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#1
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Sailorgirl
http://www.sailorgirl.com/
"If you're sitting in front of a screen, cruising through this site thinking to yourself, "boy, I wish I were there", I have a question for you. Why aren't you? You know all those cliches like, life is short, there's no dress rehearsal in life? Well guess what, they're true. It doesn't take a million dollars to live well, it just takes a little motivation. (although if you'd like to send a million dollars Sailorgirl's way, it wouldn't be turned down!)" "Sailorgirl Attitude: You cannot discover new oceans unless you're willing to lose sight of the shore." |
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#2
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I hear this sort of thing a lot, that life is short and people should
do what they really want to do etc.....However, i think many people talk about doing things they really do NOT want to do as if they would like to do them. Cruising can be stressful, like, "Will my anchor hold..." When the opportunity really comes, many people will find they really do not want to sail away because normal life really is comfortable while life on a 27' boat will be fairly uncomfortable a lot. I have friends who spent years building their dream boat and finally sailed away last year after defferring sailing for years. I was shocked to see them back here recently and was told that they had spent most of last year avoiding storms (many hurricanes) and the cruising kitty was empty. They were back to look for jobs...........huh? I wonder, did they find that the cruising life was really not that great? That seems like a lot of effort to find that out. Many people are tied down by real circumstances, like children who make it very difficult to buy a 35' boat and you know that 3 kids cannot live on a 27' boat. Children do not have to be the thing that ties you down but they really do change your perspective on life and preceived dangers. Some of us (myself) talk a lot about cruising but are so in love with our work that we would not be able to give it up even to sail. Life is a constant compromise between our love of cruising and our love for our work. If a person constantly says " I would love to be doing ######## if I just could" and then does nothing to achieve that dream does need some waking up but I really see very few of them. |
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#3
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#4
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Good luck and I hope you love it.
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#6
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Know a young couple who put 100k into building their own world cruiser. Had
a couple kids while doing the building. Big day arrived and they left Puget Sound on the world cruise. Got as far as Oregon and decided cruising was not their bag! Boat has been on the hard the past 10 years. But someday........... Gordon "Mic" wrote in message ... http://www.sailorgirl.com/ "If you're sitting in front of a screen, cruising through this site thinking to yourself, "boy, I wish I were there", I have a question for you. Why aren't you? You know all those cliches like, life is short, there's no dress rehearsal in life? Well guess what, they're true. It doesn't take a million dollars to live well, it just takes a little motivation. (although if you'd like to send a million dollars Sailorgirl's way, it wouldn't be turned down!)" "Sailorgirl Attitude: You cannot discover new oceans unless you're willing to lose sight of the shore." |
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#7
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There ought to be some way for people to see if they like this
lifestyle before they spend years planning just to find they hate it. Chartering doesnt do it cuz you do not have the same cares or pressures. Maybe it is best to go now and go smaller. I mean go now with a smaller boat like Sailorgirl on a 27'. I decided that I couldnt justify getting a larger boat than my 28' S2 because this size is just what I can handle and she isnt a financial burden when I am not using her. Besides, she's paid for long ago. If she gets destroyed somehow, it's no major deal and wont break me. Somebody ought to get a fleet of old mid-size boats together in a cheap place in FL and lease (option to buy with part of lease payments going toward purchase) them to people who want to try the cruising life without spending yrs planning. Gordon wrote: Know a young couple who put 100k into building their own world cruiser. Had a couple kids while doing the building. Big day arrived and they left Puget Sound on the world cruise. Got as far as Oregon and decided cruising was not their bag! Boat has been on the hard the past 10 years. But someday........... Gordon "Mic" wrote in message ... http://www.sailorgirl.com/ "If you're sitting in front of a screen, cruising through this site thinking to yourself, "boy, I wish I were there", I have a question for you. Why aren't you? You know all those cliches like, life is short, there's no dress rehearsal in life? Well guess what, they're true. It doesn't take a million dollars to live well, it just takes a little motivation. (although if you'd like to send a million dollars Sailorgirl's way, it wouldn't be turned down!)" "Sailorgirl Attitude: You cannot discover new oceans unless you're willing to lose sight of the shore." |
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#8
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rhys wrote:
On 12 Aug 2005 13:33:27 -0700, wrote: I hear this sort of thing a lot, that life is short and people should do what they really want to do etc.....However, i think many people talk about doing things they really do NOT want to do as if they would like to do them. Cruising can be stressful, like, "Will my anchor hold..." When the opportunity really comes, many people will find they really do not want to sail away because normal life really is comfortable while life on a 27' boat will be fairly uncomfortable a lot. snip If a person constantly says " I would love to be doing ######## if I just could" and then does nothing to achieve that dream does need some waking up but I really see very few of them. That's why I object to the 'follow your dreams' type rhetoric. And the subsequent 'broken dreams' thing. Plans---- I can go with plans. Not dreams. I have friends who spent years building their dream boat and finally sailed away last year after defferring sailing for years. You should only spend years building a boat IMHO if your dream is boat building. If your dream is sailing, the buy a boat and sail. That is why our game plan for five-seven years of world cruising in mid-life includes the following: 1) Have the wife take a teacher's degree to teach our kid and to offer a tutor service to fellow cruisers and/or teaching terms ashore. Learn diesel maintenance, celestial, diving. I'm not so sure that a teaching degree will be that useful. I have one, and there were a few nuggets of useful information in there, but there was a lot of other stuff that I would not need to teach one child or tutor a small group. It may be a large expense for little return. I'm also not sure about the celestial. 2) Develop new markets for my (successful) freelance writing into the travel/sail/tech aboard fields...not a stretch. 3) Spend as much time as possible living aboard in Lake Ontario on our present boat, which is old school and pretty minimal, but big enough to tackle bad weather. 4) Join passagemakers as crew to see if life on salt water is really for us. 5) Repeat. 6) Repeat. Repeat until you've got some real sea hours and you get sensibly frightened, but reasonably experienced. G 7) Rejig paid off house as income rental property, and THEN get a 50% mortgage against it and go ocean-boat shopping. 8) Live aboard new used boat in Toronto for one year while house is renting out. Try to replicate cruising life by finding what works, what doesn't. Only if each of those steps works out--particularly both of us making separate offshore trips as crew and then TOGETHER as crew--would we actually get a new boat. The boat we have is offshore capable--many have gone to the Carribean, for instance, but is too small and tender for my tastes. But all the human elements have to be in place before I would essentially mortgage my future to take a mid-life sabbatical. However, the rationale is to go NOW and not when advancing years, health issues or putting a kid through college make it less likely. We want to be at sea (or as foreign-based live-aboards) when my kid is between seven/eight to 13-14, at which point we plan to get him back for high school with some real life experience under his belt instead of Nintendo thumb and a pasty fat arse. This is a good time frame AFA the kids are concerned I think. Wish us well...the house is paid off in six months and the sextant is becoming familiar and the wife's applying for teacher's college this fall. R. grandma Rosalie |
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#9
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On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 13:07:03 GMT, Rosalie B.
wrote: I'm not so sure that a teaching degree will be that useful. I have one, and there were a few nuggets of useful information in there, but there was a lot of other stuff that I would not need to teach one child or tutor a small group. It may be a large expense for little return. It's not for cruising, it's for shoreside life. There's a big shortage of female, circa 30, hard science teachers in our province. If she started teaching for a year or two, she'd be square with the union and the pension fund and *then* could sail off for five years knowing there's a job (very, very likely) waiting for her. Also, having the qualifications makes "boat-schooling" a lot easier to pass muster with educational departments, AND means you have a real diploma to present to foreign school systems (many of which aren't picky about foreign, temporary teachers), and to the boating community at large. I'm also not sure about the celestial. I am if only because it's a big, bad world out there and may get worse in the next ten years. GPS...and large chunks of the Internet for that matter...can be turned off, as they are essentially creations of the American military. The stars can't. Besides, it's an autonomous skill that takes time to master, like braiding a Turk's Head or knowing wire to rope splicing...it's a part of seamanship. This is a good time frame AFA the kids are concerned I think. That's what we are thinking. After 14, he'll have other, more earthy interests. R. |
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#10
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On Fri, 12 Aug 2005 20:34:09 -0700, "Gordon"
wrote: Know a young couple who put 100k into building their own world cruiser. Had a couple kids while doing the building. Big day arrived and they left Puget Sound on the world cruise. Got as far as Oregon and decided cruising was not their bag! Boat has been on the hard the past 10 years. But someday........... Gordon I don't wish to seem as if I am waiting to pounce on such situations, but that's how I fully expect to find our boat: someone who turned back, or started too late, and now has a 90-99% ocean-ready vessel on the hard eating yard fees. R. |
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