Most people who say they're going to sail across an ocean never do. It's usually not the money, and it's not nerve, and it's definitely not whether they can reef a main. The trip just stays an idea, and an idea never has a date on it.
This is a book about the gap between deciding and going. What actually stops people, in what order, and how you get past each one. Then what the far side's actually like, which is a lot of waiting on weather and paperwork, not much sleep, gear that breaks, and an odd flat feeling when you finally turn up somewhere you've spent four years talking about.
What it is, and what it's not
It's not an encyclopedia of yacht systems. Those already exist, they're very good, and we're not having a crack at them. It's not a memoir either. We're not telling you the story of one trip and hoping you find it interesting.
What's inside
Five parts, sixteen chapters. Every chapter finishes with what that stage really costs you, and three to five things you can get on with this week.
- The gap between talking and going
- The four blockers — money, boat, people, permission (most people spend years solving the wrong one)
- Whether this life actually suits you — because liking sailing and liking cruising are different appetites
- The money, honestly
- Choosing a boat you can afford to leave on
- The refit trap — how a refit becomes a socially acceptable way of never going
- The skills that actually matter
- The people problem
- The leaving admin — the boring logistics that quietly kill departures
- Certification, clearance and the border
- Provisioning and the shakedown
- Waiting for weather — the discipline that separates good passages from bad ones
- Life at sea — watches, sleep debt, seasickness, fear, and the boredom nobody warns you about
- When things break
- Landfall, and the anticlimax
- Staying out — why most cruising ends, and what makes the difference
Who it's for
The dreamer, who needs to know if this is realistic before spending another year talking about it. The planner, who's decided and now has to line up money, boat and people without burning two years on the wrong one. The newly departed, who wants to know what's coming.
And it's done its job just as well if it talks you out of going. Working that out on land is a result, not a stuff-up.
USD $49 · one-time · instant download
A 118-page illustrated PDF, set up to read on a tablet at anchor or print at home. Diagrams, decision frameworks and worked comparisons all the way through, plus photos from four Pacific seasons.
Or take the lot
Cast Off answers whether and how. The Pacific Year answers when and which way. The two packs are the working documents for the two decisions that cost the most, buying the boat and keeping it online.
USD $119 $166 for both books and both working packs together.
Why it's $49 when the guides are free
The guides stay free, they're how you found us. The book is the thing the guides can't be: one argument, in order, about a decision that'll cost you years and a fair whack of money if you get it wrong. Next to a boat purchase, a refit and a season away, $49 to find out whether you actually want any of it isn't a hard call.
Questions we get asked
Do I need to sail a catamaran for this to be useful?
No. We sail one and say so where it matters, but the book's about leaving, not hull count. If you're on a monohull you lose a few paragraphs about bridgedeck clearance and that's about it.
Is it New Zealand–specific?
Our patch is the South Pacific, so the worked examples are NZ–Fiji: the cyclone deadline, Cat 1, the window south. Each one's followed by the general lesson for whatever ocean you're on. A real example beats a vague one, even when the details aren't yours.
You haven't circumnavigated. Why should I listen to you?
Good question, and we answer it on page one. We've done four consecutive offshore seasons, a full refit, and held Cat 1 the whole way through. That's enough to have made the mistakes, and recent enough to still remember them. If you want the master's reference work, buy Beth Leonard's. This is the book about actually going, from people who can still remember what it felt like not to have gone yet.
What if it's not useful?
Email us within 30 days and we'll refund it, no questions asked. We're cruisers, and our name around the anchorage is worth a fair bit more than $49 to us.
Start with the free reading: twelve free guides covering buying in New Zealand, timing the passage south and cyclone season planning. If you want the working checklists, there's the Catamaran Buyer's Pack and the Offshore Starlink Playbook. And if you want the boat that taught us all of it, Mā Tori's for sale. The gist of Part I is free to read in the four things that stop people leaving.