Hello, another
newbie here. I've wanted to
cruise the western river system since I was a kid &, like so many here, allowed other priorities to make it something that I might do someday.
Boat money begat another car or a bigger house & subsequent
boat funds were handily converted to
music lessons, camps, braces, etc. Aside from my firm belief that my
family would have benefited from sharing such experiences, I’ll never regret any of the choices that I’ve made.
However, like many of my age, I’m at a point where I’ve been there & done that & now want to do something other than what I’ve done for the last 25 years.
I’ve recently started looking at boats &, of course, reading everything I can find. WoodenBoat has become my very favorite periodical & ohhhh I wish it were a monthly. As I've read I've begun to imagine the possibilities in
blue water cruising & while I still want to explore the river system, my ambitions there were centered on the time restrictions of paid vacations, the schedules of the rest of the
family, etc.
(Odd, this idea that we guys just don't "get it" ... so many of us are or were with partners that seem to not even want to hear it, much less "get it")
I no longer have that problem, I'm
single again & while there are financial challenges I'm absolutely determined to redefine my life on my own, perhaps even selfish, terms. Now I'm looking hard at
living aboard, beginning to make financial preparations & re-evaluating the type of boat that I should be looking at.
If I'm far luckier than I probably deserve to be I'll find a partner that will love that life as much as I expect to. Two things are a certainty … First, whatever boat I end up with will have for her first
anchor my
current lawn mower. Second; There will be room for another in any home I have, be it this house, a boat, whatever … but the next woman that won’t so much as consider a valid & meaningful life option will be shown a choice view of my ever expanding & flabbily but rapidly receding stern.
Troubledour