Hey cruisers,
I will first explain my situation: I'm 20 years old. I did my High
School 2,5 years ago and bought a
boat at the same time.
I lived aboard for about 1,5 years and cruised from the German coast to
Denmark,
Norway and
Sweden with some friends and partly alone. One of the best times of my life. But I realized two things:
1. I like this life, but I don't like it alone!
2. My old 33ft 1976 Steelvessel needs too much
maintenance. I can't handle it anymore, at least not alone.
3. I don't like the cold, rainy coast's of the European north.
After that realization I
sold the
boat as fast as I could. I think some of you might know that feeling when a former so loved boat is suddenly nothing more than a millstone around your neck. I am still thanking god that I found a buyer in only 3 months.
After the boat was
sold I moved back to my home region and began to study cultural geography. And now, I sit in front of my computer realizing that I'm absolutely NOT happy doing what I do. When I look at myself I see that I'm not okay, at least not so okay I used to be. They say
boating keeps you young and I today feel like a old man.
The main problem I have here
on the hard might be the attitude most people in my daily life have. I study a subject that is not a very common one but still most students are just trying to get an A and not to learn something for themselves or just learn something interesting. They all have planed their life for the next 10-15, or even 50 years. I'm not like that. Besides I just miss the very down-to-earth life I used to live.
I hope this post isn't to deep for this forum, but I think you might understand.
So I feel that I have to change something. Why should I put up with that another 2,5 years just to get a degree that isn't worth anything without studying further? Why put up with a situation when you are not happy with it?
What instantly pops in my mind is (of course) cruising. But I'm smarter now. I've made my bunch of
mistakes and I'm not willing to do them again. That's why I will not (again) set my foot on a boat alone. It would go terrible wrong. I'm just a person who need someone to be with.
That's why I opened this thread in the crew section. My first priority is to find someone to
cruise with. Than come's the boat and all the other stuff. But I'm not going to give everything here up without someone that has the same thing's in mind. And no guy's I don't talk about man, of course I mean a woman. It's not even talking fully sexual, I just
work better with
women and in my opinion only couples can live on a
small boat for a long time.
So what do I have in mind exactly?
Long term cruising! I don't say it has to be a
circumnavigation, but I have nothing in mind thats wrong with the idea of a
circumnavigation. It's just not a must have. If I talk about
long term cruising I mean LONG, at least two or three years (or longer!?). I'm not the
racing kind of guy, the best time in cruising is the time at
anchor. So no rush!
Ship-wise I was thinking nothing too old. A former
charter boat, not older than 10 years in the 33-37ft area. I think when a boat has suffered over some hundred
charter guest it will be good enough for me for some cruising years. That's what I alone could afford.
And while we're on the subject of finances. I have a monthly
income of about 1500EUR/1900USD, that is enough to
cruise very nice from and have a healthy little reserve for a
emergency. The problem is that I do not have that much
money upfront to buy a boat. I think 50.000EUR max, about 63.000USD are manageable. I think for that kind of
money I can get a very nice ship +
equipment (nothing fancy) in the area I have in mind. If someone has interest, a similar or at least some kind of financial basis would be nice.
So that all being said I hope some of you have something to say. And please, I checked about 4 times for misspellings,
English is just my second language, don't stone me to death.
Ciao,
Timo
EDIT: Jesus H. Christ is my post long.