James Osborn:  

Life After finally retiring from all work force in '95, Dee and I sold our house and all the furniture and one of our two cars and took of "full timing" on our new cruising catamaran. We had bought our boat new from the factory in Annapolis two years earlier and sailed it back to Texas in 6 weeks. We outfitted the boat for extensive cruising with single sideband and ham radio, water maker, inverters, wind generators, etc. We cruised from TX around the gulf to Florida and the Keys, over to the Bahamas and up the east coast as far as New Port, RI. We cruised extensively in the Chesapeake Bay to and from New England. It was exciting sailing the East River by NYC. We also cuised in Long Is. Sound with an academy classmate and his wife who owned a trawler. He would get to our planned destination for each night a few minutes before we did and would used his over sized anchor. We would then simply tie up to their boat. We called them our moveable mooring. Sure made the work easier at the end of each day. The two boats even got to tie up to the dock several times at our old alma mater (the Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT). We cruised mostly in the intra coastal waterway and near off shore sailing. Neither of us were interested in transoceanic cruising. Between the initial boat pick up and several more trips to the Keys and the Bahamas, we managed to put over 22,ooo miles on the boat. We also land cruised in a number of motorhomes (we're on our 6th one now). We got back into the housing market in '97 and settled in the area of Cocoa, and Cape Canaveral, FL. After 10 years we sold our boat. I took up golf again and we manage to put 12-15K miles a year on our RV with trips form a few weeks at a time up to 6-7 months at a time. We take cruise ship trips every few years or so to change up the pace. Visiting family, friends from the CG and church and sightseeing take up most of our time these days (with a few rounds of golf thrown in). May your lives be filled with love and happiness. We have been very blessed. College I planned my high school curriculum around what the CG Academy wanted. I just missed the first year I tried. I went to the U. of Miami, Fl on a scholarship and boned up on my weak points and made it to the academy the next year. Our class started out with approx. 240 selectees out of the 10,000 who took the exam. The 4 years were rigerous academically and physically. We graduated only 6...Expand for more