Our Life Aboard Nilaya - Jim Kirby and Laura Asay

We sold our home, Harley Davidson, furniture and gave away or some how disposed of almost everything in 2007. In December of that year we both retired, rented a six-foot U-Haul and left Denver, Co in the midst of a blizzard to go to Florida and find a sailboat to live and cruise on. In Punta Gorda, Fl. we found the s/v Nilaya, a 36-foot Bayfield, cutter rigged boat that seemed to fit the bill for what we wanted. We outfitted her for live-aboard cruising and Nilaya has been our home since. We have been actively cruising on her since April 2008.

This blog and the accompanying photos describe our adventures and sometimes our failures since she became our home. We have been cruising in the Western Caribbean including Panama, San Blas Islands, Guatemala and the Rio Dulce, Honduras Bay Islands, Cuba, Mexico, Belize Coast, and Colombia. In Colombia we have spent time in Cartegena as well as the islands of Providencia, San Andres and the Albuquerque Cays. Most of these places we didn't even know existed before we set sail. I guess we needed to try something totally new after spending our lives land locked.

All this was new to us in 2008 and although we did take sailing and navigation courses along with chartering before we started all this, we still feel like we have a lot to learn. Our boat Nilaya has been very forgiving of our inexperience. We continue to learn and are having what we consider a most excellent retirement and adventure. We have found it sometimes a hard but vastly rewarding way of life.

Navigate around our website by using the links listed along the left hand side of the pages. Read our blogs, the most recent are the last ones posted, and visit the many photos pages. Thanks for checking it out and if you feel like it, sign in the Guest Register or send us an email with your comments or a request to be put on the mailing list (kirbyasay@msn.com).

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 WE DID IT!  Laura and I are retiring.  My last day working is or was November 30, 2007.  Laura is in the process of selling her business and all of her inventory.  We have sold our house and almost all of our belongings.  We don't even have a TV.  Our plan is to leave Denver on or about December 16th with what little belongings we have left.  Our lease on our apartment also ends on the 16th.  We will be heading East to find our new home, a sail boat which we plan to live on.  We need to get this boat to Bocas Del Toro, Panama by June 1st.  The reason being, Panama is out of the Hurricane path and Hurricane season starts June 1st.   More in our blogs...

"Just A Dream and the Wind to Carry Me.  Soon I Will Be Free"  Christopher Cross "Sailing"

                                    Here She Is - Shante Nilaya, which means "House of Peace" in ancient sanscrit.  She's a 1987 Bayfield 36, full keel, cutter rig. 

Below she has two cabins, a main saloon with two setees and large table, a galley with stove and frige, a nav station, one head and lots of storage.

Besides the mainsail, the yankee and foresail, she has a 44 hp 4 cyl. Yanmar diesel.

She's a beauty, with lots of nice teak detailing, and she loves to sail!  

(NOTES: S/V stands for sailing vessel and Nilaya is pronounced-Knee Lie Yah)  

   "Be not the slave of your own past -- Plunge into the sublime seas.  Dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience, that shall explain and overlook the old."                                    Ralph Waldo Emerson