Tuesday, January 08, 2008

philosophical musings!

We have lived on board for going on four years now.  We sailed down the West Coast of North America from Victoria in 2006 and spent the winter in Mexico.   We debated going down through Central America to Ecuador but have now decided to head directly for the Marquesas and New Zealand in the spring of 2008.

It is a very seductive lifestyle.  Free from any 9 to 5 constraints you once had, you become attuned to the sun's rising and setting and meet people with a common love of the sea.   Occasionally you cross paths with someone who has never sailed but have that 'romantic' gleam in their eye when it comes out that you live and travel on a sailboat.   I try not to discourage them or dampen this enthusiasm for I believe everyone must come to their own realizations about their hopes and fears and dreams.  For some, it simply becomes a matter of learning the ropes, organizing the voyage and setting out before it seems that they are back home sorting through the thousands of memories they managed to capture along the way.   And others are truly seduced by the lifestyle and become a modern form of gypsy, maybe returning on occasion to that 'other' world to make contact with friends and family.  

It's not always an easy life.  There are times when you are exhausted or nervous or perhaps even frightened by what the ocean can do.   Those who do it for long seem to develop a kind of humility that you learn to recognize in the gentleness of their manner and softness of their voice.   Rarely do they leave more than footprints in the sand.  And when you need a hand, they are seldom far.

I had this dream my entire adult life but what with careers and mortgages and raising children, it remained a dream, nourished constantly by reading the experiences of those who were living it.

You will never have enough money; there will always be ties to family that hold you back even while encouraging you.  There will always be choices to be made.  But we can no more hold back the sands of time than we can stop the tides.

So pick a heading and take a small step in that direction or risk losing those memories and being marooned with regrets for chances not taken!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well spoken Captain ! - Great advice ! - I'm still in a modified "9 to 5" but finally with an 'exit strategy' gaining momentum - Life is Short - eat dessert first !