Family Adventures

Well~ here I am. Starting a blog. This is not something I thought I would do. However, the Preys family (and before that the Hasart family and before that the Myers family) has always been up for a good adventure. We love our kids and want to spend our time with them. We don’t, as a rule, do anything that doesn’t include them. So~ here we are about to set off on the adventure of a lifetime and we (I) will blog about it. I have taken the initiative to begin now, because today we fly out to Jacksonville to look at a few boats. My prayer is that we find the ONE immediately, so we can carry on with planning and not worrying about the all important tool of travel that is necessary.

Right. Just what is The Preys Project? When Mike and I got together, we both were in the middle of various “projects”. Some of these were personal, relational, some physical, or construction oriented. The main theme was that we were to be a relationship with projects. And that hasn’t stopped. We have remodeled houses, built an addition to the house that was a greenhouse. We have finished a basement and refuted a vintage RV and updated and refitted a 25′ MacGregor sailboat for longer trips. We have closed out a horse business after miles of rides. We have sought out a surrogate to grow our family and then had the ultimate experience adopting a child. We have moved our business and taken on foster children. For us, life is not only an adventure, but a project.

Today begins the biggest part of our latest project. We are flying to Jacksonville FL to look at live aboard sailboats. We have narrowed the search to 5 boats. One is in Brunswick GA, 3 in or near Jacksonville and 1 in Peurto Rico. We have made an old school spreadsheet on 7 taped together pieces of notebook paper that lists the attributes of each. I will list each boat, but won’t go into details at this point.

1. Amel 1982 46′ Maramu
2. Whitby 42 1980
3. Halleberg Rassy 41′ 1978
4. Pearson 422 1985
5. Brewer 12.8 41′ 1984

Why are we buying a boat? Well, we plan to spend 6 months of the year somewhere warm. South Dakota winters can be brutal (they can also be unseasonably mild). We both love sailing and the tropics and the ability to sail as transportation to international destinations. Initially we will spend time in the Bahamas and Carribean. Eventually we would like to spend more time and cross the Atlantic. Matthew, 9, goes to a very small Christian school and will continue that until Christmas. We will then continue with the same curriculum in a boat school model. His school has been supportive and we are extremely grateful for that.

I will follow up this blog with more information as we go along. For now, we await out our first flight.
Until next time~
Fair Winds