When is it time and How DO You Know

[Traumagas]

Ok guys
My wife and I are 9-5ers on the daily grind....We have been looking to take the Plunge living aboard ....we are looking at a leopard cats and have the dockage and all the specifics worked out. But What MAKEs YOU JUST Do it ? I am pretty confident Financials are in Place however long term inflation is a concern....We are TYPE "A" People and Always like our ducks in Line. Just Love to know what others have experienced when they Knew its time to JUST DO IT .

Thanks in advance with any experiences

[Simi 60]

If you have your ducks in a row stop talking about it, just do it.

[JPA Cate]

Simi 60 is right: there comes a time when you are up on the high dive board for the first time; you can see the others already in the water; and you either go ahead and jump or dive off, or you walk away. Your risk, your choice.

If you're really feeling freaked out, look closely at your plan B for reintegrating back into the grind.

Ann

[gonesail]

be sure you both know about the serious downsizing required to move from a home to a boat. it may be better to live in both places for a while .. easier than cold turkey. and pick a good time of the year to move aboard .. example: not the middle of winter.

[Greg Mason]

Simple. Capital C commitment to a lifestyle change, period. For us, the purchase of the boat was the single factor.

[redhead]

There are always reasons not to go.

If the call to go has been there for a long while (i.e.: not something you dreamed up 6 months ago) and your ducks are in a row - then set a date and stick to it. We didn't and waffled away 3 years of our lives waiting for the perfect time and found there IS no perfect time. We regret those 3 years.

We don't regret the time since. Good luck!

[contrail]

With all due respect, being a bit Anal is probably a good thing.....compels you to keep things clean and orderly and to think and plan ahead. But, I am not so sure that being a Type A is conducive to a happy live-aboard cruising life. Sorry to say that! But, we are not as independent as we might like to think or like to be. In live-aboard cruising, there are so many things that are utterly out of our control. Begin with weather, move to incomprehensible or irrational rules imposed by other folks, societies and countries. language differences and the nature of boats. I could go on.....but the bottom line is that there are times when one must push ahead resolutely, and other times when one must simply go with the flow. The art is in understanding this and knowing, at at given moment, which approach is appropriate. If you think you can manage that - and think this through carefully - then, by all means, go now. If not, then don't jump into this.



Many folks are able to modify their behaviour a bit, and many are not. The cruising life sometimes has a sufficiently mellowing effect that change is easy. I used to say that anyone who actually cruises for two or more years becomes fundamentally unemployable, in the ordinary sense, because they find a level of societal foolishness that they will no longer put up with. But others just grind and grind and get frustrated with boats that break down, weather windows that prove to be phantom, implacable government officials (definitely including ours) and mechanics that don't show up.


You have only to follow this forum carefully for a week or so to realize that we have many personalities amongst us, from hyper A to hyper B and everything in between. You can also see how this defines how they approach the boating life.



It's a big step you are contemplating. I would say, depending upon how you feel about what I have said, that you should either go now, or maybe don't go, at all. I wish you the very best luck in figuring out what it is that you are "meant" to do.

[sailorboy1]

It’s time to jump into a live aboard life when a forum says its time.




Seriously only you know when it’s time and the only factors important to your decisions are those important to you.

[boatman61]

Type A..???
Forget it.. us out here are escaping to obscurity.. nothing type A about that.

[Cadence]

If all your ducks are in a row, do it before time slips by and it is to late.

[Tayana42]

If you just died or suffered a major deterioration of your health you just missed your “ time to go.”

If you want to do it don’t wait, take a deep breath and jump.

[SV Sailfish]

Originally Posted by Cadence

If all your ducks are in a row, do it before time slips by and it is to late.

And if you wait too long... your ducks will die of old age.

So, jump off the high dive Traumagas, the water out here is just fine!

[tatomaceda]

Your wife will tell you...

[morpheus]

We decided to retire and go cruising at the age of 55 the reason for this is we set ourselves a goal to do a circumnavigation over a 10 year period figuring that by the time we get to 65 we would have got the sailing bug out of our system, if not we can bumble around the Caribbean before our health dictates that we can’t do it anymore.

[grantmc]

Traugams, yours is a very common question often asked here. I actually think Boatman, with his usual whit, made the point that there is nothing type A about cruising. And I’m not sure what your intended mode of cruising is planned to be. For me the model is sailing around different countries whilst you become proficient at fixing boat related equipment. And I’m assuming here too that you’ll be reasonably affluent, but not in the super yacht level of wealth.

And I especially don’t want to rain on your parade. In this post I want to say that, if in 6-12 months you decide it’s not for you then that’s what many people actually find. Because it really is a different way to live.

And you can give it up and go back to your old life, or at least some new version of it.

I think too that some people set themselves up to fail. Typically they’ll have bought a significant sized boat and have had little or no boating skills. They drive the boat like a car and have all manner of accidents. Pop down to any marina at the weekend and watch big boats (primarily) being smashed and crashed in to docks. Secondly the huge boats they have are loaded with home appliances, freezers, microwaves, hair dryers, smoothy makers, ac, dehumidifiers, washer/dryer, 3 toilets and showers et al; all the comforts of home. Trouble is, it’s a boat, and because of all the gear it creates an unmanageable plethora of cabling and piping to all over the place with significant power needs. So so many things to go wrong and on a boat somehow they all do sooner or later.

But there are a few resources around that give the other side of the story; I mean to say discuss the consequences when things do go bad. And when they do people come back to the forum and ask why didn’t you tell me that it can go so bad. 5 years ago there was a significant post to this affect and it was called BABSAM (buy a boat and save a marriage): http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...rs-105618.html

There’s is also a blog written by Jane the babsam woman here: more JOY everywhere!: Operation BABSAM

Both of these give another side that some people do experience. There was no fun, no relaxation, just stress and stress and more stress.