A Sincere Apology and One Step Closer
To state the obvious, it has been quite a while since I last posted on the blog. I must admit I have generally been quite discouraged about the trip and had lost nearly all motivation with the amount of work I had at my job. It wasn't until I started daydreaming again about being under full sail, watching the ocean sunset as I made my way to a far off exotic destination that I logged back in to this blog to pick up where I left off. Lo' and behold I had several unread messages from fans of the blog!
First off, my sincerest apologies to those who wrote me these last few months without response; for some reason the messages did not go directly to my personal email--I'm working on fixing that. Next, I am so incredibly flattered by the comments many of you left! Now knowing that people other than my family and friends actually read my blog, I will make sure I do better with keeping the blog up-to-date.
The good news is that in my absence I have been able to formulate and hopefully execute a financial plan that should allow me to save enough money to make this trip a reality in about the next year and a half, possibly two years. And this all assumes that my brother is not able to contribute anything! After doing some research, the boat buying process should take another few months thereafter, and outfitting the boat for long-term travel could take another few months depending on what upgrades needs to be done.
It's all still a little abstract at the moment, but the general plan I envision is that once I save up enough money to buy a fairly cheap boat that is somewhere in the neighborhood of 37 - 42 feet, I would enter into a month-to-month arrangement with an affordable marina and live aboard while I make the necessary repairs and get ready to ship off. Ideally I would like to purchase the boat in California, but I'd be open to really anywhere in the country.
I still think the most difficult aspect of all of this will be deciding to put the career on pause. Even scarier, if I do set sail it is entirely possible (and maybe probable) that I may not want to continue on with the same career. I'm not sure what the future holds, and that is particularly frightening. But in a way I guess it is not much different than how I live life already--I deceive myself into believing that I know what will happen next week, in the next few days, even in the next few hours. It is that very anxiety that created this sailing dream in the first place. I yearn to live in the present moment, not endlessly worrying and obsessing about the future, but the conventional career-centric life I've been taught to aspire to makes that extremely difficult.
Rambling aside, I am both very excited and very nervous. Lately, all I have been able to do is think about what boats I would consider buying when the time comes. Though I still have much research and reading to do in order to be equipped to make a decision, I have been briefly reviewing hundreds upon hundreds of available sailboats in North America to get a preliminary idea of what I'd want in a live aboard boat.
Here's a few different models I've been particularly interested in:
Hunter Passage
Catalina 400 Cruiser
Beneteau 42 Shallow
At present I don't have much to say about any of these boats except that they exemplify what I am looking for. I know nothing about whether such boats would be seaworthy enough for a circumnavigation, but there is plenty of reading to do between now and when I have enough money to purchase one of these beauties. All I do know is that I am looking forward to that day with cautious excitement. Until next time!