’t left the rat race I have gone on many adventures into the wild developing several hobbies with my boys outside my personal comfort zone. I’ve learned to slow down and stress less and I think I’ll live longer thanks in part to your willingness to share your adventures and your never-say-never attitude.
Thanks for inspiring us guys – means more than you might think.
Well this seems as good a time as any to comment for the first time!
Congratulations you guys on a wonderful decade of experiences and achievement, amongst other things. You are a credit to yourselves and an inspiration to many of us out here in cyberspace.
I have been following your website for a couple of years now. Read just about the entire blog.
We’re getting the “ducks in a row” here, and I am certain we’ll be out there sailing full time in the not too distant future – still working on the yacht.
Best wishes for the years ahead.
Hey guys, congrats!
I’ve been following along for a few years now – I found your blog shortly after starting to research the liveaboard/travel/anti 9-5 lifestyle. I’ve read your books as well and passed them along to my husband, sucking him into the Bumfuzzle shenanigans.
We’ve been scheming and planning our own escape for a few years – finally bought the boat a couple of months ago. You’re blog (along with a few others) has inspired us to not only go for it – even though we are not yet sailors – but to blog as we go along, so that others might also learn from/be inspired by the process. Your truthful/straight forward approach to blogging has been fun for me, and shown me that it’s really ok to just tell it like it is. Thanks for the inspiration on many fronts.
And thanks for keeping it going – for continuing to share your fun with us. Perhaps we’ll all run into each other one day. Happy travels!
Many years ago, I started reading your blog after disparaging remarks were made about you on the Cruising Sailors Bulletin Board. I am hooked! I am intrigued to see how the 4 of you evolve over the years. Wishing you another decade of great adventures and living life on your terms!
Hi There,
I started following your blog about 3 years ago and for the life of me I don’t remember how I stumbled across it – probably some random Google search. Anyhow, I’ve enjoyed following your journey.
Debbie
We came across your site through Facebook, friends of friends in the sailing community, it made sense that we should friend eachother. We have been living aboard for three years now, we both our little ones, almost the same ages as your little guys. As we wait out hurricane season in Dominican Republic we find it amusing to follow your adventures on your end. Hope to read another ten years of your freedom.
Genevieve xoxo
I’ve been following your blog since mid 2004. Sailing around the world had always been a dream of mine and I wanted to know what it cost. I’ve followed your blog ever since and even emailed a few questions of my own. I’m waiting for you to come through St. Louis, Missouri so I can meet the family in person.
Thanks for being an inspiration for living life to its fullest!
Hogan
Hi, Been there since the start well, the internet start anyway…
In 2003 I was building Charlotte, my home-designed trawler and was talking of the Bahamas and beyond to my girlfriend. She stopped me by saying ”first you finish that boat, then we’ll talk about palm trees” and while she kept two full time jobs I finished the boat, and we left. for a year just to see if we would still speak to each other. we are back now and are getting ready to leave for good.
(sell the house, we don’t want to worry about renting, etc)…We would of done it without knowing about Bumfuzzle, but we have got used to your smart humor and love it!
Gilles and Nancy
I can’t remember how I found you guys but I’ve been reading your blog for 3 years now. Right about the time my husband and I sold almost all our belongings and moved to a Caribbean island. Life has a way of reminding you just how short it is. Live well, friends!
Long-time reader, first time commenter. We were young 30-somethings on our honeymoon in French Polynesia during the summer of 2004 when we saw a cruising boat anchored in Rangiroa and decided that was what we wanted to do. We went home and started trying to figure out how much it would cost, which led me to Bummfuzzle.com. Thank you so much for those early logs of your expenses, showing how much it cost to cruise. And thank you for always being honest about the unglamorous and difficult aspects of this lifestyle.
During the next two years we bought and refit a boat then set off heading south. We exchanged emails with you guys a few times as we were prepping to go and passed each other somewhere in the eastern Caribbean as you were finishing your loop and we were starting ours. 3 years later we had finished our circumnavigation and were back home. Although we made the decision to return to our former lives during the breeding years (one we regularly question), you guys continue to be an inspiration to us and so many people. Thank you.
Cheers,
Danika
I was introduced to Bumfuzzle by a work colleague, I’m not even exactly sure how many years ago anymore….sometime after Ouest was born, though, and have been hooked pretty much ever since. Pat, I really enjoy your writing, and indeed you have developed your own ‘voice’ over the years rather than being strongly influenced by someone else’s, but then I would expect nothing less from you! I think you are probably the kind of person who, once they set out to do something, just naturally becomes very good at it. I bet cooking would be the same way…come on, give it a try! Anyways, thanks for a great blog….here’s to at least ten more years….and then another ten…..and then another….
When I found out about a young couple that would be going on the Great Race that had sailed around the world with no experience, and were going to rally with no experience, I was very interested. I started reading your blog before the race and then finished it after. And then the race started and I got the privilege of spending two weeks with that crazy couple. That was in 2007 and I’ve been a Bum fan ever since.
I love the way you have chosen to live your lives and the way you are raising your children. I can see only great things coming from those two.
So, when I pop a top tonight, I will raise a toast to you and to ten more years of decadence.
Safe travels….Sue
Hi Pat and Ali,
Congratulations on 10 years of Bumfuzzle! As so many have said before I’ve been following you guys for years living vicariously through you. I first found your blog in 2011. I have read every post you have made. The best gift I can give you is in 8 months time we will head out on our motorcycle with no destination in mind and no return date. All we have is a list of places we would like to see that hits almost every continent. I have quit my job after 14 years and my hubby will be done his soon. The bike is bought, the house is for sale, the golf clubs have been sold (that produced a few tears, his not mine). We couldn’t be happier! While we have always had a bit of a travel bug, it’s you guys and people like you that have inspired us and shown us the possibility of actually leaving the rat race and living our dream. So Thank you. Thank you for your inspiration, your willingness to buck the trend and actually live instead of just existing. Thank you for not being sheeple.
Our only hope is to pay-it-forward one day by inspiring someone else by just being ourselves and having a great life. I just bought our domain name the other night and while cliche it fits for us. lifes2short.ca will be up and running in very short time. If you ever feel the urge to check it out we welcome comments and critiques from such seasoned bloggers as yourselves. I hope our paths one day cross in person but in the meantime we will continue to follow you whenever there is a signal worthy.
Cheers
Lori Ciszek
Hi Lori, I just posted (below you) and was just now reading through the other comments and saw that you are leaving on a motorcycle in 8 months. Funny, my husband and I are leaving next summer as well! We are starting from North Carolina then heading to South America. We should keep in touch!
Hi Sheri,
We would love to keep in touch with you guys. We are in Ontario and heading out at the beginning of May. I mentioned our website in my comment to the Bums and it should be up within the next 2 weeks. We will have contact info on there. We look forward to hearing from you.
Lori and Mark
Great, I’ve bookmarked your website. Ours is taleoftwotravelers.com. Good luck with your preparations!
Congratulations!! I absolutely love reading your blog. My husband and I are very similar to you and Ali (sans kiddos!) in that we met in high school, are both 40 now, have a fantastic relationship, and are committed to living our life as we see fit, not as others want us to live it. We sold our house and quit our jobs at the end of 2005 and bought a land cruiser in England to drive all through Africa- down the West Coast and back up the East Coast. That took 2 1/2 years and we came back to the US afterwards to try to figure out what to do next–this is when I found your blog and have been an avid follower since! We knew that we were forever changed and had no desire to go back to the typical American life, but we needed to stop and figure out what direction we wanted to go. After almost 4 years of planning and saving we are very close to leaving again and selling everything this time. We’ll be taking a motorcycle around the world starting next summer (if you’re still in Mexico, maybe we can stop by and say hello!) and we have plans to sail after that. It’s nice to know that others are out there doing the same thing–living their lives and just having fun. Thank you for sharing yours with us. I’ve been able to live vicariously through you as we have been preparing for our next stage in life (in Chicago of all places).
I found your book and read it on my Kindle about 2 1/2 years ago. I was looking for books about sailing and got caught up in your adventure instead! Not ever having sailed -I personally had a lot of fears and worries about sailing- and reading Bumfuzzle put it into perspective and gave me some confidence. We’re not cruisers, far from it- our boat is a lovingly restored 1980 Catalina 22-our port is a tiny state park marina in the Hudson Valley of NY- our adventures might take us only a several miles north or south of the marina. But the river here is gorgeous, wide and inviting, winds and views to match. Sailing centers my husband like flying small airplanes did back in his 30’s (before I met him) His first marriage and house they built took away all his flying money, so he had to give it up. Decades later, working too hard and too long seemed to have drained the happiness from his soul. He was a man nearing retirement age without a passion he could tend to. I found him the boat on ebay and he drove to MA to get her. We do sail as a family, but my daughter isn’t much of a fan- so my husband sails solo or with his new and old sailing friends- pretty much any time he has. After work, days off, weekends- and enjoys both the sailing and the tinkering that comes with the turf. Thanks for being an inspiration -albeit to our very small adventures and we both wish you many more adventures to come!
Love your blog and site!!! After cruising and living aboard for 14 years – also in our mid thirties when we started- we are now land bound for the moment – you guys make it look so easy and effortless…. I know it is not!! For selfish reasons I hope you guys go another 10 years as I so enjoy reading, laughing and seeing your escapades, I have never seen happier looking children!! Keep up the good work!!
OK, I want the damn T-shirt!!!
I’ve been a reader since you started getting crap on the Cruising boards about Bumfuzzle and your lack of sailing experience from all the arm chair sailors. Watched/read as they all fell by the wayside and you kept going!!
Right now I am stuck in AZ= grandkids, so not all bad. I still do deliveries mostly the BVI to Newport and back.
I enjoy reading your blog Just wish I’d made some choices in my 20’s and 30’s like you did. I did travel around..across Canada and to all four corners of the US on my motorcycle a Honda 750 ..backpack, tent sleeping bag long hair, big lamb-chop side burns dirty jeans..those were the days.. but no blog as no internet when I did it. I still ride but closer to home.
Keep enjoying life and family that’s what makes life real!
Congratulations! We have been following you for the past 3 yrs and have loved every minute of it watching your adventures and seeing you grow as a family and as individuals. THANK YOU so much for the ride! You have helped inspire us to branch out and take the journey. We sold our house in Dec and live aboard Beatitude, a 42 ft 2007 Lagoon and plan on venturing out in 16 months. May you continue to have life changing adventures, happiness and safe travels. God bless you.
Hi guys –
I found your blog about a year ago. I don’t even know how I came across it, it was just there one day. You’ve been fun and interesting and frankly, inspiring. I get to take a vicarious little trip back to when my kiddos were little and we moved all over the country with them. I was told it should be scary but it was just fun. Now we have a crazy, silly, busy life. We play and work and raise kids and chickens. We have “jobs” that don’t feel like jobs (most of the time), we get dirty and laugh and cook and eat and grow food and build bonfires and make art and have a beautiful circle of people.
The best part of reading about you though, has nothing to do with you. It’s that I get to tell my soon to be minted 16 year old about it. She asked me recently if it was ok for her to not want to have a regular job after college. We live in a pretty conservative part of Texas and her friends dream of becoming teachers and nurses and getting married and having babies. Those are all valid and valuable things to aspire to but they aren’t her dreams. She wants to live to see what’s out there. So she’s getting a copy of Live on the Margin for her birthday so she can start planning her dreams early…I guess I better get her signed up for driver’s training too.
Thanks for doing what makes you happy!
T
My parents told me about you bums… They met you and Ali in Whitesboro, TX during the Great American Race. Been following along since! Love the photography.
Your life is full while you inspire others.
There I was sitting at my new desk with my new promotion in Ogden, Utah. The month was Feb. or Mar. of 2008. I had my whole career ahead of me. Somehow I stumbled on to this website of yours and could not stop reading about these crazy people doing what they wanted. Long story short, I quit a couple years later and moved backed to Oregon so my wife and I could plan our future sailing adventure and buy a boat with my retirement. Big deal right? My wife and I are only 34 and we will be heading down to mexico this winter in our Landfall 39. Just wanted to let you know this is mostly your fault.
Thank you very much for the inspiration
Mike and Mardi
I loved the “slideshow”. I wrote that down and thought, ” these guys did anything but “slide” through their lives. You didn’t settle for the “norm”, or someone else’s idea of how your lives should proceed. Nope! Just go and see what happens.
I started following your adventures in the beginning. I was in a pretty bad place and was spending many hours each month in the VA hospital in Minneapolis, or in bed. I could not “get out there”, but you guys could, and were having adventures, sharing them, pissing off the web world with your failure to play by the rules, and making me smile when it meant more than you could know.
I met with you the first time for beer and pizza and was impressed by your lifestyle, friendliness, commitment to your set of values, sense of humor, and of course, Ouest. We discussed raising a child in the lifestyle you have chosen. I remember saying as a Father and Grandfather, that I could not imagine being pissed at my parents now, if they had forced me into a childhood of traveling all over the world! Now you have Lowe as well, so, twice the abuse!
My health is good enough! I own three sailboats, and one of them is up in the Apostle Islands. I am up there a lot, but this winter, I will be someplace warm with beaches, rainforest, boats, and who knows what else.
I don’t want to sound sappy, but I cannot really measure what you, sharing your lives has meant to me personally. At times, I felt like I was right there with you, and believe me when I say I needed to be somewhere else.
Thanks so much for being you.
Love till we meet again,
Magic
Hey you two,
Has it really been 10 years???? Wow. As you know we’ve been with you from the very beginning. We were jealous of, intrigued and inspired by you. As we’ve gotten to know you we fell in love with your kids and instead of talking about “the Bums” now when I tell people about your site I say “our friends Pat & Ali”. You’re right, life is way too freaking short and you’re an awesome example of how it should be lived. Thank you for sharing it with us and helping us to be brave and take chances instead of doing the safe thing.
Here’s to the next 10!
Kristy & Deena
Thanks for 10 great years Ali and Pat!
The first time I read your blog, it made me sick! Actually, I was home sick and somehow stumbled upon it. Somewhere near the end of year two. Over two days I started from the beginning and read dozens of posts to catch up.
I was so grateful I immediately bought you a “pizza”…which I thought was genius way of letting me say thanks.
Because of your spark, this year my family and I completed a circumnavigation via plane and train. A great experience for the kids. Thank you for that. We’re already planning the next adventure (South America!) and the reality is it all started with Bumfuzzle. Thanks for inspiring.
Bums,
10 years?! We started talking about living on a sailboat 12 years ago, and were at that beginning stage of looking at half million dollar dream yachts (yeah right) when I found your website. At the time you were in the caribbean for the first time. We lived vicariously through you, following you around the world on your various vessels and vehicles while we achieved rat-race themed goals that were becoming more and more unsatisfactory. We had a daughter a couple months before you had yours and I traded some parenting emails with you as our families have grown. Then one day as my husband drank ice water, dripping sweat from mowing the lawn AGAIN, he looked around at our big life in the suburbs and asked, “What now? Do you just do this for forty years and then die?” According to the “American Dream” the answer was yes, but it wasn’t our dream. Less than two years later after embracing the ‘Go Now Go Small, Just Go’ motto, we are floating on our own sailboat and pinching ourselves about this reality every day. I owe you thanks because you were brave enough to post your eccentricity online, brave enough to live life outside convention, and you were Bum enough to inspire me daily. Here’s to 10 more years! ~Shawna (Matt and Cadence)
Shawna,
I had to reply to your post because my Wife and I were doing the same thing. In the suburbs with the expensive house and the big jobs. Pretty much on cruise control thru life. The cutting the grass part is hilarious, the only difference is I think I was drinking a beer. We are now on a catamaran in Annapolis beginning our adventure all because of Bumfuzzle as well! So anyway good luck!
matt
I have been here since the start! I lost track of you guys for a while after your first voyage…came back a few years later to see that you had done a Porsche run, a VW tour, and that Ouest was on her way! I worked with Ali’s cousin when you guys set out on your first journey, and she got me hooked on your story!
I look forward to hearing about each new adventure in your life – and sure hope that we are able to do the same thing sooner rather than later. We live in the same hood you guys came from and we are itching to get out…strip malls, big box stores, District 622…you get the picture. Once my husband is done with school in 2 years – hoping to do just that.
It has been an awesome 10 years to follow – I go back and start at the beginning once a year or so. Until we are able to set out on our course…I live vicarioulsy through you..
Happy Anniversary, Bums! Here’s to 100 more…
Congrats on 10 years!
I have been following you guys for just over 4 years. It took me about a month to catch up on your beginning posts before I checked in every couple of days. Since discovering your blog and a few others I have had the opportunity to move to Alaska for a couple of summers and I am currently in a position that has me moving every few months. I even had a little contact with you when I was up in Alaska asking for some advice on the north slope. It has helped me set a goal for myself and I am slowly working toward making it happen.
Wow…ten years?!! Man do I feel old. I have been a daily reader for about 8 – 9 of those ten years. We are from Minnesota, so perhaps your story and blog made the gossip circle here in Minnesota quicker that other places. I first heard of your blog from a friend of ours (also an avid reader) while hanging on our sailboat one afternoon. I think there was a story there, that I am sure I don’t remember all the details to. Something about my friend knows a friend or family member, who knows you! Anyway, if your from Minnesota it’s 3 degrees of separation, not 6.
Do I feel like I know you? Heck ya! In fact, if we ever meet I feel like I know everything about you and you know nothing about me (awkward). I completely enjoy waiting for updates to your blog, checking in to see how the bumfuzzle kids are doing today. Friends who are also readers of your blog have said, “yeah, but it’s not about sailing anymore” and while perhaps there’s some truth to that, I never ever noticed when that shift had ever occurred. I first became a reader of your blog because of the sailing aspect, however as I was drawn deeper into the content, it became more about you as people and a family and I felt connected to that.
Now, on the sailing front, my husband and I have had many conversations about cruising and that lifestyle. Part of our conversation always includes comments like “Well, if the bumfuzzles can do we, we can do it” We have recently purchased our cruising boat and are getting to know her and making upgrades, etc to take off in the next 4 – 5 years. Yes, yes, I know we should just go, however we have a teenage daughter that is still in the nest that would be highly upset if we moved her nest to a boat.
So, a sailor’s toast to you to celebrate your 10 years! “A sheet in the winds eye” (You will have to look it up to find the meaning)
Oh boy, we’ve ‘known’ you guys since the beginning, when the desk-pounders on various forums were going nuts over your audacity at even attempting a circumnavigation without having read every sailing book ever written. I laughed when you admitted to discovering how a two-speed winch works after half-a-world, while the others pontificated and yelled and gnashed their teeth, driving more and more traffic to your site. Meeting you before you left the Bay was a delight, and now we’re finally heading south after eight wonderful years here, so hopefully we’ll get to see you again very soon!
Even though we’ve never met in person, I feel like we’re friends and hope your travels take you through Maui. Gonna miss you at Latitude!! How ’bout the Bums? Ten years! Yeehah! 🙂
We’ll definitely look you up when we get there, Mark!
Congratulations on 10 years! I started reading in early 2008 while bored at my then office job. Since, we’ve left cold NY and land cruised in a little RV for a couple months which brought us to the FL Keys! We’ve been here over two years now exploring and sailing. We’ve gotten to go on sailboat deliveries around the Caribbean and Bahamas. Now we have our eye on a bigger boat than what we have for more extended cruising. Your writing and travels are definitely inspirational, here’s to a couple more decades worth!
Day oner, the video mad me cry, thanks.
Pat and Ali….Not looking for a T…. just wanted to say I’ve enjoyed your blog over the years and congrats on 10 years of adventuring. Thank you for the advice you’ve given me over the years and I hope to meet all of you in person someday. My own dreams/plans have evolved and changed over the years and I am not sure whether or not they still involve a circumnavigation, but they will involve travel and adventure, so hopefully we will meet on the road someday.
Tears are flowing! Your video is beautiful … I am so very, very proud of you. Your life is amazing, your kids are adorable. Pat, I love you …. you are a very smart and a remarkable man and Ali is very fortunate to have you. Ali, I’m so very proud of you for not having fears and being open-minded to being adventurous. You guys are awesome parents, and you are giving them a life like no other. I miss you guys desparately, but I’m so thankful that I don’t get to miss out on any part of it with Bumfuzzle! It is so much more than a blog, but a life-link to my sister’s going-ons! Congratulations.
It was only a year ago that one of my best friends sent the link to your blog to me but man, it’s been a hell of a year since. I traveled Europe alone for 6 months and came home severely culture shocked. Your blog definitely helped me through a bit. Watching your family gave me the confidence that it is possible to live your dreams. AND it’s OKAY to live your dreams.
Currently, I am sailing around the Atlantic on a Floating University. It’s a University on a cruise ship. I hope to circumnavigate the world on my own Caterman in the next decade. And there are a million other dreams ahead of me.
I’ll be 23 in a couple months. So with 23 countries in my belt, I know for sure that my twenties will have epic adventures. I hope for some of those to include my love in the future. And I hope to one day be in my thirties with my family adventuring as well.
Thanks for living your life the way you please! You changed mine!
Amy.
Been with you most of the decade. . . can’t remember the start date. . . bought both books. . . contributed to the taco fund in 09 and still have the thank you postcard that came through the mail fine with a stamp that is almost half the size of the card with about an inch hanging off . . . Don’t understand your comment: “here we are with only sixteen years left to do them together.” ??????????? why?
Off to college for Ouest I would imagine.
What a great milestone to hit!
It’s been a pleasure following along for the last 3 years.
I’d buy a t-shirt if you changed 10 Years to the What A Ride that you have in the site header. Possible?
t
Congratulations on 10 years!!! Tons of great comments.
For me, I came across the site when a friend mentioned your blog years ago when you were just starting and in the Pacific. But during one of the long passages I moved on. I rediscovered the blog again this spring! I read it all then from start to finish. I would be up until 4am reading about your adventures. I see some of myself in Pat. As many have said it has been fun watching you guys grow. Seeing the changes in you both, the kids, your writing, your pictures, your diet :D!
I could get carried away but will keep this short and say here is to many more exciting adventures for you and your family!!!
Scott
It has been
I don’t know how I found your site but I have been hooked every since. Love that you are living your dream. You guys have given people that have not been able to do what you are doing hope that they may be able to live there dream too.
Congratulations on 10 years! I stumbled across your blog in 2006 as we were preparing to spend a summer in Alaska on our sailboat. The boat has been sold and we are landlocked in Colorado but I still read your blog on a daily basis. I find your life inspirational. What a great way to raise a family!
Congrats to you all! Been following you from the first boat – you spent the night with Roger and I at our place in SF many years ago when you were driving the bus… thanks for all the years of inspiration! You guys rock : )
Hi guys. You’ve not only inspired my wife and I to (one day 🙁 ) pull up anchor and lead an unconventional life but you’ve inspired us to inspire our children that they should make a life for themselves rather than lead a life somebody else has designed for them. We’ve traveled around the world with our kids and they’ve got the bug!
Congrats on the 10 years, we’re proud of you guys!
Been following you since almost the very beginning. Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful adventures and beautiful family! I missed you last time you were in Portland but next time the pizza is on me.
Jim
Congratulations on your ten year adventure!!! I want to emphasize what an inspiration your story is to me and I’m sure to so many others. Over three years ago, I started dating my boyfriend and the love of my life who has always aspired to do a SOLO sailing circumnavigation. He lived small, saved, bought a 34 foot Pacific Seacraft last year and will embark on his five year trip starting in November – svandromeda.com. Since we started dating, we’ve taken a zillion sailing adventures all over the world, RVed in Alaska and the Yukon, and plan to sail together after he completes his life dream and do the Great Loop and other extended road trips. About 1 1/2 years into the relationship, he showed me your blog and I realized it was one of the many inspirations he had and fueled his vision for what is possible. Answer? ANYTHING.
Thank you for chronicling your adventures over the years. I’ve periodically read your blog myself and am currently reading the entire thing from the very beginning. I continue to be inspired by your ability to dream and live “unconventionally”. In my view? The only way… You’ve inspired the man I love, you’ve inspired me, and I cannot wait to see what’s next!
You completely blew the last ten years; not that there is anything wrong with that.
Congrats on the ten years. With your final statement of letting everybody write their own bumfuzzle story, you must be out of books to read. These stories should keep you going for a day or two.
My story starts like this. I have had the dream for awhile. I start to read blogs while I in university and came to your blog. I join your adventures when Ouest had that purple nose marking (forgot what it was called). I read your blog from the start at that time instead of studying, befriended you on facebook. I think I was your friend 964 or something like that.
Last year I went to Puerto Vallarta and thought I could visit you and your family but that is when you went to Minnesota. I drag my friend around the marinas to try and get a picture of bumfuzzle to send to you but I failed at finding it.
I read the blog daily and trying to get the girlfriend interested in sailing the world at our pace but so far no luck. I did manage to get a little boat for the lake by us.
Anyways, Thanks for the blogs. I wish you the very best.
Richard
Aloha, Guys!
Wow! Congratulations!!!!
As you well know, I’ve been on board pretty much since the beginning, enjoying, cajoling, offering way too much advice (the educator in me) journalistic and otherwise, most of which you’ve tolerated, some major ones you’ve even taken and throughout, communication with both of you has been very “Minnesota nice.” Even though I’ve never set foot on either boat, I feel like I know you guys well and we’re good friends, Believe me, you’ve helped me as well (your email to Santa Barbara couldn’t have come at a better time and was so heartfelt it really lifted my spirits – thanks again). I can’t wait until our paths cross in reality!
Cheers and very best to you guys for continued success, with much aloha,
Mark
Just wanted to say congratulations on acknowledging your dream, living it, and continuing to evolve it as the years and experiences help you grow. I think I started following your blog around the time you bought the “new” Bumfuzzle. The snark showed up on the Cruisers Forum and I wandered by to have a look. After devouring the backlog in a couple of weeks, I’ve been a regular reader. That was a fantastic video summary. I look forward to your 20 year video.
You guys Rock! Congratulations on ten years ….
Hi Guys,
I’ve been following your blog daily since almost the beginning. I remember taking an hour or so to catch up on all your posts when I first found your blog (I don’t remember how I found it). Your website is now in my “daily internet read” bookmark folder and I’m always happy when there’s a new post.
Congratulations on making your dreams come true for the past 10 years. You and Ali certainly have done a lot more adventuring than I, from a circumnavigation in a cat, to the VW bus down to South America and across to Europe, to the Great American Race in a vintage Porshe. Your blog allows me to imagine my life with an atypical perspective.
As a Lake Ontario sailor of a 22′ sailboat, I very much enjoy your posts about sailing-related topics. Pat, your fearless approach to solving all the things that break on a boat inspires me to also become self-reliant and fix things myself. Boats aren’t rockets, and systems tend to be simple if you take your time and pay attention to details.
Yes, I feel like I know you guys very well – Pat more so than Ally, simply because Pat does most of the writing. That said, I feel I’m a bit of a creeper because you know nothing of me.
Thank you for sharing your life’s journey with us. I find your photographs and writing style engaging and entertaining. Your choice of images for your video today were awesome. I have shared the URL of your website with many people, and have often received thanks for sharing.
Good luck with the next decade!
Best wishes,
Bob
Congratulations on ten years! I starting following Bumfuzzle when you were in the Bahamas. I liked the way you just did it without listening to the arm-chair sailors in the online forums. My favorite story was Pat discovering that the winches were 2-speed. There were months that I missed your postings when you were driving through South America — because we were off cruising ourselves and rarely had internet access. Thanks for sharing so much of your lives with so many.
First bumfuzzled with you as you were about to cross the Pacific, waited on pins and needles to hear from you on the other side. I’ve been bumfuzzling with you ever since.
Cheers!
Teresa
Hello Bumfuzzle,
I’ve been a daily reader for the last 6 months. I came across your site during a search for sailing blogs. A search I vetured because it was destined to be my future and I wanted to check out what it was all about!
My boyfriend had a dream and I can count myself lucky enough to have found him. We’re 26 year old Canadians, no sailing or cruising experience, but our beautiful catamaran is sitting waiting for us in North Carolina! 28 more days of work (but who’s counting?!) and we’re south bound to make our dreams come true!
Thank you for your beautiful site, you’ve been more than an inspiration.
Hey guys, nice job keeping it together for ten years. Ali, I think back to the early days of Bumfuzzle when you would occasionally post – while Pat has developed into an amazing writer, I can’t help but be impressed with the job that you do behind the scenes. Pat, to me, your ability to remain unflappable in the face of all sorts of problems is your greatest strength. I’ve learned some good lessons from you on this and they have served me well.
I’m bummed you didn’t make it to St. Paul this year, it has been a good summer for pizza and beer…
Fair winds my friends,
Chris
AMAZING! Reading through the comments here I am in awe of how much you have inspired people. I never thought about all the other people reading this and feeling the same inspiration as me. I found you guys when you first left florida about 10 years ago and stopped reading when you guys sold the cat, I was stoked a couple of months ago when I googled bumfuzzle and saw how much you had done since I last was here. It is cool to see how similar all the other readers are affected by you guys, many comments talked about finding you guys at a time of sadness or depression and getting joy from your adventure…. That is just so cool to me
Keep on living the dream for those of us without the balls to do it!
Amazing how a video of someone else’s grand adventure makes me cry. The reflections I have of my own life and what I desire for my young family are captured in many of your adventures. It’s hard not to look back at my perceived shortcomings of what might have been when I think about your story.
Your blog has been life changing for me. I don’t really know why other than it speaks to every ounce of my being that says the typical suburban lifestyle sucks and getting out of it is my number one priority.
I applaud you for opening up your life for others to see it. Most people don’t have the willpower to keep sharing it everyday, especially in tough times. Best wishes on your future! -Chris
Congrats guys. It’s been great following the adventures.
I came across you guys in 2009 while learning to sail in Florida. I’ve popped in and out of your lives to see what’s new with you. It’s hard to put into words the doors you’ve opened up for so many people. For me, you’ve been an encouraging voice helping redefine the next 10 years of life. I’m celebrating my 10th next year, and hope to do it in proper Bumfuzzle style…. eating street crepes in Paris’ latin quarter and walking down the Seine with our 2 yr old. 🙂
Cheers to 10 years!
I’ve been following for 3+ years and thank you for the adventures and laughs. Here’s to the next 10 may they never be dull!
I discovered your blog around New Years this year. At the time I was soaking up any and every adventure story about world travel and sailing in particular. I was deployed to Afghanistan at the time, and found a friend who had a similar long time dream to leave everything and travel the world. We fed off each other’s passion for travel and sailing by scouring the internet for blogs and Amazon for books, which is where I found your book and blog. He has since been fortunate enough to get out of the military and sailed around the Pacific a bit as crew. Now he has a vanagon and is prepping it to start his own van adventure. I still have seven years left on my military commitment, but am eagerly planning for and awaiting freedom from it to start out with my husband on our own ’round the world journey. For now we are learning to sail (and fix things) on an old 22′ sailboat far from the sea, in our current landlocked duty station.
It has been inspiring getting to know you and your family through your blog, I check in each week eager to see what you guys have been up to.
No, Thank You. Thank you for sharing your life with us. It has been an awesome ride to come along and for that, we are nothing but grateful.
Ever since I was a kid I dreamed of having an “unconventional” life. I’ve always hated the 9-5 office grind. It was not until I discovered your website a little over a year ago that I realized that there are real people out there living like this. Thanks to you I also discovered Sprinter Life and both of your sites have helped inspire me to make an action plan. I am still working at my regular office job, but I have a decent amount of money saved up to hopefully escape sometime soon. Now I have to convince my husband to go along with my crazy scheme. He loves the idea of traveling full time, but thinks that its just a fantasy for people who win the lottery. Anyway, happy anniversary and thanks for inspiring me and so many others. I think the world is a better place with more and more people starting to follow their dreams.
I started following you about a year ago. I found a blog post somewhere else, and curiosity got the best of me, so I started from the beginning. About two months into reading, curiosity got the best of me again, so I skipped to the present to see what you were currently up to.
I love your stories – a hopeful inspiration to those of us without enough guts to get out there and do it. It’s nice to hear travel stories from the OTHER side of the table. It’s comforting to know that it’s okay to get started without first knowing everything!
Good luck for the next 10 years and beyond! Hope our paths will cross at some point.
(I vote for selling the shirts, too!)
We’ve been following your blog since about 2009, about the time we were getting ready to leave on our own voyage. I have designed, built and raced sailboats for about 30 years before shifting gears from racing to cruising. While I’ve raced in many beautiful parts of the the world, until that first cruise to Mexico, I never spent more than a couple of weeks at a time cruising. After a season in Mexico we came home and sold our 36 footer and began outfitting our current Beneteau 42, and will leave on another cruise this November.
As I have said many times, we’ve enjoyed your blog and book, and strongly recommend to anyone contemplating a voyage that they read both. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Been following your adventures from day one and want to congratulate you on your ten year quest of following your intuition and dreams and making them a reality.
I’m a musician and world traveler (unfortunately not a sailor) and have found a lot of parallel qualities in our lifestyles when it comes to dealing with people’s opinions and expectations on how to raise children and fit into society in general.
I had to deal with chemo and radiation a couple of years ago and through that whole ordeal catching up with the growth of your family, journalistic and photography skills along with life’s daily challenges proved to be a great daily diversion and more than once lightened the mood of what was a pretty eye opening experience of just how short life can be.
Hopefully there’ll be plenty of wind in your sails and lots of happiness in your future. Thanks again.
Bumfuzzle, Wow! 10 years already? I have been following you since you left Chicago to go to Ft. Lauderdale to bum the catamaran. Yes it is too bad that you didn’t take more pics of when you were in the Red Sea and Egypt, those were of better days. Congratulations on such a remarkable achievement, I really do admire you guys you are such and inspiration. Fair winds and following seas on the spindrift, we will meet someday, I promise. Marc in Iowa
Heh, I first misread your comment as “…BURN the catamaran,” Marc. That’s only funny (in retrospect) because it was that Wildcat 35 that burned Pat and Ali, as it turned out.
Thanks for ten great years of letting me see the world through your eyes. I became been a follower since just before you transited the Panama Canal. I enjoy that you can face things that would stop other people (major rebuild of the cat, VW mechanical problems, mono engine beak down, rabid mean spirited commenters….).
Your pictures have been great. Who else would include “Sweat” brand beer from SE Asia, Hyder Alaska, a small bridge at the tip of South America, and you daughter’s first day of school in one blog? All great memories.
Congrats and give us another 10, 20, 30,..years.
We have followed your blog since early 2004 with a step back to 6 September 2003 to catch up. Since that time there have not been very many days that we did not check for a new Bumfuzzle blog entry. Always disappointed when during your long passages there was no update for weeks at a time (our thoughts . . . why didn’t Pat $ub$cribe to Inmar$at so that he would have global Internet service?)
We knew you had SailMail but were unsure of the coverage and didn’t want to intrude anyway. Nothing we could add by bothering you with e-mail figuring you would catch up with the blog at some point.
What an ODYSSEY! You’ve allowed us to vicariously visit some great places on this planet while “listening” to your descriptions and “seeing” through the eyes of your cameras. You even shared the financial side of your adventures with enough detail to provide a solid planning guide to everyone contemplating similar adventures.
We were excited to learn that the Great Race route would bring you to a stop close enough for us to drive and meet up with you. Even though our time together was short, we enjoyed that visit tremendously.
Your road trip from pole to pole (or as close as you could get) with the VW van was awesome.
Your decision to provide dual citizenship for Ouest and Lowe while conserving on the medical costs was prescient. What a great set of parents you both are.
The adventures continue with the Spindrift Bumfuzzle and are as fresh, informative and entertaining as ever!
CONGRATULATIONS ON A FANTASTIC TEN YEARS!!!
We met briefly when you were in the VW van in Carcassonne and Ouest wasn’t even a bump. Good luck to you all, and keep on doing it.
Hey Pat (and Ali, and the little Mexicans),
I first boarded Bumfuzzle when you were in Panama City, waiting to embark for the S. Pacific. As I recall, you’d just discovered the delam problem the first Bumfuzzle had, but didn’t yet know how extensive it was. This was also just before you guys had had to divert to that pirate hellhole of Buenaventura, Colombia.;-) after you’d finally shoved off.
Of course, it’s possible you knew exactly how bad the delam problem was even then – I remember emailing you after I first learned of your knock-down-drag-out with Charter Cats many weeks later. Their ultimate demise (by the courts or by a just god, who cares) must have been soooo sweet.
I was astonished that you could so expertly wall-off those troubles from your travel blog – still am! I emailed and told you you must have been an awesome commodities trader, since you never let on how awful the Charter Cats experience was.
You responded that while you were actively trading, when you got home from work Ali had no idea whether you’d either won or lost capital that was the equivalent of a new Mercedes!;-) I love that (but wouldn’t want to play poker against you.)
For me, a significant turn in your writing came when you guys were in Sri Lanka in late January/early February 2006. It was clear to me at that point that your “youthful” writing style had taken an unanticipated tack. Not that I objected to your youthful exuberance – I didn’t. But the new maturity I began to note was a welcome addition to an already compelling read.
The leap to the Roadrace Across America right after the completion of your circumnavigation took me completely by surprise, but I thoroughly enjoyed your telling of the tale. I can’t wait to see Lowe’s blog in a few years when the Porsche is his and he sets out on some noteworthy adventure of his own.
Then came the ’58 Splittie . . . in that adventure, you handed me a ticket to my hippie past as a college punk in Colorado. Thank you for that!
And don’t worry about the absence of pics from the early days . . . I can still see Bum almost being crushed by the idiot near Singapore, IIRC, the prop falling off – lost forever in the Red Sea, as well as the creation of the “official” insurance papers to ameliorate the Greek Nazis . . . sorry, Greek bureaucrats.
My favorite picture, though, is the creation of Ouest on a deserted beach in Chile. There may be no pics of the moment, but I can see it clearly just the same – thanks to your wonderfully written exposition of such “incidents.”;-)
Like many others, I suspect, once I found your blog (while looking for a catamaran-sailing blog), I was hooked. I went back to the beginning and read everything from early September, 2003, got caught up and haven’t stopped reading since. In fact, I re-read the entire blog yet again in early ’07, extracting every mention of a problem relating to the boat. It created a Word document that ran to 76 pages.;-)
Thank you, and your family, for ten great years of blogging that serve to illustrate why the web can be so compelling, Pat. I, too, wish to remove myself from consideration for a free T-shirt. It’s me who owes you – not the other way around. I’m sure there’s a link on the site somewhere to purchase one, and I’ll search ’til I find it.
Carry on, Bums!
I don’t even remember how or when I happened across Bumfuzzledotcom. I wasn’t aware at the time of the controversy raging on the “sailing” discussion boards, so that wasn’t it. But, happen across it I did and it came at a time when I had lots of time at work to peruse blogs. Don’t have nearly as much time for that now that I’m retired. But, I digress. Read all of your adventures sailing around the world and then bought the book and passed it on to our daughter who is more book-oriented than blog-oriented. Then we followed along as you attempted the Great Race and then followed unbelieving as you drove a split-window VW the length of the Pan-American Highway. “Unbelieving” because we owned 3 different split-windows and wouldn’t have made the attempt in any of them. When we finally got started on our sailing trip to Mexico, we were so happy to happen upon you guys in the marina up the delta in Northern California. It was great to share pizza and beer with you and to meet Ouest (and you guys too, of course).
Anyway, following along has been one of my great pleasures. Your blog is the only one that I ALWAYS read. There are others I follow pretty closely but yours is always a must-read. And besides, you guys win the prize for having the absolute best boat/blog name. Wish I’d thought of it first. Happy 10th anniversary and here’s to many, many more.
-Steve & Lulu
Geez, 10 years? Let’s see I found your blog April 16, 2005. I was waiting for my post-April 15th massage appointment, reading a thread about anchoring on the now-defunct Latts and Atts forum, hoping to learn something useful for a then-new sailor. Ha! As usual it deteriorated into disparaging comments about other posters’ mothers. However someone did reference your blog in the melee, so it was worth it. You were the first blog I ever read, and I’m still reading and enjoying, even more as the years progress. Yes, your writing and photography steadily improve. You guys have been an important source of inspiration for me. As you know when you choose to step off the well trodden path and live a life outside the lines, people ask you a lot of questions. Sometimes it feels like they feel the need to talk you in off the ledge. In explaining my choices to these people I often mention you as an example of what I consider successful living.
As for us, we did sell the hacienda. We bought the cruising boat, but decided that “road” wasn’t for us. Quickly. We’re fast learners. We are happy on the road with the fifth wheel though. So that is our focus now.
Daily mantras –
These are the best days of ours lives.
We still haven’t had our best adventure.
We have everything we need and most of what we want.
Thanks for sharing the miles with us. Here’s wishing us many more.
What a wonderful video!! You are quite an inspiration. I started reading your blog when our family made it our goal to buy a boat and cruise the islands while our son was still young(I grew up doing this with my family and it seemed natural to me). We bought a Bayfield 25 about 2 years ago to learn to sail her on the bay and today, we sold her back to her original owners. It is a bitter sweet day, on one hand it means that we are on our way to living our dream (we can start looking for our next boat-a bigger boat:)but dreams are kinda scary to see coming true…I guess in the end, the only thing that would scare me more would be to never go and always wonder what it would have been like… thanks for sharing a glimps of your wonderfilled life, it’s awesome-
You been ignoring my suggestions since 2007. I know someday I’ll say the thing you need to hear – it’s just a matter of time! So keep up the good work and give me another 10 years to figure out what to say at times like these!
Cheers, Dirk
Dear Pat and Ali
I have been following you since before Quest was born.
I am a natural home body But I enjoy very much reading and seeing the two little ones growing up, and what your latest place to explore is.
Well done for realizing what it is that you enjoy in life and for sharing.
Hi Bum family – I too have been reading your blogs since you first began writing and posting. And I am among the many who don’t remember how they found you, but it seems we are a large community now.
Reading a new entry is always the treat of the day for me, and it has inspired me to look for a sail adventure soon.
Congrats on doing what you want and what makes you happy.
Arlie
Well I’ve been reading cruiser and sail blogs for some years and yours is one of the ones I enjoy the most. I think it’s the pics of your beauties that I look forward to as I have no grandkids yet and my babies are grown. So I look at your pictures and think how sweet they are, then get on with the business of making ready to cruise.
Your blog is one of the few “regulars” that have made it possible for us to make this leap. I remember a post you did after some fathead woman criticized you for your irresponsible endangerment of two precious children and you responded with something like, “if we can do this and not die, then anyone can do it”. Not even close to what you said, but that’s what I got out of it and it was a defining moment for me.
There was another moment that I will never forget… you made some flippant comment about blog writers with a “Things we did today” mentality… HA! That’s the name of my blog. It’s a long story and we didn’t start out as a sail/cruising blog… but that’s the name, and I hope you can forgive me… as mundane as it is. 🙂
We are about three weeks away from throwing off the docklines. I’ve quit my job, we moved aboard and are setting sail come October to head for Florida, then on to the Bahamas. It is only possible because of the words you, and others like you have shared with us. I feel like I know you and count you, Ali and the kids as “Cyber Friends”, even though we’ve never met, and probably never will. (different coasts) Congratulations on making your lives truly your own. It’s taken me a lot longer to get where you are, but here I am. See ya out there!
I need a t-shirt so I can wear it the day I launch my sailboat. I’d be happy to buy one. You’ve inspired me in life-altering ways. Thank you so much.
I started following your blog roughly six months ago. Your adventures echoed some of my own and you took me to new places I may never see. More than that though, I’ve enjoyed your perspective on life, the entire families perspective. The adventurous spirit, making lemonade out of lemons and just finding joy in daily life keeps me coming back. 🙂
I can’t remember when I started following your blog, I know it was before Ouest was born. I immediately went all the way back to the beginning and started from there…
Congratulation on 10 years of giving us someone to live vicariously through. Here’s to many, many more years of reading about your family and adventures.
Been following since 2007. Your life is such an Insipration. I share you story with so many of my friends. It did’nt take much convicing to get her to share my desire to leave the rat race behind and live. Thanks so much for your blog and your book “Live on the Margin” as well. I’ll have you know you have changed the course of life with your dedication to sharing. Thank you
I found you when you were in New Zealand dealing with boat issues. Can’t remember how I found you. But so glad I did. I have had the pleasure of being witness to all of you discoveries since then. Both your travel discoveries and the discoveries of parenthood and the pleasures of seeing your family grow.
Thank you for all you have shared with us. You pleasures and the challenges that life has given you.
I look forward to the next ten years and the gen after that as well.
Dan
P.S. Just came to me how I found you. I was surfing one of those stuffy sailing forums and the postsslamming you were many. I figured anyone that could get so many that upset had to be worth reading. I have never doubt that decisions since.
Awesome video by the way….
Sort of caught me off guard with this post. I’m an 05er and can’t believe Pat has kept me interested along with thousands of others for this long. It’s funny that I had to think “what is his name” but Ali, Quest and Lowe come as instinct!!
I rented a 16′ sailboat on a Sandles vactation in 05 and was hooked on sailing. While looking to purchase a boat upon return home I stumbled onto the Bums and have checked in biweeekly ever since.
You ask if I feel I know you guys and I feel that I know you as you want to be known! “I” think that there is another work side to yours and Ali’s life that we know little about but stll Priviled to be a part of whatever your willing to share, and I thank you for sharing a small glimpse of your lives over the last Ten years and will continue to read as long as you continue to post.
Your Canadian friend Derek
Love the photos! That was so great! It reminded me of finding your blog and spending 3 days to catch up on it about 9 years ago! How much has changed since then! I still look forward to reading your blog every day. I love watching Ouest and Lowe grow, what great parents you are! Reminds me of how lucky I am to have parents that let me experience everything!
Here’s to the next 10 years.
Ellen and Bill and the moggies!
My adventure with Bumfuzzle began in 2007 when I was doing some [window] shopping on the Internet for sailboats, as I used to be apt to do when I needed a distraction (now I’ve moved on to airplanes). A Google search for Wildcat Catamarans back then returned a link to your blog and I have been following Bumfuzzle ever since. You actually drove through my hometown around the time I started reading Bumfuzzle but I missed the opportunity to try to meet up with you because I had started reading at the beginning of your blog and it was months later that I read the post where you had been through town as part of the Great Race.
I tell my wife that after years of dreaming of buying a sailboat and sailing around the world your blog provided me with enough vicarious adventure that I no longer have that desire. You saved me an untold amount of money in direct costs and lost wages from a sail around the world. I’m sorry to say that in return I’ve only sent you books and pizza money.
Now if I could just find a blog about a couple flying around the world…
Wow, I am tearing up just reading the comments.
Bet you didn’t see this coming ten years ago did you!
I think I found you through the “sailing” forums back when you were catching heck. I haven’t been to a forum in years now, but I have you on my “Daily” blog check list.
Fortune found us near Sacramento one weekend, and you guys were gracious enough to let us come visit. We didn’t know it then, but Lowe was on his way, and it is remarkable how attached we have become to your little family.
Even more remarkable is your effect on our lives. It has been slow coming, but this time next year, we will be gainfully unemployed, and out looking for adventure. I want to thank you for the shift in perspective you spelled out in your book, “Live on the Margins”, it has made all the difference.
Thank you for choosing to share ten years ago. You have changed the world for the better by leading the way out of the rut, and into the world.
We will cross paths again!
Kevin and Sherlene
I’ve been hooked on the Bums from the beginning. I first heard of you two crazy kids from one of the sailing forums where all were certain you were about to self destruct. So, I checked in to watch the train wreck and low and behold, I found a couple of adventurous spirits who smiled and laughed their way around the world. OK, a bit of grumble and bitch added spice to the mix but, I can say for certain that I have enjoyed every picture and post.
My hubbin’ and I have had our adventures as well… We sailed south from California on October 23rd 2003 and spent four years sailing Mexico, two years sailing the South Pacific and finally sold the boat in Australia due to health issues (we are a bit older than you two). It was a wonderful adventure and we don’t regret a moment of it. We are currently enjoying a busy life on the Oregon Coast and watching a couple of happy spirits bringing up two very fortunate children.
Thank You for sharing.
Barb
I have enjoyed your blog for many years now – since you were sailing in your cat. My husband and I dreamed about doing the same. We met you in Portland when you got the Bum bus – probably 2007 – about the time you met Nick. We Met you at Bridgeport Brewery, but it had changed from the quaint old style brew pub to the more modern bistro style – much to my dismay. We had a couple of beers and some pizza nonetheless and you showed us the bus before you took off on that adventure! We have since moved to Seattle and my husband changed careers and I retired (early). I still follow your blog and live vicariously. We wish you continued happiness. Maybe someday, my attempts at learning and trading options will catch me up to your lifestyle. I’m still working on it!! Cheers!
How long have you been with us?
05 give or take a year.
What brought you here?
Curiosity. Had to see the dangeresly inexperienced kids from MN that the forums were talking about.
Do you feel like you know us?
I do. Feels a bit creepy really. I hate to admit it, but I even dreamt about you the other night. We crossed paths in some Caribbean port, both of us were sailing pirate ships. The real deal, 3 masts, canons, everything. Ouest was playing with my little girl up on deck while I was chatting with Pat about “live on the margin.” I woke up extremely relieved that it was a dream. I would hate to maintain a pirate ship.
Have you gone cruising?
Not yet
Have you made your dream adventure a reality?
Partially, my dream adventure spans a life time. like you guys, I’m living how I want.
Thanks for the blog, happy 10 year anniversary.
Dan
I don’t much like boats, I hate VW vans, Pat has a face I just want to punch, and I have plenty of my own real life adventures, but for some reason over the past 7 or 8 years I have read nearly every word and looked at nearly every picture ever posted by or about the Bumfuzzles.
Thank you Ali, Pat, Ouest, and Lowe for sharing with us whatever it is that you are doing. I will keep checking in every so often for another 10 years if you let me.
I started reading Bumfuzzle last year, after I returned from sailing for the first time and began to devour sailing blogs. I followed a link here from World Tour Stories, and I’m so very glad I did. You guys are truly living the dream, and it has inspired my husband and I to take steps in that direction. We’re not ready or willing to pull up stakes and move overseas, but we have downsized our lives and are very happy with the result. We’re looking at buying a sailboat, while simultaneously eliminating the factors that keep us tied down in places where we don’t want to be. It’s a process, but you guys have shown us that it’s worthwhile and within the realm of possibility.
You guys are an inspiration simply because you have dared to live the dream and succeeded in doing so. It makes me happy to read the updates and realize that such beautiful locations exist, and they are within the reach of people who sincerely apply themselves to something other than the daily grind. Your posts don’t try to disguise mistakes or negative experiences, and your positive attitude is refreshing and inspiring.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful, adventurous lives with your readers. I feel that I have gotten to know a lot about what it is to live the Bumfuzzle lifestyle. You’re the kind of folks I’d like to take out for pizza and beer if you were in the neighborhood (at a child-friendly place, of course). Here’s to (hopefully) ten more years of Bumfuzzle.
I first came across your site in 2009 after a few of us at work had kicked around the idea of spending a few years of retirement living in sailboats and cruising the intercoastal waterways, and maybe even the Bahamas. Oddly enough, I found the website after seeing the photo of “www.bumfuzzle.com” written in the sand on one of the youtube videos. I spent the next two weeks reading every post. Since then the intercoastal travel idea has transformed into a circumnavigation scheduled for a few years down the road.
Bumfuzzle has turned into my go-to trump card to shut down the buzzkilling naysayers over the recent years (it’s amazing how much people think they know about sailing that have never seen the ocean). So far I’ve been told “you barely know how to sail”, “you need, like, a hundred foot boat to go around the world”, and “it’s too expensive” have been shut down by a simple reply, “let me show you a blog”.
Thanks for the window into your personal human experience, I wish you all the best and look forward to the next ten years!
Hello Bums,
I think I must have found your blog in early 2005 or so. In 2001-2004 I was out cruising (and as you probably remember, it’s not like wi-fi was around every corner then, so I wasn’t online much at all). When I got back I really missed it, and felt a bit lost back in “the full catastrophe” on land, so I turned to sailing forums and blogs to still feel a part of it. The forums were lambasting you, so of course I clicked over to your blog to see what they were fussing about. I enjoyed your perspective, and I’m also a Minnesotan who grew up in a Twin Cities suburb, so appreciated the homey feel to your writing.
In some ways my enjoyment of your blog now is “backwards.” That is, I’ve been cruising (not that I don’t want to go again, but I don’t read your blog as someone who is counting down to my first cruise); but I’ve never been married or had a family (kids), so I really enjoy that part of it and live it a bit vicariously through you (but not in a creepy way, in case that sounded creepy). Of course it’s not just that, because I don’t read any blogs of suburban families keeping up with the Joneses. It’s the combo of adventurers with a family.
I’m more of a planner and preparer (sometimes to my detriment), so I’ve been alternately uncomfortable, interested, and inspired by your decision/ability/nature to take things as they come, solve them, do them – or whatever – and just keep on going. That has changed my outlook quite a bit, and I thank you for that. Reading also reminds me that I don’t need to justify what I do to others (because… you don’t!).
I miss long-distance cruising and living aboard, but since I don’t aspire to the former solo (went before with a buddy), I’m adventuring domestically via small RV/boat – for now anyway. I enjoy it but miss international travel/living. Who knows what the future may bring though 😀
Thank you for sharing your Bumfuzzleness!
Pat & Ali,
I won’t lie, I got a bit teary-eyed watching your video. Partly because I loved watching what I’ve already read and seen on your blog get rehashed into 7 minutes and partly because its 0330 am and I’m working a night shift. 🙂
I’ve only been following your blog for 8 months or so, but when I first started reading it I had to go back and read from the beginning. I’ve enjoyed your journey so much and it definitely inspires me not to be content with a humdrum life. I feel like I have a better understanding of other places and cultures thanks to you. Its very refreshing to have a hands on view of other places and not have everything I know come from news reports and over-generalizations. Thank you for expanding horizons! I hope you have another fabulous 10 years!
Pat & Ali,
Thank you for sharing your journey. I started following you guys early on when you were in the Bahamas. Living vicariously via your website. My 16 year old daughter recently released her first CD. I had it playing on my computer when I started your video. The song “Drive” was perfect match for my thoughts on your journey.
“You just gonna ride your whole life
Darlin’ you just gonna ride
Wouldn’t you rather be on the
Driver’s side of life
Soon you’ll reach the state of mind
When you’ll have to decide
You can let the others do it for you
Or you can drive
Yeah you can drive”
Some day I hope to take the wheel….
reverbnation.com/katherinekincaid
Cheers!
Thanks guys, I bought your book with a vague interest in sailing not even knowing that a circumnavigation was even possible for someone like me. Two years later we’ve bought a boat and plan to start off in the caribbean and go who know where!
Hi Guys, you already know our story of how I started following you in 2007 and you are the reason we have a boat and sailed from San Diego to Puerto Penasco. It was so great meeting up with you in Santa Rosalia. We’re back on the boat in Oct so will hopefully see you in Mazatlan! Pat you have become an awesome writer. I just read the sailing book again and plan on using them for my Christmas presents this year. You should sell the T-shirts! Hugs to those beautiful kids of yours.
Karin and Joe on Flyin Sideways
I stumbled across your website in about January this year and started compulsively reading it at every opportunity I got until I reached the present and have just kept reading from there. I have since bought both your books and loved them!
I’m 19 and from London. I’m currently studying economics and Mandarin at SOAS and combining what I’ve learnt there with your book and a few others and am about to start trading thanks to your advice!
I think I started wanting to sail when I was about 16 when I started to think about what I wanted to do with my life and I knew immediately that I didn’t want to do anything remotely normal! That’s when sailing crossed my mind – I love to travel and I adore swimming in the sea and the dream was born! My boyfriend and I are now in saving overdrive to achieve the dream. Also neither of us have any sailing experience whatsoever so I can honestly say that you and Ali are a true inspiration and your blog is a very happy part of my every day life now.
I would like to take this opportunity as you have invited us to comment to send our heartfelt thanks for sharing your life in such an honest and amusing style.
Much love from the other side of the atlantic.
Alice & Spence
Hi, I found you last summer whilst bored at work and read from the beginning to the end, also curious to see of you had been here. I live in Positano ion the Amalfi Coast, so see a lot of boats coming and going…but not yours yet! Love the photos and the improved writing!
Hey Bumfuzzle! I’ve been reading your blog for the last seven years. My husband grew up cruising, so I was interested in learning more about it. I was drawn to your blog because of your honesty, humor, and live for the day attitude. My husband and I are almost 30. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to fly internationally frequently, so we are trying to take advantage of that. But who knows we might end up cruising in the future! P.S. We love pizza, too!! What are the best pizza places you’ve been to?
I’ve been reading your blog for years now and I love it. I adore your children and I find your life fascinating. I’m not in the slightest bit jealous over the way you live versus my own life. Actually, I wouldn’t want your life for anything just like you wouldn’t want mine for anything! But I find the way others live to be interesting. I think it is just part of what makes the world go round. If you’re happy and your kids are happy, that is all that matters.
I had my own extremely successful, profitable business which I sold to stay home and take care of my kids. I ended up homeschooling them the entire way through (oldest just left for college…..sad mommy). This isn’t remotely how I expected my life to turn out, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. If you can say that, and I know you can, that is all that matters, in my opinion. Hug those kids everyday because it really is true that they grow up far too quickly!
It was about a year or so ago that I stumbled upon a sailing forum and saw a thread titled “Those Bums at it again.” So naturally I had to check it out. After reading post after post of Bumfuzzle bashing with a few pro Bumfuzzle comments I made my way over to your site. You were just getting your current boat ready to head down to Mexico. I enjoyed your posts so much that I went back and read about your catamaran adventure. After finishing that up I couldn’t understand all the hate. It had to be just pure jealousy for what you were able to do at a young age.
Well long story short you inspired me to jump in feet first and head to college at the age of 29. It may not seem like much but for some one who grew up in a small rural town, going to college just seemed like a fantasy. Now I’m in my second year of school getting my degree in Engineering and a member of my colleges National Honor society.
Thanks for the inspiration Bumfuzzle
Josh
I started reading your blog when Ali was pregnant with Quest, so I missed the very beginning, but have loved everything I’ve read since you’ve been on my blogroll. I am now a full-time RVer, solo woman, and have my own blog. I admire you and Ali for living life on your own terms; I can’t imagine how great your kids will be when they are grown up. I hope somehow we’ll know. 🙂
Barbara
Me and My Dog …and My RV
dewelldesigns.blogspot.com
I started following your blog several years ago after purchasing your book on Amazon. At first I couldn’t figure out what was so compelling to keep me coming back again and again, but then it hit me! You guys are actually living out many peoples dreams. It’s one thing to say “yeah I’m going to buy a boat and sail away”, and a whole other leap to go ahead and do it. I love the fact that you are able to spend so much time with your kids and really get to see things through their eyes. All I can say is don’t stop! I’ll be moving to Mexico (Puerto Vallarta) within the next year and you are partially to blame. Thanks!
We have been following you for just over a year, right after we decided to sell it all and set sail. We really love your attitude of living for now, and not saving it for the end. We also want to have great adventures with our kids, and not wait until they are gone and we are old to do it all. Your family is very inspiring! Also, as a writer you are very likable, but very real, and we do feel like we know you. Also, my husband loved your book Live on the Margin! We hope to follow your family for at least another 10 years!
I’ve only been following you for about a year. Like the first commenter, I too devoured your backlogs in a relatively short time period. Your writing and photography style has definitely changed over the years, that’s for sure! I think you take fantastic photos. 🙂
I actually found your site because my boyfriend owns a sailboat. It’s a monohull, and we mostly do day trips, though we’ve done a couple two-day trips, anchoring overnight. (In the San Francisco bay.) Sometimes I dream of the cruising lifestyle, but then I remind myself how sailing gives me panic attacks. They’re lessening, though, so the dream isn’t dead.
Pat and Ali,
Congrats on 10 years! My husband Dan and I first found you 2 years ago as we starting exploring the idea of cruising. Yours was the first memoir/cruising book that we read and Bumfuzzle has inspired us to start our own journey which we hope to officially begin next year with our three year old. We too have almost no sailing experience and come from the midwest. We find ourselves identifying with a lot of your posts and a common line around our house is “if Bumfuzzle can do it, we can too!”
Ten years. Wow. The really scary thing is that that means I’ve been reading you for about six years. Never commented until now. Sorry ’bout that. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that for the last six years, you have gotten me through a lot of dull and/or stressful moments. You also ignited a dream six years ago that we are finally just at the beginning of living out today. We are en route to our new (to us) catamaran in Ft. Lauderdale, with our three kids, planning to cast off for the Bahamas around the end of October. Reading these comments, it looks like we are only one of many that you have inspired. And I expect there are tons more out there that don’t bother to comment, but that dream a little bigger because of your influence. Thanks for sharing your adventures and your life with us. And for the kick in the ass to get out there. Hope to meet you in person on or near the water some day.
Love your family, love your pics, love that music, some wicked licks…….Gypsy Kings?
Thank you for sharing ten years of Bumfuzzle with us. My husband hitched a ride during your early catamaran days. We had just moved from living on a boat in the Florida Keys to Arizona; needless to say he was missing the life big time and turned to Bumfuzzle for some relief. I was missing it also but I didn’t hitch a ride on Bumfuzzle until one day he mentioned, “now they are in a VW Van. Take a look.”
Do we know you? We feel like we do. In our dinner conversation sometimes one of us will ask, “Have you heard from Bumfuzzle?” Which means, what’s the latest scoop?”
We’ve enjoyed reading your posts and wish you and your family the best of the best!
Long time reader, first time poster, mid-way to casting off ourselves. We bought your book to read on a trans Pacific trip years ago. My husband read it first and was anxious for me to read it so we could talk about our sailing dreams. The book led us to the blog. We’ve been following for 5 or 6 years. It’s been a pleasure and we look forward to following your adventures for many more years to come.
Scott & Traci
I found your blog after returning from our honeymoon chartering a boat in the BVI’s. We left asking ourselves “can we do this full time?” I began gathering information and actually sent you a couple emails asking about things such as SSB radios vs. sat phones. In the end, we made our own decisions based on our own habits and taste and left the dock ending in Mexico. It was a joy to meet up with you in La Paz with our boats at the same anchorage.
In the end, it only matters if you go. We did and haven’t looked back. Wish you and your family many more adventures!
Hey Guys, big props on the boat ride! I guess its been a good one. I actually just started your first book tonight and am excited to read more. I got lucky that it is pretty much right at 10 years later. Cool. Ps, I hope the cooking has improved. Be good.
Been reading about 5 years – absolutely love to read your adventures! Thanks for the stories 🙂
I’ve been lurking onboard since day one. We were thinking about going on a sail walkabout at the time – eventually figured that it wasn’t for us, but stayed with you’ll anyway.
Thanks for the trip!
Hi guys,
We found your blog as a part of searching for folks already living our dream. Those having sailed away to a life of adventure. I started reading Bum and when I saw you were fellow Minnesotans well, I was hooked! We are actually at the point of selling “everything”. The house is on the market as I write this. We are transplanted to Maine so, it will be our launching point. I congratulate you on a wonderfully successful adventure AND the willingness to share it! Thanks for “Living on the Margin” as well, as this (and my pension) will be our means to support this grand scheme. We are a decade behind you in age but, its finally going to happen! Who knows, I may even blog about the transition from Prior Lake Cop to full-time Slacker!
Best wishes to you and your wonderful family!
Jim & Betty
G’day Pat & Oli & Crew,
I have one question for you…if you were sailing through the Indian Ocean today, would you venture through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea like you did before knowing what you know now?
Cheers from Australia,
Ken & Lori
Ali…sorry.
Also, we have been following you two from the very start when we were planning our voyage that has taken us across the Pacific. I wouldn’t doubt it if we were one of your very first readers.
Oh yeah…our favorite blog entry was when Pat realized that the wenches had two speeds when half way across the Pacific.
Cheers
S/V Trim
I found bumfuzzle when I stumbled across a few posts on “Other” sites claiming what irresponsible idiots you two were tempting fate and destruction with your wildly inexperienced antics…
… while THEY sat safe and sound in their lil’ cubicles, lacking the cajones to DO anything and ridiculing you, so that their own fear to DO wouldn’t glare so bright.
What I discovered was a pair that had the guts to go out, chase their dreams and FIND experience. To go out and get about the Act of LIVING!
You remind me of the scene in Lonesome Dove where Gus rides out of sight over the horizon… chasing Buffalo… and LAUGHING! Haaaaaa ha ha ha… Just LIVING!
Keep on Keepin’ on!
Brian
Dear Pat and Ali
I have been following you since 2005 while searching and reading travel blogs. My wife and I both feel like we know you guys very well and we love seeing Ouest and Lowe grow up.
Our bumfuzzle plan is to move to Peru and have South America as our back yard. My wife is from Pisco Peru (home of the VW tranny incident. Like Pat I am into finance and while using certain aspects of live on the Margin, I am making our dream a reality. We are now in the selling off or junk phase and plan to be in Peru by spring. I am using a different model than Pat and Nick. I am using a build wealth / high dividend model. It was Pat and Ali who really taught me that living on less and taking risk could equal a great lifestyle if you are willing to do the work. I have always marched to the beat of my own drum but now I have learned by your example that my drum beat can be WAY different. You only get to go around once on this merry go round – might as well make the best of it!
Long live the Bums!
I was turned on to you back in early 2009 when my husband tried to convince me to go cruising. He knew I wouldn’t do it unless I was able to thoroughly read up on someone like me who’d done it first. So, congratulations on your 10 years of traveling, and congratulations to being the reason that I’m out doing the same thing now. Cheers!
Pat and Ali, Never posted anything on here before, it amazes me the lives you guys have touched, crazy. I’ve been following you two since about the time Quest was born, a buddy who plans to sail off into the sunset turned me on to you guys and I’ve been following you ever since, my wife thinks I’m a little weird as do the rest of my family, I’ve learned I can’t talk about you guys as if your family any more, lol! I just enjoy your posts, look forward to the next ones and keep them to myself. You guys keep doing what you do, it always makes my day to see what your up to next. To many more years!-Kevin
Congratulations on 10 years and your beautiful family! I got hooked a couple of years ago on your epic round the world trip- just an awesome adventure. Yes, I feel like I know you- people who love boats all have similar stories. We almost bought our first boat in Greece in the 70’s, never considered not working as we loved our jobs, but spent all our free time on owned sailboats on a lake in Dallas, twice or more yearly trips bareboating in Florida, Bahamas, Caribbean, even took our kids and their spouses as they grew up. Finally sold our 38′ sailboat and bought a Trawler, put it in Houston, and traveled up and down the ICW, lots of time in Florida. But alas we are now boat less, but spend our time with awesome kids and grand kids here in Dallas and take great trips. We have the best of both worlds-
Met you in 2006 when we were doing our first long sail as a retired couple. You’d just completed your “round the world” and fellow sailors at the Ft. Lauderdale marina told us you had a “famous blog.” We just thought you were a great couple with an adventurous spirit and enjoyed your company while we were in Ft. Lauderdale. Especially appreciated learning Ali’s information about complying with “Aye, aye Captain” while assuring that the recipient understood the underlying intent. Have used that tone several times since, and it obviously makes an impression on the captain. I have a feeling that Pat knows exactly what I mean. Anyway, after arriving home from our 3 month sail to the Keys, I became hooked on Bumfuzzle. We’ve been to the Chesapeake and back to the Keys again, but could never replicate your adventures. Followed you through your race across America, your Mini Bus tour, and your subsequent re-entrance into the sailing world. Loved keeping up with your growing family – feel like Ouest and Lowe are like grandchildren. Mine are older now, 12, 9, 6, 5, but can experience again the joys of each age. Blessings to all of you, and I’ll continue to follow you each week.
Wow! 153 comments so far as I am writing mine, you must have some kind of popular blog or something. 😀
Back in the summer of 2007, my girlfriend, whom I met in 2002/03 while teaching English in South Korea, asked me what excited me as I am usually a pretty cool headed guy and don’t get too thrilled about anything negative or positive. I didn’t really have an answer for her. As I was driving back to work in Edmonton, Alberta from Saskatchewan, I was listening to a show called “Far Flung Canadians” on the CBC radio. The couple that they were featuring that day were Seth and Jaime from theslapdashdotcom, who were aboard a Gemini 105Mc catamaran located in the Galapagos Islands.
I didn’t quite catch the website name at the end of the program so called CBC and tracked it down. After devouring their content, I found a link to your blog and gorged myself on your story over a week of solid reading – I think I may have skipped work a couple of days. I had finally found something that I was excited about. The plan started from there. Now we’re finally on a boat as of this summer and the plan is to travel while the money lasts and head back home to refill the cruising kitty as required. I really need to read Live On The Margin and maybe it should be moved to the top of my “To Do” list.
When I first contacted you guys through Facebook we discussed about keeping up with the Joneses which is kind of ironic since you’re now, and have been, the Joneses for a niche group. All of us trying to keep up with the Schulte’s really appreciate the honesty and forthrightness of your blog. Thanks for the entertainment and leadership and please keep it up.
Lorry Reynish
A shameless attempt at auditing your followers? Congratulations on ten years of living my dream.
Congrats on ten years…. I LOVED the pics of you two dressed up for a high school dance. Who would have known how the story would turn out?? Would love a T shirt 🙂
To add to my comment….I have followed you adventures for several years. Think I linked from another sailing family. I am along for the ride…but am always challenged by how you stretch the envelope!
I know exactly when I started reading Bumfuzzle. I can picture the office cubicle and know the employer. The only problem is, I stopped working there shortly after Sept 11, 2001. So I’m totally confused. But I remember the first post I saw, it included a short video snippet of the cat under sail and Pat on the VHF, saying something and then listening to an unintelligible response. I remember really liking the clean, Apple-like Bumfuzzle design and it was our model when we started our own blog years later, I even emailed you to ask if you minded my copying the cost reporting format you used then. Thanks for all the effort and best wishes for the future. I’ve spent many pleasurable hours reading. Michael
Congratulations Pat, Ali, Ouest and Lowe!
I started following your adventures in about 2004, just after my husband and I took delivery of our catamaran kit!
Our boat building has been slow, “life” has had a way of slowing down our dream and we are still not on the water yet. Reading about your adventures has kept us motivated to keep plugging away, so sooner rather than later we can be decadent bums too.
We met you in New Zealand in 2005 while we were there on a business trip and it still delights me that our meeting was SO uneventful we didn’t rate a mention on your blog. The day we met, feeding ducks at the marina got top billing. You certainly were keepin’ it real.
One time we were at a Boat Show in Sydney Australia and I wore my Bumfuzzle T-shirt. A man walking past called out “Hey are you Bumfuzzle?”… Ummm yeah, I’m short and frumpy and my husband is Maltese. What do you think?
Certainly a rockstar moment for me.
Let me know where you’ll be in about 12 months time? Maybe we can feed some ducks together from the back of our Cat?
Thanks for the wonderful updates. You have no idea how much it has helped to be able to live vicariously through you. If Bumfuzzle can do it, so can we.
Big love…
Jo (from Australia)
Dear Bumfuzzle pirates,
I’ll never forget it; the email I received in early 2004 from my father, which excitedly described in great detail and told me to “be sure to check out” some website about two fuzzy bums on a sailboat. I quickly realized that you two were circumnavigating the seas, departing from my home South Florida, and that my dear father was following your journey as a loyal fan.
He followed your travels from the very start until he passed away at 60, in 2012, nearly nine years from your journey’s beginning. Pat and Ali, my dad never stopped rooting for you and your budding family. Over the course of nearly nine years, you and my father exchanged emails (he even special-ordered and mailed you two cases of mildew spray for a pesky problem you had back in 2004) and he drove down to Ft. Lauderdale to welcome you back to the states in 2007.
He often talked about you and your voyages, whether on land or sea, with great respect and awe. He was happy to have known you and felt empathy when you experienced problems and celebrated your successes. I believe that your sense of adventure and live-life-to-the-fullest-ideology resonated with his own deep innate drive to explore. As a teen he rode his motorcycle up and down the Eastern seaboard, often sleeping on park benches. And, as he criss-crossed the continent as a young 20 year old man. His dream was to set sail, as you two did, and live a life at sea. I ache when I think of how his dream was never fully realized but I smile when I remember our family trips on our own boat; those are some of my most cherished memories. I only hope that I can carry out my father’s dream, a dream we shared, to set sail.
Ten years ago I was entering into my twenties. Now, as I step into my thirties, I do so with a greater confidence that it’s never too late to go for it.
Thank you, Ali and Pat, for not being afraid to jump out into the world and live your dreams. You and your family have provided my family with a great gift: belief that our dreams are possible; all we have to do is make it happen.
Thank you for sharing the story of your father!!
You set out on a grand adventure not knowing how many others would be driven to change and actually live their lives, inspired in a small way by your actions. I am one of them.
My retirement fund was wiped clean in the MCI collapse, so I started from scratch at 45. As an operations analyst, I could do the math to figure that I would never retire on the current path.
I had stumbled upon your blog as you were headed through the Panama Canal and lived the dream daily via the internet. As time went on, the “If they can do it, so can we” mindset began to gather steam.
Then the “fuck it, go for broke” took over as me and my girlfriend quit our corporate jobs, ran from the security of the cubicles, and cashed out the 401k’s. Taking the jump off the cliff without a parachute, we opened a tiny high risk business with the 60k on the table. The intent was to build it up, sell it off, then buy a boat and take off in 5 years.
That was 3 years ago. This year we will gross well over a million. We have now brought my son and her daughter in for training to take over the business so we can someday scoot on outta here.
Thinking back it was this blog that set the spark. THANK YOU for that. We will track you down once we escape. I owe you a beer! (And a pizza!)
Congratulations on figuring out how to live free. Your next ten years with the kids will be even more awesome than the last. Best Wishes to You, Ali and the kids!
Too Cool Guys!!!
I have been following along for almost all of that time. I’m only a couple of years older than Pat so I can really relate your comments. Even if I’ve taken a more ordinary path with less adventure. I’d love to hear what your goals are for the next ten years or what you would like to do with the kids before they are 10, or 20, etc.
Congrats on 10 years. It’s amazing to me that it’s been this long. I first found your site in 2004 and have been following you more or less regularly since then. I also remember all the discussion your site first created in the various sailing forum with the “experts”finding no shortage of stuff to criticise. While you were following your dreams, I wonder how many of them got off their couches and followed their dreams.
Cheers
Matt
I became a reader a few years ago, Ouest was around but Lowe wasn’t yet. I found your site through a forum where someone mentioned these “crazy irresponsible people sailing around the world” who were “probably going to die out on the ocean.” So I had to click. I read through your entire archives in two days. This blog was fuel to do something crazy. So my husband quit his job and we drove across the country, started two businesses, moved back, and have spent the last 18 months building a tiny house while living with my parents. I want to burn everything to the ground right now. I still love your blog and it’s a reminder that there’s a reason we are living differently. I also keep reading because, as you said, this site is a continuous love letter to your family. Too many people write the once yearly “anniversary” posts of their wedding, kids’ births, etc, then spend the rest of the year bitching about everything. I like your gratitude, Pat. You always keep it real without being negative. It’s a great reminder for me.
Happy 10 years and thank you, thank you, thank you!
I started reading about 3 1/2 years ago, and quickly read through the archive. I love your photos and stories! Ali has always been awesome about emailing me back about our dreams. It’s because of your blog and my inlaws that Jonathan and I have been to Mexico and your blog made us feel confident in our choice of driving home to Texas. I’m grateful we did because Baja is beautiful and we would have missed it! We are stoked to be going back to Mexico this Christmas to PV.
Thank you for making a public blog. You are an inspiration to us.
P.s. We are meeting a realtor TODAY to talk about selling the house!! I can’t wait to SELL IT ALL!
Best from Texas. 🙂
Pat & Ali-
First of all we do not want a T-shirt as we just moved aboard our 36′ PDQ Catamaran and have sold our home and close to everything we own to sail around the world. We are from Salt Lake City, UT. Landlocked and had never sailed before we bought our boat last year! It is all because of you two that we know how great it feels to get rid of all the “stuff” weighing us down. Our friends and family think we are crazy, but we are quick learners and can makeshift our way out of any situation (so far). We started following you guys 3 years ago and decided soon after that we wanted to LIVE our lives. Thanks again for showing so many people that life is about experiences and not a 9-5 job. We will continue to try to follow you as we move place to place, and who knows maybe one day our paths will cross. You have changed our lives forever.
– Preston & Tara Stobbe
if your interested in who we are I recently started our own website gojalapeno.com
Hi guys – Congrats on 10 years! I’ve been following your website since about 2006. Last year we bought our first boat, a 1977 Tayana 37. Our plan is to spend a couple years making some repairs, changes, improvements to her, save some dough, then head west from the Sacramento Delta. I remember when you guys spent some time here at Hidden Harbor. One of the employees at the marina we’re at now grew up at Hidden Harbor and I believe his dad owns it. Small world.
Best wishes!
Jeni VanDusen
svrambleon.com
It’s funny really, I can only say that I found you guys right before Ouesty arrived. Sadly, I’m not a big reader, and like a pre-school kid looking at a library book, scanned through the pictures and videos of the last ten years… I think our true attraction was probably the adventure because its just something that seemed to be lacking in our own lives, and winters around here get long. Daile and I are still blown away by the desire you both have to raise these kids up close and personal… not something I’ve seen very often.
These pictures of Ouest in her school jumper outfit are “SCRUMPTIOUS” … this year is the year for changes, weight loss, a sweet deck, a new bike…. ah, adventure:-) PS. Pat, I honestly doubt that a medium T-shirt will ever fit my frame, but a large? this is possible 🙂 (remember that comment you made outside “Flying Pie Pizza”?)
Hell, I just hope I’m still around in 18 years to follow Quest and Lowe’s blogs when they show dad what they think adventure looks like.
happy anniversary!! been reading your blog almost since the beginning. great video, wow, time sure is flying buy quickly. great t-shirt, all of us who read your blog would be proud to have one. keep blogging please!! would love to meet you in person some day, i’m sure all of us who read your story feel like “personal” friends. thanks for the entertainment!! love to all…..carol
Happy 10 years you four! We “found” you shortly after we finished cruising and settled down to live aboard and have Zach and you were just starting your adventures. Zach is an old salt now at the ripe age of 9, but Naia is a wee sprite like Ouest and Lowe and I love seeing other little ones aboard living the good life like us. Many warm wishes for another decade of really living!
Pat, you’ve grown much as a writer and photographer. Ali and Pat is was a pleasure to have met you both.
Keep it going. Please.
I started following your blog somewhere at the early stages of your bus trip. We had just bought our own bus (’72 Bay window). And it only took me a few days to read your entire previous advertures. Now we have two children (a girl and a boy) slighly younger than yours and very soon a third one. Wishing you many happy adventures in the future.
Congrats guys! Beginning in ’05, spent many a night reading & dreaming. Found you by searching “cruising costs”, as you were the only ones back then actually listing your expenses. Loved your adventures, lack of experience & the “rumblings” you made with the “real sailors” (although I think you made-up the story of not realizing your winches were 2-speed until 1/2 way around the world, just to piss them off!).
Though there’s no circumnavigation in our plans, we bought our catamaran (our first sailboat) in 2010, sold everything & somehow departed on-time on 10/10/10. It’s been a blast, even though we are so-far only sailing back & forth between New England & the Bahamas.
Hope to continue following you for the next 10 years – perhaps another catamaran in your future??
I found you when I started a boat restoration blog back in 2005. We had a big WWII sub chaser up in Vancouver BC. We don’t have the boat any more nor do I blog though the blog is still there. I turned out to be one of those loser boat bloggers who was inconsistent, you know, the kind you wrote about? Lol. You all look great and yes, your writing and photography have improved exponentially. But that’s because you’re disciplined about doing both. And it shows.
Happy anniversary to you all. It’s been lovely stalking you.
Wow. That Video was awesome. Incredible. Been with you virtually since day 1. Keep doing what you do… Thanks.
Not only have I been following you since the van days and before Ouest was a thought, but your site was the very first one that I came across when looking into this thing called “cruising” that my husband and I were considering.
Before I realized the cost of a catamaran, I saw the 1st Bumfuzzle and it was a done deal … we were going to sell everything and cruise the Caribbean on a catamaran! Well, I quickly realized that a mono-hull fit our budget better but the house is for sale, the boat is purchased and we hope to get out there in 2014.
Anyway, love your site and your writing style. You said you were proud of this site and the past decade … you should be! What an amazing 10 years … and what an inspiration to think and live a little differently than the way we were raised. Love your book too!
Yes, I feel I know ya’ll. Well, not really know ya’ll but at least a lot better than you know me … I even know you don’t like “ya’ll” .. LOL! Sorry, I don’t think I could ever say “you guys”. =)
Congrats! I discovered it while distracting myself from college studies just when you were sailing around the world. I sort of forgot the name, then bought the book, then the other book, and check in once a week to your site.
As part of a small group of sites I admire, you’ve also provided a great perspective on how to break the norm of normal lives.
Occasionally I’ll just type in a year and month to the URL behind your web address and start reading – The VW Bus through S.A. and Europe are really, really awesome.
Thanks, and well wishes for another 10 years and more.
Hi guys,
I was told about your blog 6 months ago and read the whole VW bus section, and then pretty much caught up to the present day.
My husband and I bought a 1989 Westy a few months ago and we are traveling around the U.S. in it now, while I pick up work as a travel nurse.
I love your pictures and stories, thanks for sharing with the internet world!
Pat and Ali,
After my wife and I got married in 2001, we settled down, bought a house and were preparing to start a traditional suburban family. Somehow, that didn’t sit right with us. We decided we would travel and adventure instead. So, around 2005, we started researching this crazy idea I had about buying a boat and sailing the world. Our Internet searches led us to your blog and we have been following somewhat closely ever since. It took a month or two of reading, but started at the beginning and caught up to you. Then, we found out we were having a baby.
This caused us to drop our world travel plans. We had kids now, right? Responsibilities! I went back to school and became an emergency room nurse. Well, I had too many patients come in who had just recently retired and bought the boat or RV and now one of them is in the ER with a health problem severe enough that they couldn’t travel anymore. Or, one of them was suddenly gone. We decided we couldn’t wait and started our travel adventures before it was too late. Even though we now had two kids, we sold the house, bought an RV and started traveling. Your blog and your story did inspire us. Thank you for sharing them. We have been on the road for three years now, I even worked on a cruise ship for a while. Our life will never be the same and we don’t know if we will ever be able to go back.
Now I run our own website and blog. I also, almost two years in, bought a nice camera and got bitten by the photography bug. I went Nikon though.
I wanted to share. I didn’t get in in time for the contest, but that is OK. I really only wanted to share and say thanks. Keep it up you guys.
Well hello fellow travel nurse! I am just starting my first travel assignment in the ICU, what an adventure!
Sorry that I’m showing up late to the party (and missed a chance at the random number generators plucking my number), but just wanted to chime in here. I found you when my best friend, Lara, found you. She came back from a trial six week Caribbean sailing adventure about 5 or 6 years ago telling me that they’d met the most fabulous couple and turned me on to your blog. “Fuzzy bum?”, I asked, “what a name for a boat!”. Lara was a shrewd judge of character, and did not bestow her stamp of recommendation often, and she was right with you, Ali and Pat, because you are eminently interesting and a delight to follow.
You inspired Lara and her husband to take the plunge, purchase an ocean-going vessel, and begin their own circumnavagation of the globe. Although Lara’s life took a different turn than any of us expected, her delight in their six months on the boat was a joy to participate in vicariously, as are your adventures. Following the Schultes’ lives allows me to imagine what Lara would have said about your stories and how her own trip might have continued.
In any event, I am thankful she connected us and one of these days I know we will have the opportunity to catch up in person and enjoy some reminiscing and laughs…and I hope as well as a really tasty fish taco and cold one.
Thanks for the memories,
Jenny
Hi Bums, another late comer to the comments, but hey can’t always get internet when you are on the road. I am not sure how i found your blog but been following for many years and have read every one of your posts. Though we are not wanna be sailors you have inspired us to take our VW van down to Mexico camping which was just amazing (one of the highlights was passing you in your van going the other way I think somewhere around Mazatlan in 2008 … “hey is that Pat and Ali, what are they doing on the a toll road!”) and as well for me to sell the family sedan and buy an old Porsche 911 to tinker with. Maybe if we read the blog long enough we will be looking at Spindrifts in more moments of weakness (on Suka’s part).
Love the writing, the photos and the videos; never a dull moment with the Bums.
I stumbled across your site about 2 years ago from a link on Drive Nacho Drive’s site. I started from the beginning and was hooked. Bought “Live on the Margin” in January, cashed out 401k’s and IRA’s, started trading shortly thereafter, and left my job to be a stay at home dad in March, right after the birth of my first child. While we are not free yet, my wife works while I doing daddy duty and trade, we’re working towards it and I thank you guys for the inspiration. I just read your latest entry and got another inspiration. Tomorrow, I think we’ll go to the zoo!
Tommy
Congrats guys! Can’t believe it’s been 10 years,what an amazing journey.
I’ve been reading since early 2007, I was 19 and a sophomore in college with the travel bug. Reading your journeys and seeing how life could be lived influenced me to shoot a little higher than just a semester abroad, and in catching up on the first few years I aimed for a life abroad. My daydreams were dismissed by my folks, and everyone I talked to gave me the same old “not the real world” speech. I started my own business doing what I love as a junior with that goal in mind, graduated in 2009 because it seemed like a waste of money not to get the degree, and have proudly never worked for anyone but myself my entire life.
I got the student loans paid off a couple years ago and dove right in to building a 4wd VW bus (could have chosen a cheaper vehicle to travel in and influence your readers with…just saying). It’ll be done this fall with a full workshop inside, and I’ll be able to work wherever I want and travel the continent. My girlfriend is a bit more grounded, so we bought a house across the street from the ocean and in the off season I’ll drive right onto the sand and work beachside.
I hope you know that what you’ve created here is so much more than a travel blog. It’s a beautiful example of what life can be, and it does (and will continue to) influence many people to examine and change their lives for the better. I can only wish you continuing decades of your journey, and thank you for influencing me to start my own.
Hi-
I’ve been reading your website for nearly 9 years. There are very few other websites that I’ve been following that long. Thanks for the entertainment and keep the adventures going!
Hey guys, I can’t remember when we started following you but it was close to the beginning of the journey. I remember when I discovered your boat card in a café on Bora Bora, I think we were about one cruising season behind you. But man that made it feel like a small world!
Warren still has his Bumfuzzle shirt from the first time around. He was wearing it last week. It has a zillion little holes in it from the sun and God know what else, but it probably won’t get tossed till it literally falls off him.
We’re still in China but not for long…if we end up in the PNW send us a line next time you’re in Portland and maybe we can finally meet for a beer and a pizza in person. And the kids can play.
you know you’ve finally adapted to the culture when you’re so fashionably late you’re days behind. 🙂
I found you guys through RV.NET soon after you’d started sailing. You were getting raked over the coals about something and there was a small debate (as the board was heavily moderated) and I was surprised at how many older fuddy duddies (as I was the picture of youth back then :)) were in your corner. I, obviously, having uprooted the entire famdamily a year or so earlier to travel, was staunchly in your corner.
You’re living life, bums!
Woo hoo! I got my tee shirt today, so cute. Thank you, and Leif for letting me be the one to receive it. I’ll wear it proudly, and let everyone know what it means. Even if I bore them to death with endless details of the beer in the engine compartment. No way! Lisa
Dear Ali and Pat,
Its been close to seven years since we started following your web site. And while we have not went around the world as you and many others have, in the mid 2011, we sold the house, donated all of our stuff to Salvation Army, packed ourselves into 4 large bags and flew to New York where we purchased a 1985 sailboat and spent next 14 months sailing before selling it in FL. Our travels took us down the east coast, Bahamas, Cuba and Jamaica. And although we had a larger appetite for adventures, we quickly discovered that mono sailing is not our cup of tea. So, we sold the boat, bought old Ford minivan, converted in one day to camper (in the parking lot of Home Depot in Stuart FL- some people even thought that we were Mexicans- well, they were making jokes in Spanish. We then drove across USA, visiting virtually every state and national park along the way, drove across Canada, went to Alaska (yes I went swimming in Arctic Sea- not the smartest thing I have done in my life), followed the west coast down to Mexico and ended up in Colombia. Sold the car, flew to Japan and now enjoy our lives back in Australia.
For us, it was the taste of things to come. We will have to save some more money first though. But I`ll tell you this- the seed has been planted. And in a small measure, thanks to you.
Hi Pat and Ali-
I’ve been folloing your blog for about 8 or 9 nine years. Your blog is the only one I still check with any regularilty, and that’s becasue I feel that I’ve come to know you and your family. I admire your outlook on life, your insigtful comments, and your attitude about how to live. Although the sailing life is not for me, I have had dreams of traveling around the world in a small camper. When I read about you and your family, and your encounters with people in far-away places, it reminds me that the world is full of good people who want the same things from life that i do. Thank you for making the world a more friendly, smaller, place. I wish only that more people had the ability to see the world through your eyes, maybe we would all be better off. in closing, just keep being who you are, that’s why we read.
I found your blog quite differently than most on here. My daughter was born in October 2009 and also had a hemangioma. I came across one of your posts on the VBF forum and you had signed it off with your website address. Like you, we were searching out treatment for our daughter. We live in Canada, and believe it or not, they don’t treat hemangiomas. So our search for a doctor in the US was on. Thinking your website was detailing your experiences with Ouest’s hemangioma I looked it up. What a surprise to see that it was about the details of your travels and life in general. I was instantly hooked! At first to really follow your journey with Ouest, but I must say I check in frequently. I’ve even got my husband reading now! Thanks for sharing your adventures with us!
i found you when i was looking for inspiration on compact living, and living alternative. (on a boat, trailer and so on). i am an interior designer and love compact living. i got stuck when i started reading your blog, and i had to start all over from the beginning. this was maybe 3-4 years ago. i always have your website open in my browser so i can start to read where i left you. keep it up! you are such an inspiration on making you dreams come true. and i admire your way of living:)
I’m not sure how I found you, some how a few months ago there was a mention on my Facebook page and I became hooked I have read your adventours and look for updates. I wonder what type of new things the kids have learned and its been great fun “living through ” your eyes Keep up the blog and Facebook page you are an inspiration
Buenos Tardes Pat, Ali, Ouest & Lowe
I was on a business trip in MD around 2004?, sitting at a waterfront bar having a beer. A big cat pulled up, swung around and docked perfectly against the seawall. A very attractive girl was lounging in the back. The owner came out of the cabin with a bottle of wine, poured the girl a glass and proceeded to impress the h*ll out of me and (I believe anyway) her. This guy was cruising around like Hugh Hefner while I was taking my first dates to TGIF. Was it you guys? Nope. But I got home and searched for cats and stumbled across your site.
I think I felt some affinity to you because you were from MN, liked to have an occasional beer, and shared some sarcastic wit as well. Your story was intriguing and I’ve loved reading all of your posts. You are the real deal.
I’ve had 2 kids while following your adventures and watched you have yours. Congrats – your kids look great. I haven’t written to you guys in years and should’ve congratulated you a long time ago. I cant share in your sailing adventures but can share in your parenting ones!
I’m glad you ‘settled’ down for awhile and let Ouest go to the school. It’s funny…once you have kids it’s more about what they want than what you want. You’re giving her what she needs right now and it looks like it’s working wonderfully.
Keep writing! and I’ll keep reading!
ps – thanks for the Facebook ‘like’ for my girls in the their Vikes jerseys this weekend.
Congrats again on 10 years!
Tim
Funny looking at the early pics – keep thinking ‘where are the kids?’ Funny how quickly things change…
I found your blog 4 or 5 years ago, I think. I was getting ready to take a 2 week trip to the Virgin Islands. We rented a catamaran for the trip, so I was just looking for some info on what to expect. Once I started reading your blog, I was hooked, and binge read your trip around the world. I left you guys for a while, then read all about your race. Left you guys again, then picked you back up about a month ago, and have been binge reading ever since.
I really don’t have the desire to live on a boat, but you sure have made me want to live in Mexico, or at least go visit for a few months. You have inspired in me a desire to live in the moment and really enjoy the simple pleasures that life has to offer; thank you.
Wow! Ten years! I first caught your blog when searching for information about another boat going through the Panama Canal. At the time you had just gone through the Panama Canal with your catamaran. I quickly caught up on the beginnings of your journey and have enjoyed reading your blog ever since. congratulations!
I can never buy your t-shirt because I’d feel like a phony having never come close to your lifestyle. But a t-shirt that reads, “Bumfuzzle == Living the Dream (vicariously) since 2003 ==”…that’s a shirt I could honestly wear. Or a simple “Bumfuzzle” would suffice.
Just sayin’,
-Steve
I found you guys in 2004 or 5, wrote to you, you guys were kind enough to write back. I watched the rest of your sailing trip, your cross country in the Porsche trip, the bus, your Mexico adventures and have continued to check in every so often to make sure you’re all still alive. I’ve never bookmarked the page, I just remembered bum fuzzle. Glad to see you guys are still going strong! Congrats on 10 years and I hope you have 100 more of this.
I have been following your blog for only about six months. Find your adventures exciting and
your family inspiring. My husband and I are in our 70’s and just beginning a van adventuret to see as much of North America as we can. Talk about getting a late start!
I was so bummed to read about you being on Whidbey Island this summer, and missing you. I live just a stone’s throw from the Whidbey County Fair.
Happy travels. Your blog will keep me on the road with you. Perhaps we’ll cross paths.
Fran
Have wifi and a little extra time so decided to catch up on your whereabouts and poke around your website. Congrats on, well, 11.5 years now. We began the 5th year of our ‘one year cruise’ back on Dec. 1st. Still at it, mostly in the Caribbean since the East coast got really cold with no heat or insulation in the boat. We added a Grenadian pothound to our crew of 5 last year; sweet thing but hates passages. If we ever find a buyer for Day Dreamer, we’ll probably move on to be road nomads like you (our poor Minnie WInnie that started our adventure and got us from AK to FL to catch the plane to Grenada back in 2010 sits neglected, patiently waiting for us to return).
Anyway, your kids are very cute, your photography is absolutely STUNNING (you’ve got an amazing eye) and we wish you all the best for your next next decade of adventures.
Lisa and the Dreamers
I just started your book Live on the Margin. I didn’t know if I’d like it when I picked it up it but since non-fiction isn’t that easy to find in the cruiser’s lounge (actually Judy found it in the bathroom with a few pages ripped out, which may or may not be a critical comment) and I’d finished the only other one we had onboard (Tristen Jones) I decided to give it a try. I think I’ll like it. It’s interesting enough that I wanted to find out a bit more about you guys. Found your blog pretty easily with google. Just gotta say how much I am enjoying your blog, the writing, and the heaps of great photos. and now that I know who you are I think I’ll enjoy the book even more.
Fred, SV Wings, La Cruz Huancaxtle
Love the blog! Found it about 9 months ago and it has ignited a desire to sail post FI. Following where you are today and catching up from the beginning.
Is it to early to get in line for your 20 year Bumfuzzle drawing? 🙂
For sure, we are actually working on new t-shirt designs now. 16 years in September “no-house” anniversary for us. What a ride!
And what a read for you to be catching up. Funny to see all the design updates in our website over all those posts.