Raffaellesco is the name of our new Jeanneau Yacht 51 that at this moment is being commissioned in Les Sables d'Olonne, France. We, my wife Suzette and I, have been working toward this moment for nearly 10 years, not that we new precisely that this was the moment we were working toward.

In 2013 we decided that we would retire when I turned 60, end of 2020. I am not certain, but it may have been while we were enjoying the Arenui, a live aboard dive boat in Indonesia, pictured here..


Having enjoyed diving, sailing and skiing for years, from our home in California, we started dreaming about what retirement would look like; travel, living abroad, cruising; With our heads down working toward this dream the next few years travel vacations were motivated by our inner engineers need for analysis of our many options, so sometimes analysis paralysis is our worst enemy.

In 2018, with our retirement date looming we decided that maybe buying an island in some tropical place would be an interesting way to escape the hustle of life in California. We love a project, so building a place on an island would be a great adventure. After much research I discovered that Tonga is one of the few places where you could buy a small Island or a piece of an island for a reasonable sum and build your dream house. Tonga also has the advantage of being an independent country, a kingdom in fact, so no association with any other country and their rules.

So I connected with a realtor and an expat couple that owned their own Island and we were off to Tonga. We rented a flat on the north island of Vavau and spent time getting to know the area; diving, shopping, meeting the people. We met a couple from New Zealand that invited us to their home  and shared their story. The big take away was that you do not want to be in Tonga during their summer, our winter; too hot, humid and rainy. 

We chartered a sailboat for a week and explored the north islands. Along the way we met 3 different expats that owned their own islands and ran either a restaurant or small resort. They were a wealth of information and seemed to enjoy their life in this remote place. Tonga is in the middle of the South Pacific about 700 mile east of Fiji. After we finished our week of cruising Suzette and I concluded that an island in Tonga was not our destiny, but we really enjoyed our time sailing from place to place.  


New plan...Buy a boat and keep it in the Caribbean! Before we departed Tonga we were shopping for boats in the Caribbean and Florida.

Next up: Boat shopping...

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