A Blog Post Actually Worth Reading

[Blue Stocking]

John,

I think you summed it up to perfection. If you can't get the ice cream back to the boat, you buy a cone at the store.
Lennon would have agreed with you.

[imagine2frolic]

Originally Posted by Blue Stocking

John,

I think you summed it up to perfection. If you can't get the ice cream back to the boat, you buy a cone at the store.
Lennon would have agreed with you.

Now that put a smile on my face......i2f

[mbianka]

I read Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenace back when I was in High School. I think it helped me delve into and tackle most of the maintenance issues I've come across on the boat. With an approach that not everything will go as planned but, with perserverance the tasks can be completed.
As for cruising. Personally my dreams and plans have changed over the years and change during each season even now. I have always wanted to cross the Atlantic. That opportunity came up a few years ago but, it was on the QM2. Doing it on a smaller boat does not draw me to that idea now as much as when I was younger. Though recently I have had the urge to take my boat off shore even just for a few days and just sail around a bit with no particular destination. Just to get away from the sight of land for awhile. So I still have some of that ocean wanderlust in me.
I've also chartered boats in many parts of the world including much of the Carribbean and other areas of the world. So I've been able to experience the pleasures and problems of sailing many of the waters I use to dream about. Visiting these places are no longer just dreams for me and I enjoyed those cruises. But, I don't feel the need to take my boat to those places with the same urgency as I use too.
Last year I met a Captain who had sailed quite a bit of the world and I mentioned that my girlfriend and I were going to charter a cat in the Maldives. He and his wife had sailed there with their boat and found it to be one of the most boring places he'd ever been to and could not wait to leave once they got there. We went and found it to be one of the best trips we ever made. We had a local Muslem crew and got to see and experience things that we never could have if we had done the trip by ourselves on my boat. I'd go back in heartbeat if I could afford it. Expectations are different for each of us. Some of us are content no matter where we are and others seem to need to keep on searching for that contentment and perhaps never find it.

[boatman61]

I always said that when I get tired of sailing I'd like to get a couple of Camarge horse's and do the Marco Polo Route...
Sadly that looks an impossibility due to a variety of conflicts along the way...
So.... looks like I'm stuck with sailing....
I love the constant change... faces n places....
Ok I run aground metaphorically on occasion... and spend a coupla years in one place now and then...
but sooner or later it pales and the hunger for the new & unknown kicks in again...

[RTB]

Originally Posted by imagine2frolic

I miss having ice cream at my leisure. I have a large freezer, but it would melt by the time I got back to the boat. Instead I adjust, and buy a cone near the store.

I need to send you a care package! A freezer bag and a couple of gel-packs, and you're good to go....Schwan's Home Service, Inc. - SCHWAN'S

Happy to see you are making the most of life.

[perchance]

I think the best cure for cruising depression is to go ashore once in a while and do the Viking berserker thing. Just don't kill anyone.

[sww914]

I didn't need to read that, I was already worried about those things.
I'm starting my cruise today and I have plenty to worry about.

[Target9000]

Originally Posted by sww914

I didn't need to read that, I was already worried about those things.
I'm starting my cruise today and I have plenty to worry about.

Life is filled with people that will offer encouragement when they shouldn't.

Life is filled with people that will offer discouragement when they shouldn't.

Every now and then you get someone that will give you good advice based on your relative situation and founded with experience.

The trick is figuring out what type of advice you're getting and making your own way. Your mileage may vary.

Almost anyone can make mistakes and learn from them. A rare person can witness others mistakes and learn from them. The wisest of us can hear of experiences and gain knowledge. The victors always engage the situation actively. Passively accepting what is said to be will result in getting exactly what you expected. Taking action to make sure your life is wonderful will yield.... Wonders.

[Butler]

Nice article but agree that this is just one persons perspective though one shared by my previous partner who got harder and harder until she finally said "I'm not some G'damned pioneer woman" and moved off.
I learned a lot about how next time, should I ever get together with a non-cruiser (not too likely anymore) I really need to make it really clear that this whole cruising thing is largely about proccess and that a simple desire to "get away" and an aptitude for sailing is not at all enough.

This also touches on the important (for me) disticntion between having served on a military vessel with a trained crew and having sole responsibility for a small auxillary sailboat. While the latter experience may acquaint someone with how powerful and dangerous the ocean can be, the respect it demands and the importance of discipline, maintenance and proper routines it doesn't prepare one for the work of rough weather or the fears it may engender nor for the tedium of the doldrums.

The only thing that has made it possible for me to deal with the seemingly endless periods of rebuilding and strengthening the boat and the failures of gear or boat systems has been how much I seem to love the ocean.
There is also the fact that after many years of one sort of 9-5 or another I am anxious to serve a mistress (master) who, as Moitessier so much more eloquently put it, does not engage in bias or vanity. The rule of nature apllies evenly to all and anyone willing to learn her ways will stand the best chance of flourishing in her eye... something like that anyway.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by James S

Well said.

Am glad that the insight gained during all those years hanging on to bars in far flung places wasn't wasted. (and yeah, even I eventually got bored of that ).

Here's another one ......."the journey itself is the destination"

[barnakiel]

A mediocre book and related to zen as much as Autumn in Beijing relates to autumn or to Beijing.

OK, ok, I will read it anyways ...

;-)
THX for sharing,
b.

[unbusted67]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

Here's another one ......."the journey itself is the destination"

IMO this is the real point of this essay.

I know a lot of you don't relate to this and that's cool, suffice to say, having been where the author has been mentally, it just really struck a chord.

I really like a lot of what people have said in this thread. You guys are super thoughtful.

When I started cruising I had thoughts of palm trees as well but as I grow and learn more I really realize that what draws me to cruising as an activity is that it is all about management. Management of fear, frustration, boredom, and even management of elation. The boat is small, there is no room for any BS of any kind, so manage it.

I need discipline, I recognize that in myself. I think sailing and being on the water is slowly grinding me into a disciplined person. That is what I related to in this article.

[imagine2frolic]

A very wise observation. That discipline is being able to adjust. You can complain about the wind, or adjust your sails........i2f