THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 22, 1995 TAG: 9512200173
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 147 lines
SEVEN YEARS AGO when Charles ``Chuck'' Sears cast off from a Middle River marina pier, he cut, rather than untied, his lines and never looked back.
Sears was setting sail from Baltimore for a nine-month cruise in the Bahamas on his 35-foot Morgan sloop. More importantly, he was leaving a typically hectic suburban lifestyle centered on a highly competitive job.
``I didn't know who would do something like that until I went to the Bahamas and ran into lots of people who had done it,'' Sears said.
After 25 hard-driving years in the insurance business - and 25 years of lawn-mowing, leaf-raking home ownership - Sears and his wife, Lois, embarked on a whole new way of life that has brought them to Scotts Creek Marina, where they are living on their sailboat, the Chu-Lo.
Change is uncomfortable for many people, Chuck Sears discovered, because they can be afraid of the unknown.
``But the unknown can be where you get the most satisfaction,'' he said. ``I was never happier in my life. I lost 22 pounds, and I never felt better physically or mentally.''
Simplicity and serenity with a dash of adventure were the qualities of life the Searses aimed for when they began downsizing and simplifying their lives just over a decade ago.
After trying life in a leased house, in an apartment, and on a smaller sailboat, the couple and their son moved onto a houseboat in a Baltimore marina with their sailboat docked in the slip next door.
For Lois Sears, the houseboat was the ideal living situation.
``It had a teak floor, an upright refrigerator, a sleeper sofa, and a full-size bath with a shower,'' she said. ``It was like a house trailer, but you put it on water.''
That was 1984 and Chuck Sears was still selling insurance, making a good living but beginning to burn out.
``I had six weeks vacation, benefits, a retirement plan and I loved what I was doing, but it was time for a change,'' he said.
Although he enjoyed the job, Sears had little patience with corporate politics or the necktie grabbing stress.
``When the time comes, you feel it, and I had been there long enough,'' he said.
``In my business, you saw people plan and plan to retire at age 65 and two days later they were dead,'' he added. ``I didn't want that to happen to me, because I had other things I wanted to do.''
Sears requested a year's leave of absence to cruise to the Bahamas and rejuvenate himself, but the company refused. So in 1988, at age 47, Sears did what most people can only dream about. He quit - and went cruisin'.
He had his captain's license, but for the first seven months he happily did nothing except experience the little pleasures for which most people don't usually have time.
``I just enjoyed nature, the sunrises and the sunsets,'' he said. ``I snorkeled and fished, and some days I would sit in my cockpit all day long and watch the boats go by.''
When Sears returned to Baltimore the next spring, he took a job as captain on a harbor ferry for the summer. By September, however, the Searses were ready to cruise again, so they left the houseboat to their son and sailed off to winter in the Bahamas.
On their way back north in May 1990, the couple stopped in Portsmouth to visit friends and decided to stay.
Today, they own their two cars, their boat and whatever is aboard the Chu-Lo. Lois Sears works as an assistant in a local library, and Chuck Sears is locally known as ``Captain Chuck,'' captain of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's floating classroom, the Baywatcher.
A tall man with a robust build and short gray beard, Sears seems perfectly cast as a sea captain. More at home now in a sweatshirt and deck shoes than in a business suit, Sears thinks he might own two neckties.
``But I doubt if I remember how to tie them,'' he said.
``You find that all those material things you used to have are not that important,'' he added.
``This is not for everyone, but our priorities are being free to do what we want to do to have fun and being outdoors,'' Lois Sears said.
Living quarters are snug aboard the Chu-Lo, but the Searses find it cozy rather than cramped, thanks to their compatibility.
``He is not just my husband,'' Lois Sears said, ``he is my best friend.''
After each had come out of an unhappy first marriage, Chuck and Lois Sears met in 1978 and have been together ever since. Between them they have four children and several grandchildren whose photos smile from niches around their compact living area.
A television, a VCR, a telephone and a microwave are among life's amenities aboard the Chu-Lo. While space is at a premium in the cabin, the Searses enjoy laundry facilities and a swimming pool just a few steps away at the marina store.
They also command a spectacular view of the Norfolk waterfront that becomes even more dramatic when the city's Christmas lights come on.
``People in a boating community seem to be so much more friendly than those you meet other places where people are inside most of the time,'' Lois Sears said. ``If you have a problem or if something breaks and you need help, everyone is there to help you.''
Living aboard a sailboat seems to have been a predestined part of Chuck Sears' life. A Portsmouth native, Sears was born in Parrish Memorial Hospital on the waterfront and lived on the corner of Court and Clifford streets close to where the Downtown Tunnel is today.
Sears grew up selling newspapers and shining shoes on the Elizabeth River ferries and playing Little League baseball on the Fourth Street playground.
His father worked in the shipyard, but several other relatives were in the Navy, so when Sears graduated from Wilson High School in 1958, he enlisted.
``I loved the sea and wanted to travel,'' he said.
His four-year Navy hitch took him from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean, to the Arctic Circle before his first marriage landed him in Boston, Mass. There he honed his sales skills as a driver salesman for a vending machine company and a soft drink bottler before joining the John Hancock Insurance sales force.
When Sears returned to Portsmouth five years ago, he found much of city had changed in 30 years.
His old neighborhood was torn down to make way for the Downtown Tunnel, and he rarely runs into a childhood friend. Even the downtown Woolworths, where he once shopped for Christmas presents, has disappeared.
And he still runs into people who confuse him with Charlie Sears, local businessman and restaurant owner.
``Although we both went to Wilson and I get his phone calls once in awhile, I have never met the man,'' Sears said with a smile.
Chuck and Lois Sears are happy living on Scotts Creek with their dachshund/lab boat dog named Slip Knot, but it is not likely to be their permanent address.
The couple have a long-range plan that within five to 10 years will see them cutting their lines again.
``We hope to take off and go cruising to the Bahamas, the Caribbean or South America for an undetermined amount of time,'' Sears said. ILLUSTRATION: ON THE COVER
In the photo on the cover, Charles Sears works on his sailboat,
the Chu-Lo, at the Scotts Creek Marina. Staff photographer Mark
Mitchell took the picture.
Staff photos by MARK MITCHELL
``Captain Chuck,'' the one in the white shirt, pilots the Chesapeake
Bay Foundation's floating classroom, the Baywatcher, a far cry from
his former hard-driving job in insurance.
Sears' dog, Slip Knot, watches his master take a new battery to
their 35-foot Morgan sloop at Scotts Marina.
Chuck Sears relaxes on his boat, the Chu-Lo, where the livin' is
easy for him and his wife, Lois.
by CNB