What was your Epiphany?

[CaptainK]

Rebecca.

You should bless the sea gods. Or God. Call this ordeal about your back a miracle.

I know some people who mess their backs up on work site accidents. Or by car accidents. It's astounding, how many people every year screw thier backs up every year. The numbers is rather high!!

But you really should consider yourself very luck, Rebecca.

[Rick]

Oh yes, your story is part and parcel of what this cruising community is all about! Where else (yes it is possible elsewhere yet this venue is the greatest for us like-minded people) can you not only realize your heaven on earth, where else can a bunch of apparently disparate people enjoy each other on any boat when invited to join together in an anchorage and love each other? Where else can one meet another and leave them only to perhaps see them again a year or so later picking up again as though no time has passed between us????? We don't have to be like each other we only have to LIKE each other!

Rick

[2divers]

I guess mine really came after I found out that we were having our first kid. I have a number of friends here in the education and social services business and hear first hand about what passes for behavior in schools with all the problems of gangs and drugs. It boils down to I want my kid(s) to have a great childhood full of love and experience. I want to spend my time with my kid, not a work in an office making other people tons of money. I read an articale aloud from sailnet and made my wife cry one evening because it's what she wanted to be doing and it was so far away from where we are now. We had both been sailing before, spent time cruising for vacations, love the water and swimming. It just seems like a natural fit.

Now I just have to figure out how to unentangle us from professional lives and debt that we got ourselves into. Every time we spend money we ask ourselves, does this move us closer to living aboard? No new TV or computer as much as I REALLY want them. We have a have plan, it's written down, and we move closer to the goal every day even if it's only a baby step.

2divers

[Weyalan]

What you are saying really strikes a chord with me too, 2divers. Once I made the firm decision to buy a boat, every dollar spent has to be justified in terms of movement towards the final goal of long-term cruising.

[CaptainRic]

Great thread Mark. I got out of college and took a job selling life insurance. Hated it and one day at the local dive shop I saw a poster seeking crew for a 31' sloop going to the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos for 4 months. I figured either he'd already found a girl....or was gay, and since I was neither it was a waste of time. But I called anyway. The captain was a hemopliliac and was frankly kind of shocking to look at due to the discoloration the internal bleeding causes. So he had no takers until me. We did the same trip three years in a row, me being the typical cashless crew member.

I went in to the work force after he became ill vowing to return with my own boat and enough $$ to do it right. I have chartered on and off since, deciding to give my two sons the traditional land-based upbringing. In retrospect, I would have no hesitation raising kids on a boat!

[waynemonastra]

well, reading all of the stories has reinforced my decision to move on to the boat ( now been 3 weeks) and Im about one week (weather permitting) or so to haveing it in the water for good, and boy am i keen to cast of from the "Rat Race", I have been doing longer hours at work lately (70+ a week) and that has not left me with much time to get things done but im getting there, the boat now has new (2nd hand) carpet, and a new boom tent and dodger coming and, 8 water proof containers that now hole everything from safety gear, lifejackets,wet weather gear, books clothes and everything else i need to live on the boat comfortably.
Im still deciding on what solar panels and self steering gear to get but im in no hurry cause im on the boat and to me that is the main thing and i can now do the rest when i get the time (and money).
I some times think of my brother who lived aboard his yacht with his wife just after they got married and they were happy and went sailing alot.
Now they own a house in Auckland have a 1 year old baby and there boat is sitting in there driveway waiting for the day to be put back into the water to me that is sad because he is now set firmly ( for a few years now) in the rat race with a hefty mortage to go with it and the dream to get boack onto the water, that I cant see happening for at least another 5 years.

my boat will be paid off by the end of next year and in that time i can modify it to how i want and go sailing when i want, but other than the boat i dont have any debts ( so i dont think that to bad) but when it is freehold i can cast off for good and sail of into the sunset.
So at the moment while im young and fit i dont mind if i do long hours at work as it will help me reach my goal alot sooner, and thats a good thing in my book.

Im looking forward to sailing and maybe oneday meeting up with some of the great people on this site.

happy sailing

[Island Mike]

I have already posted once in this area. As I have already said, my best friend contracted ALS and died. He was very clear we me that it may be later than you think, and it was for him. It was a very profound thing and it lead us to the purchase of our ketch and to live the dream. We plan on leaving next spring/summer, we will need that long to finish the boat, pay off a few bills and get familiar sailing the boat. My problem? I run a one million square foot distribution center with over 500 employees here in CT. It is a 24/7 humping operation and I truely hope I make it till next spring. The stress combined with the idea that next spring Im done is about to kill me. My point.... not sure, except be sure once you make the decision to go, develop a reasonable exit strategy. Mine is very agressive, it will work, however, not without taking a toll on me. The need to live the dream can at times be so overwhelming that it can influence your thought process. Each day, and I have 383 days left before I leave my job, I am becoming a little less effective at what I do.
I am sorry for rambling, suffice it to say, I had a strong epiphany, it will work and I cant wait, good luck to all of you....

[AdamY]

I got bit by the sailing bug pretty hard a few years ago. After sailing my Pearson 26 in the Puget Sound for a year I started to seriously think about going to sea. I was able to acquire a fixer upper (what boat isnt) 36' Ketch that required a lot of work. The most important feature this boat had was the eye of Kristina, the one I adore. She said she would go but only on that boat, decision made.

I am a poorly educated man with only a GED under my belt and through a good deal of luck have been employed as a software engineer for the last 7 years. I have at times felt like a man running through a minefield as I watched the company I work for swell from 150 to 400 employees in a matter of 6 months get acquired, sold and acquired again and over the course of these past few years I have survived 7 layoffs. I am sure it is more luck than anything else but in the peak of that time I had visions of flipping burgers flashing into my mind. Stress was high.

Anyway, now we have the boat we have decided there is no time like the present and intend to leave in July. Boat needs a ton of work before then and we have been working 7 days a week for the past several months on her. Our budget will be as thin as you would expect from two 29 year old fools and we may yet live to regret throwing it all away.

Ultimately I do enjoy my workplace, I work with many of my friends and will miss them terribly. I might have trouble finding work when I return (Kristina wont she has govt ties ;-) ) but ultimately my epiphany came the day I signed the biggest check of my life over to the broker. It was that day that I was reminded by my stepfather of the famous words of Admiral Farragut at the battle of Mobile Bay "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."

I now believe firmly that it is more imporant to regret having done things than not having done things.

I'll check in again in a couple years and let you know which regret applies. ;-)

Adam,
www.sailestrella.com

[Island Mike]

Adam,

Outstanding... good luck!

[Doghouse]

How do I start this? Hmmm...

My wife is older than I, she lost her first husband to a massive heart attack while she and their daughter were looking at colleges. She put both through school, worked her way up the admin ladder, then found me.

I have never been all that I could be, settling for whatever life handed me instead of what I could snatch from father time.

10 years later, I was where I never thought I would be. Yet something was missing. So I married her, that still did not fill the void. So I started running after all the little extras in life. 2 years later still nothing. That is when my father had a stroke, and came down with cancer. Both of which he has survived. That is when I took an inventory of my life and realized what I was missing. I was not looking to do what she wanted out of life.

So we spent some time talking, and she realized nothing was holding her in any one place, and the one thing she wanted to do, and had not done yet was to go on a cruise. So I asked 'Just One?'

Well we have started the quest. We just purchased a 27' Hunter and are learning how to sail. We cruise the bay by day, and this weekend, I hope to spend our first night on the hook. Already this year, I am half way through the first log book with short cruises.

Over the next 5 years, I am working to getting to a point where I can take a month and see where the wind takes Us.

[rleslie]

When we were in our 20s, my wife and I dreamed of retiring early and cruising. When the kids came, we sold the boat and didn't sail again for 18 years. On our 25th anniversary in Hawaii, we took a day sail and on the way back in my wife asked me..."what ever happened to our dream of retiring early and cruising?" That was all that it took. On the flight home we devised a 5 year plan that would allow us to live the dream.

It took us 4 years and 9 months, but we did it!!!!! I (54) sold my business and my wife (51) retired from the school system. We moved aboard our Brewer 42 in January '06. We just sold the house (closes June 28).

I used to frequently have extended spells of heart palpitations, they would last for hours ...haven't had a single one since moving aboard. Tanned, relaxed and loving it!!!!!

It is doable!!!!

Roger

[Island Mike]

Roger,

It makes me smile just to read your post! Good Luck!

[markpj23]

An amazing thread that provides encouragement to those who, like me, are trying to slip the lines and deal with the unknown.

And the distractions keep coming.... Less than 2 weeks ago I was placed in serious contention for a significant promotion, IF I was willing to move to Dallas of all places. It's hard to walk away from the compensation package.....

Having been away from the boat for a month, we got back aboard late last night. The marina feels a LOT better to me than Dallas ever has.... but dammit the refit would be so much better and we'd have that forward-scanning sonar if that promo pans out.

So it's gut-check time: WHAT do I really value more? And does my mate feel the same? All the standard questions / fears that I'm sure most people go through when contemplating a life changing event.

Too many distractions in this life... sailing this week should help return my focus.

Cheers to all who face similar challenges & distractions.

[Doghouse]

Just outside of Dallas is a huge lake that is loaded with sailboats. I highly recommend thinking about that. SWMBO has often told me that if we were going to be landlocked somewhere that is where she would want to be. Besides you have HEB stores there!

[AdamY]

Originally Posted by markpj23

An amazing thread that provides encouragement to those who, like me, are trying to slip the lines and deal with the unknown.

And the distractions keep coming.... Less than 2 weeks ago I was placed in serious contention for a significant promotion, IF I was willing to move to Dallas of all places. It's hard to walk away from the compensation package.....

I heard that! We just worked out that our shakedown north would be time crunched and that if we used that time to live aboard and ferret away some more funds I would get the promotion that is in the works for me (which really just means I can put "senior" on my title when I seek work in the future) and more importantly we can boost our kitty by almost 50%. It is significant enough for us to think about it seriously.

Oh well July or September. Of course if I dont get to see Glacier bay and have to go S I may be that much more driven to return to Antarctica :-)

Of course Kristina dislikes that idea more than she disliked the idea of AK. Hopefully a year in the tropics will make he want for some cooler breezes ;-)

Cheers,