I am over 30 and *still* enjoy the fun and adventure.

Do the reasons for wanting to go sailing change with time and age?
When young (less than 30?) it can be just for the fun and adventure.
over 30, maybe to escape the boring job, mortgage or business woes?
over 50..... well the kids are leaving home, maybe you are secure and why
risk all
the material assets you have accumulated by heading over the horizon into
the unknown?

"R Whellum" wrote in message
...
why risk all
the material assets you have accumulated by heading over the horizon
into
the unknown?


If you have to ask....................

"rhys" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 12:52:37 -0400, "Doug Dotson"
wrote:

Absolutely. Cruising can be very stressful for the reasons you
state.

But at least there's a point to the stress...a safe and successful
passage.

No argument.

It also has some very nice rewards. I found the ICW
especially annoying and thereful stressful. Not all parts of
it, of course, but much of it.

Unlike, say, wanting powerlessly for a bureaucrat to do his job on
land, at least you have the option of going offshore G.

You lost me on this one.

The autonomy of sailing for me is the payoff for the stress of the
responsibility. Sure, it can get very, very bad, but if your last
thought is "guess I should have reefed earlier", is that not a better
end than dying on a gurney in a hospital hallway, wondering "where's
that nurse?"

If you say so.

Not to be morbid, as fewer sailors drown by far than office workers
die in car accidents,

I am pretty sure there are far fewer sailors cruising than office
workers driving.

but the lessons of the sea are far less
ambiguous than those of the shore.

I'm not sure that is a fair comparison. The lessons are different
for sure.

R.

you guys shore are afeared of livin', ain'tcha.

Subject: strange cruising thoughts
From: "Doug Dotson" AMcom
Date: 10/19/2004 9:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id:


"rhys" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 12:52:37 -0400, "Doug Dotson"
wrote:

Absolutely. Cruising can be very stressful for the reasons you
state.

But at least there's a point to the stress...a safe and successful
passage.

No argument.

It also has some very nice rewards. I found the ICW
especially annoying and thereful stressful. Not all parts of
it, of course, but much of it.

Unlike, say, wanting powerlessly for a bureaucrat to do his job on
land, at least you have the option of going offshore G.

You lost me on this one.

The autonomy of sailing for me is the payoff for the stress of the
responsibility. Sure, it can get very, very bad, but if your last
thought is "guess I should have reefed earlier", is that not a better
end than dying on a gurney in a hospital hallway, wondering "where's
that nurse?"

If you say so.

Not to be morbid, as fewer sailors drown by far than office workers
die in car accidents,

I am pretty sure there are far fewer sailors cruising than office
workers driving.

but the lessons of the sea are far less
ambiguous than those of the shore.

I'm not sure that is a fair comparison. The lessons are different
for sure.

R.

From reading many of your previous posts, I have noticed that you are an
intelligent, thinking person. That may be your undoing right there!

Boating does not make sense. We just do it because we like it. Some people
like it for different reasons than other people, and none make more sense
than the others.

So, if you want to cruise, then cruise. If you want to work towards
something, then do that. (It's a little like the old boating question: do
you want to get somewhere or do you want to __go__ somewhere?) If you're not
sure, you could always follow your original plan and see how your heart
adapts to that.

Will your cruising take you away from your daughter - pardon the decidely
amateur psycho-analysis - even for short periods of time? Could that be
what's really bothering you?

====

Charles T. Low
www.boatdocking.com

====

"Parallax" wrote in message
om...
By happy and fortuitous circumstance, I suddenly find that not only am
I financially able to do the cruising I want, but my personal life has
fallen into place with my 17 yr old daughter seeming to be cured of
melanoma. So why am I suddenly not looking forward to it? We had a
great day of sailing on Sunday. The short hops will not involve too
much time away from family or work so what is it? Is it possible that
the work toward achieving it is better than the actual doing it?...

Get a trawler.

--


Keith
__
Buckle up. It makes it harder for the aliens to snatch you from your car.
"Parallax" wrote in message
om...
By happy and fortuitous circumstance, I suddenly find that not only am
I financially able to do the cruising I want, but my personal life has
fallen into place with my 17 yr old daughter seeming to be cured of
melanoma. So why am I suddenly not looking forward to it? We had a
great day of sailing on Sunday. The short hops will not involve too
much time away from family or work so what is it? Is it possible that
the work toward achieving it is better than the actual doing it?
I've done a little cruising in the past so I know the stress at night
of worrying "Is my anchor dragging" whereas home in bed that never
crosses your mind. I know the "God, am I bored" during
loooooooooooong days of very light wind followed by the "Omigod, what
am I doing here" fear at night with wind that is probably less than I
imagine it to be. Is it possible that the last 9 years of starting
and running a small business has stressed me so much I just want to
relax? Regardless of that Christopher Cross song "Sailing", we all
know sailing is NOT relaxing. People have asked me what I like about
sailing and I always tell them that for me its about problem solving,
not relaxing.
Does anybody else have such odd thoughts before a cruise?

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 21:31:34 -0400, "Doug Dotson"
wrote:

Unlike, say, wanting powerlessly for a bureaucrat to do his job on
land, at least you have the option of going offshore G.

You lost me on this one.

In the sense that getting on the ICW is akin to queuing up in a
government office line-up to get a licence or a permit or something:
you are dependent on some paper-pusher's whim. If you find the ICW
stressful, however, you can sail offshore. Unlike dealing with
bureaucrats, you have a choice to make a change.


Not to be morbid, as fewer sailors drown by far than office workers
die in car accidents,

I am pretty sure there are far fewer sailors cruising than office
workers driving.

I mean per capita. Divide number of active cruisers by number of same
drowned while cruising: I would wager it's safer to cruise than to be
an urban car commuter.

but the lessons of the sea are far less
ambiguous than those of the shore.

I'm not sure that is a fair comparison. The lessons are different
for sure.

Again, it comes down to you and your skills dealing with the sea. Only
in the rare shi-to-ship collision, extreme gear failure or chance
mishap (ramming a submerged container or whale) is the case similar to
getting killed by some drunk yahoo behind the wheel while you are
driving safely.

The proximity of other people onshore can erase all your good
intentions and safe habits. The sea is less ambiguous due to the long
periods of solitude.

R.

"Scott Vernon" wrote in message ...
"R Whellum" wrote in message
...
why risk all
the material assets you have accumulated by heading over the horizon
into
the unknown?


If you have to ask....................

I appreciate everybody's perspective on this and have heard some I had
not really considered. One most often cited is summed up as:
"Leaving the rat race". Somehow by either extreme luck or major
personality defect, I have avoided conventional employment all my life
so had not personally considered this one. This also explains the
popularity of magazines such as Crusing World. This just goes to show
that ones own experience and motivations cannot be easily generalized
to others.

On 20 Oct 2004 09:08:33 -0700, (Parallax)
wrote:

I have
three kids, 17 yr old daughter, 14 yr old son and 8 yr old daughter so
I have plenty of reason to want to be home.

Interesting. I have a three year old son and a 30 year old wife. I am
43. We are planning to world cruise when he is 7 or so until he is 12
or 13 on the basis that he'll tire of us then G and prefer to be
ashore with "his own kind".

Our logic is that by age seven he will at least keep himself on the
boat and act as look-out. Kids of 9 or 10 can keep half-watches in the
daytime. If we have another kid before we go, the age difference
provides a live-aboard minder for No. 2 Child.

I figure he won't want to do extended cruising again until I'm in my
60s, by which point...

So we are planning a "mid-life sabbatical" of a few years, rather than
wait until my retirement and maybe not do it at all.

So I figure in my circumstances, we have plenty or reasons to go
sailing G.

Carpe bloody diem and all that.

R.