In September 2007, I bought the ultimate blue water cruising vessel - to begin My Grand Plan (well, Grand Plan No. 12) - to sail to the South Pacific.  "Charisma" is a 1988 Tayana 37 Mark II - a cutter with tanbark sails.   Just enough teak for beauty without the whole deck madness and no oddly placed portholes in the bow.  Of course, she came equipped with a fishing rod holder and 6 crystal decanters (in a custom teak rack).  What can I say -- one Sweeet Ride !

9/2010  A quick edit: moving closer to the plan with a trip planned for October to Baja.  Step one in "leaving".  Taking two months off to test the reality of cruising.

8/2011-Update:  The Baja trip was great and Ann and I are now taking off for extended cruising as of October, 2011.  We're going to take a couple weeks to get to San Diego, then do the Ha Ha again (it's really fun!) and then in March 2012 do the puddle jump across to French Polynesia and beyond.
12/2012 Update: we're in New Zealnd having crossed the Pacific Ocean and visiting some fantastic places between April, 2012 and December 2012.

2/2014 Update:  We're in New Zealand where we'll be getting ready to go back to Fiji for a second season from May through November.   For now (February), we're on a road trip of the south island, then boat work begins in Mid March followed by (hopefully) some coastal cruising in April/May before heading north.