I
recall seeing several posts regarding the “wannabes” and what happens to the people who pop up with a dream, ask several questions, and then fade away. For some reason, it is important to me that I am not thought of in such a way. When I first began lurking around this forum, the ability to take the dream of cruising to fruition seemed all but impossible. On the one hand, I had several things going for me – a bit of sailing experience, some mechanical know-how, a good job, and most of all, a supportive wife. On the other hand, I also had a budding
family, four
dogs, daycare expenses, and lived in Oklahoma. Oh, and a six-figure student loan debt from a life chapter as a helicopter pilot. The latter blighted not only the sailing dream, but nearly all others as well.
Not to be defeated, we bought a
boat and got to
work. My wife had never been sailing, so that was job #1. The
boat was far from dilapidated, but needed love. Although on a smaller scale, she possessed many of the systems with which I knew I would need to become familiar – a
diesel inboard, a
head and
holding tank, pressurized
water,
wheel steering, etc. We spent a couple of summers diagnosing colors of
diesel exhaust, changing the joker valve, re-packing the stuffing box, replacing running
rigging, going aloft, stripping and painting the bottom, revitalizing joinery, re-wiring, and from time to time, even sailing. By the end of it, we had one of the cleanest boats in the marina and were convinced that 1) this was the life for us, and 2) with our
current situation, it would never happen. Ok, not never, but we’d be on a 20-year plan, which kind of spoiled the idea of raising our
kids on a boat. Either drastic measures had to be taken, or we had to let go of this dream and commit to a life of conformity and mediocrity.
Fast forward to August of 2015 and drastic measures were underway. At the last minute, my wife, who is a high
school teacher, landed a job in
Texas. Oklahoma teacher pay is dismal, and crossing the border offered a 50% (literally, 50%) increase in pay. I was granted permission to telecommute, and my mother-in-law agreed to let us move in with her in
Texas. In exchange for a low amount of monthly rent, she’d also watch our soon to be two
children (my wife was six months pregnant at the time) during the day. We
sold the boat and eventually
sold the house and nearly everything in it. The speed at which everything in our life changed still astounds me. No longer was the prospect of two
children terrifying and we actually saw some brightness in our family’s future.
When we moved here in 2015, just shy of $104,000 of the student debt remained. As of last month, every
single red cent has been paid back. We’ve convinced the mother-in-law to put up with us for one more
school year so we can aggressively save and plan for whatever is next. In our time here, we have become quite accustomed to living cheaply, have reduced our belongings such that everything we own fits in a small U-Haul
trailer, and I have crewed on an
offshore delivery. What was once a 20-year plan (at best) is now tangible and perhaps only 18 months away.
All that to say, I may have disappeared from this forum for a while, but the dream never waned. It is actually more alive than ever. I am not sure why I felt the need to type all that out and I apologize for such a lengthy post! Now, back to boat
shopping....
Jesse