I Think You Will Like This

[sww914]

This is my most recent blog post on our website. I got inspired for a minute and I think I said some of it right. You might feel the same way-



A lot of people dream about buying a boat and sailing away. A few of them buy some books and magazines and a few of them travel to places where there are boats to see and they dream there for awhile and then have fish for lunch. A very few of them will look at boats for sale. Some will even make boat shopping their hobby and they will look at boats for years. One out of a thousand will buy a boat. Of those, most will drink aboard and sleep aboard, mostly the first year, and then the boats will lose it’s novelty and become an unnecessary expense. Some of them will take it outside the harbor occasionally. Of the others that bought a boat some will challenge the sea. They will provision and plan and they will go and most of them won’t go very far. Most of them that do go will go to the islands for the weekend and a very very few will go farther.

We are now, as boat owners, a part of an extremely small group of dreamers. We’ve bought the books and read them, we’ve looked and dreamed and had the fish for lunch. We boat shopped. It’s different when you want to buy a boat. You can grow weary of boat shopping. So now we have the boat and we are in the middle of preparing it to leave the harbor and hopefully farther. Much farther. We are quite determined to become a part of the smallest of a small group, those that use the boat that they bought and we hope to be a part of the tiniest of this already small group, those that cruise.

It is because of all the other dreamers, the dreamers that talk and plan and sometimes even buy but don’t ever go, that our friends don’t understand. You see, the other dreamers are the normal ones. We aren’t normal and I don’t think that we ever were. We often do what we’re not supposed to do. We push on the edges of the boxes to see what will happen and we always did. Now we have a solid full-keel world cruiser and we’ve disposed of most of our crap and we are working hard to chose a better life that is not based on credit cards and big holiday sales and physical disabilities and pain.

We saw an old friend yesterday. She was one of Eli’s teachers. We tried to explain to her that we’ve bought a boat and that we are refitting her and bringing her back to life as we are refitting ourselves and bringing us back to life, as well. She was confused. Her face said it all. She was afraid for us and didn’t understand at all why we would want to go see the planet when everything here is just fine as it is. You can rent a box or buy a box and let that box and the things that you fill it with define you. You can get a job and keep the job and let it define you as well. That’s normal.

I don’t want the box, none of us do. I want the sea and the sky. I don’t want the job, I want the wind. I don’t want credit. I want to laugh with my family in the sun every day.

[imagine2frolic]

6 months after I bought my first boat in SF. Ca. This man about 80 walked over 1 day, and said "Boy I think this is the most used boat in the marina!" I told him I bought the boat to sail, and not have cocktails. He laughed.

Less than a year later I was putting gear on the boat, and the same man came over, and said. " Boy, you going some where?" I told him yes I am going to sail to the Caribbean. I didn't make it to the Caribbean that time, but I did single-hand to Mexico, and back.

When I returned to the marina 2 years later. The same guy came over, and said to me. " Boy, how was the trip to the Caribbean?" I confessed I never made it that far. He laughed, and said to me again. " Boy, most people don't make it out of the marina!" We both laughed!........i2f

[atoll]

half the fun is building and fixing the boxes to bash around the world in, the rest is pure masochism,some may call it challenge or adventure.

apart from that you might meet some really nice people along the way...........

[felixqld66]

Just wait till you can get the old girl out! cruising along at 6knts is awesome anchoring up over clear water reefs, fish family sublime

[conachair]

Originally Posted by atoll

half the fun is building and fixing the boxes to bash around the world in, the rest is pure masochism,some may call it challenge or adventure.

apart from that you might meet some really nice people along the way...........

Quote from a german friend of mine when we were anchored in in Brazil..

"you know, now i know se boat from top to bottom, from front to back. Now about se sailing bit, how does that work ???"

it's all maintenance.

[Den]

Great posts!! I'm a dreamer, may well always BE a dreamer, but it's you guys that help fuel that dream with your reality. Thank you!!

[SurferShane]

Originally Posted by imagine2frolic

" Boy, most people don't make it out of the marina!" We both laughed!........i2f

I somewhat sadly met one of these characters of late. For some reason before I even met the man himself his boat reminded me of Jack London’s “Snark”; a might boat with “that” bow and initially no less engine dramas. I was so surprised when he told me it had taken him twenty years to build her, but she to date still had not seen the open ocean.

Really though, who am I to criticise this fellow? He HAS built her and she is a big seaworthy looking boat. Then you can imagine how many problems he has had to solve, how many people he has met, how many dreams he has had, and maybe even where she might take him?