Closer Than Ever, Yet Still So Far Away

[SVRocinante]

Lots of great advice in the previous posts!

One way to look at it, that might help bring the various points of view together, is to not make your objective a time constraint, but do make it/them very specific.

So, instead of saying I'm heading out on such and such a date, stipulate that you're heading out once you've completed specific tasks. Those tasks should make sense for your situation. Perhaps it's completing courses in navigation or an ASA 101 course. Our perhaps like we did, you take increasingly longer trips. You also don't have to cross oceans to get "out there" spend your time coastal cruising for the first bunch of years. I'd suggest that the key point is to not rush, set your goal and work methodically towards it. In the end, you'll be much better prepared and will have adjusted your way of thinking to match your new lifestyle!

Obviously, one man's opinion...

[bewitched]

When I was young and stupid my mate and I decided to go sailing. Our safety equipment consisted of 2 lifejackets, 2 harnesses and a VHF

Our navigation equipment consisted of:
2 charts (South China Sea northern portion, South China Sea southern portion circa 1940's)
1 hand held gps
1 30m steel tape measure with a shackle on the end (our depth sounder)
The lonely Planet guide to SE Asia (with handy navigational insights such as."...and you can walk out to the island at low tide").

It was enough to get us from HK, round the Gulf of Thailand, Malaysian peninsula, Singapore, Phuket, Andaman Is, back down the straits, across to Borneo, up through the Philippines and back to HK. Somewhere in the region of 10,000 miles I guess - most of this without an engine which could only be coaxed into life with a few hours of engineering wizardry and some furious hand cranking.

If we'd waited to get everything that you're 'supposed' to have, we'd never have gone. Instead I had one of the most memorable years of my life.

If you want to go..... just go. If you want a good excuse not to, there are thousands of them.

[rebel heart]

I pick dates and then come hell or high water I make them. That being said, my date is simply to "start" whatever trip. If the conditions are total crap "starting" might consist of going to a little cove in the same harbor, but god damnit we're starting. It might just be my corporate background but "what gets measured gets done". If you draw a line in the sand and make pains to get there, you'll accomplish it.

But it took me a while to get there. Several years of refitting, sailing, and checking my enthusiasm.

And I can still slam into a container tomorrow and lose it all. Such is life.