A lot of people dream about buying a boat and sailing away. A few of them buy some books and magazines and a few of them travel to places where there are boats to see and they dream there for awhile and then have fish for lunch. A very few of them will look at boats for sale. Some will even make boat shopping their hobby and they will look at boats for years. One out of a thousand will buy a boat. Of those, most will drink aboard and sleep aboard, mostly the first year, and then the boats will lose it’s novelty and become an unnecessary expense. Some of them will take it outside the harbor occasionally. Of the others that bought a boat some will challenge the sea. They will provision and plan and they will go and most of them won’t go very far. Most of them that do go will go to the islands for the weekend and a very very few will go farther.
We are now, as boat owners, a part of an extremely small group of dreamers. We’ve bought the books and read them, we’ve looked and dreamed and had the fish for lunch. We boat shopped. It’s different when you want to buy a boat. You can grow weary of boat shopping. So now we have the boat and we are in the middle of preparing it to leave the harbor and hopefully farther. Much farther. We are quite determined to become a part of the smallest of a small group, those that use the boat that they bought and we hope to be a part of the tiniest of this already small group, those that cruise.
It is because of all the other dreamers, the dreamers that talk and plan and sometimes even buy but don’t ever go, that our friends don’t understand. You see, the other dreamers are the normal ones. We aren’t normal and I don’t think that we ever were. We often do what we’re not supposed to do. We push on the edges of the boxes to see what will happen and we always did. Now we have a solid full-keel world cruiser and we’ve disposed of most of our crap and we are working hard to chose a better life that is not based on credit cards and big holiday sales and physical disabilities and pain.
We saw an old friend yesterday. She was one of Eli’s teachers. We tried to explain to her that we’ve bought a boat and that we are refitting her and bringing her back to life as we are refitting ourselves and bringing us back to life, as well. She was confused. Her face said it all. She was afraid for us and didn’t understand at all why we would want to go see the planet when everything here is just fine as it is. You can rent a box or buy a box and let that box and the things that you fill it with define you. You can get a job and keep the job and let it define you as well. That’s normal.
I don’t want the box, none of us do. I want the sea and the sky. I don’t want the job, I want the wind. I don’t want credit. I want to laugh with my family in the sun every day.
Twitter Updates
Whoa…what a terrifically written article! Unlike dear Eli’s teacher, I am NOT afraid for you. Rather, I will travel with you…mind you, it will be somewhat like the way I go on great hunting/fishing journeys these days..sitting in a chair & readings Outdoor Life. & no, I am not jealous. I have traveled the world (not in a boat), & indeed have discovered that this place, earth, our home, is a gem, a pure gem, & her people are friends waiting to be found. May all that is good & fair precede you, guide you, & be with you. You have my utmost admiration.
“All things have I willed for thee, and thee too, for thine own sake.” (Baha’u’llah)