The ties that bind

[newt]

Adam, just for grins I did a yachtworld search today and came up with an Allied seawind ketch for 28.7. The only thing it does not have (that you are specifying) is a shower. I would put in a cockpit shower and enclose the cockpit (in canvas dodger extension).  It has a nice diesel so a diesel heater would probably fit fine...
In other words- YOU CAN DO THIS DUDE!!!
:)

[Godot]

I saw that boat, I think.  I believe I linked to it in another thread somewhere.  It would be FABULOUS for me. 

The shower is a convenience that would be handy if I ended up in the marina without facilities.  But, not having one just means I'll have to make it to the gym on a daily basis; not the worst compromise.  Except when my hours get messed up and I'm getting up at 3am looking for the shower.  Oh, well.  I'll deal.

Bottom line is I know I can do this.  The problems: 1) I'm upside down on my house, so I probably can't sell.  If I fix it up a bit more, however, I hope to be able to rent it out.  2) All my money is tied up in a rental property.  However, once I get these deadbeat tenants out (what a pain), I should be able to get the property refinanced or sold (I'll take a reasonable loss at this point; but that might be worth it).  Either way, I'll have a handful of cash.  3) Divorce issues.  However, some important paperwork was just signed which should protect me here.

It's coming.  I'm not sure of the timeline; but I hope to be living aboard in less than a year.  Maybe this summer.  We'll see.

If everything above works out, it should be less than three years before all debts are paid off.  Perhaps less.  And, hopefully, I'll still be squirreling away money in the meantime.  Things are looking good.

[Christopher]

Paul,

I am familiar with the feelings..  I did a fair amount of wandering when I was fresh out of high school.  I lacked the motivation at the time to get a boat ready and go, but I had the dream to get a little old boat and sail far away.  For 7 or 8 years I took sailing lessons, and toyed around with the idea of getting a boat and actually doing it... while having complete and utter freedom to drop everything and do so, but I spent more time chasing tail and having fun roaming the country Kerouac-style.  Ironically, it wasn't until "the ties that bind" were firmly in place that I really started longing for a boat that could take me far off into the blue...

The question I ask myself is - Is it the ties that bind that actually make me want to get away and sail off into the sunset?  I love my wife, child and my life, but it is that longing for freedom and solitude at the polar extreme of my reality that has catalyzed my dream.

For now I'm content to dream and take week-long cruises in the Great Lakes understanding this about myself.  I still fully plan to cross the Atlantic and tour the Med seeing all the historical places, but for now I am enjoying the ties that bind and all they bring into my life.

[Captain Smollett]

The shower is a convenience that would be handy if I ended up in the marina without facilities.  But, not having one just means I'll have to make it to the gym on a daily basis; not the worst compromise. 

That's what my wife does.  She'd go to the gym every day before work anyway, so it works out ok.  She actually keeps her work clothes in her car, leaves here are 04:30 or 05:00 in gym clothes, works out, showers and dresses for work at the gym, then off to work.

There *IS* a shower here at the marina, but this procedure fits her "routine" better anyway.

[Godot]

This thread went dormant almost a year ago, and I've been largely missing for most of 2010; but I have some news regards the "ties that bind" that perhaps belong in another thread, but maybe not.

Life moves on; but it moves on slowly.  It looks like I will be officially homeless sometime early next year (my house, and all the expenses associated with it, will be going to a new owner, if the bank cooperates) while the mighty (ahem) sailing vessel Godot (no longer for sale) sits, patiently, in the marina.  I am back into prep mode in order to launch her early next spring.  And I do believe she will be my home for the greater part of next year.  Or until the rental property sells and I can afford a somewhat bigger boat to make my home instead.  One step closer to freedom.

I am rapidly divesting myself of most of my household possessions.  Slowly, but surely, the ties are being cast off.

[Oldrig]

Adam,

Welcome back to SailFar, and best of luck.

I'm in the midst of cleaning the house, finishing a few annoying tasks and trying to figure out what to do with all the poop that's accumulated over the 27 years my wife and I have lived here ... and sometimes I just want to chuck it all, pare down to the essentials and, yes, even live aboard my little boat.

It would probably take a chain of events like what you're going through to actually make me cast off those ties.

Make the most of it, keep us posted and, perhaps eventually, bon voyage.

--Joe

[boblamb]

Hey Mates:
  Here's a poem I found that seems to fit the whole gang here, I know it characterizes me   ;)    Enjoy! 


How very simple life would be
If only there were two of me
A Restless Me to drift and roam
A Quiet Me to stay at home.
A Searching One to find his fill
Of varied skies and newfound thrill.
While sane and homely things are done
By the domestic Other One.
And that's just where the trouble lies;
There is a Restless Me that cries
For chancy risks and changing scene,
For arctic blue and tropic green,
For deserts with their mystic spell,
For lusty fun and raising heck,

But shackled to that Restless Me
My Other Self rebelliously
Resists the frantic urge to move.
It seeks the old familiar groove
That habits make. It finds content
With hearth and home dear prisonment,
With candlelight and well loved books
And treasured loot in dusty nooks,

With puttering and garden things
And dreaming while a cricket sings
And all the while the Restless One
Insists on more exciting fun,
It wants to go with every tide,
No matter where just for the ride.
Like yowling cats the two selves brawl
Until I have no peace at all.

One eye turns to the forward track,
The other eye looks sadly back,
I'm getting wall-eyed from the strain,
(It's tough to have an idle brain).
But One says "Stay" and One says "Go"
And One says "Yes," and One says "No,"
And One Self wants a home and wife
And One Self craves the drifter's life.

The Restless Fellow always wins
I wish my folks had made me twins.
                                      By Don Blanding

[Pappy Jack]

That's what it takes Adam. Just one step at a  time. And while you're on this journey, have a grog on me ;).

Fair winds and full sails,

Pappy Jack

P.S.  Stay in touch. It's been too long.