What do you want to get out of "cruising"?

[w00dy]

I wrote this up not too long ago and haven't gotten around to sharing it with anyone yet, but its generally related to your questions, so I'll share. Apologies for the wall of text.

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Rachel asked me to write our first "newsletter" while we are making way eastward to New Orleans.  It's been a while since I felt the need or inclination to write about ourselves, but long, empty stretches of time are conducive to this sort of thing, so here are my current ramblings, for what they are worth.

After two years of concerted effort restoring our good old boat, we're finally back on the water and moving again. Age creeps up on us all slowly, but after so much time spent stationary and focused on a singular goal, the effects of that slow change have suddenly become apparent, now that we are in transition again. Even though we have long anticipated this moment, the definitive act of getting underway once more feels strange and almost unnatural, as if our purpose in doing so, though declared long ago, has drifted away and is waiting for us to discover it anew.

We're gradually getting back into the rhythym of this lifestyle. Gathering momentum is a ponderous process; as slow as the passage of our boat down the long, inland canals that we've been traveling. Cruising life is familiar and at least has not changed much: new places, new faces, long periods of self reflection, plenty of boat projects to fiddle and tinker with, the occasional dramatic episode of mechanical failure, and both at the forefront and underlying it all, the ever present struggle with mother nature.

We're somewhat more experienced and better prepared than before, making for a more comortable and refined existence out here on the water. Certainly, we're more civil and sane toward one another. We're also a bit older, and perhaps wiser, but the challenges of this lifestyle remain undiminished, so we can only hope to continue to posess the energy and fortitude that are already now being required of us again. More and more, I realize the truth of what many other cruisers have expressed to us time and again. "Do it while you're young." Sorted by age, we are probably at the leading edge of the bell curve of cruisers and most of the other traveling boaters we have met have been several generations older, retired from long careers and families raised. So, while we seem to have a head start on everyone, it hasn't kept me from the perception that, whippersnappers we may be, we're not getting any younger. I wonder what lies in store, as whatever is left of our youthful invincibility dwindles.

I asked an older, retired, well-traveled friend about the choice in between youthful energy and exuberance, and the wisdom and experience that is tempered by age. He lauged as it it were obvious. "Given the choice", he said "I'd choose to get my youth back, no question!" Many of us would choose the same; to retain the boundless energy, alluring promise, and ignorant bliss of our younger selves. Since we mortals aren't generally allowed that choice, we must content ourselves with the the clarity of hindsight, the caprice of memory, and perhaps a protective shield of cynicism as a buffer  for our increasingly fragile existence.

Maybe the inoxerable entropy of our bodies need not correspond with a wasting of the spirit, though. If there are balms to protect us from the weathering of the elements; if exercise can strenthen and invigorate, shouldn't there be a means of preserving and nourishing our souls? We are so lucky to have the opportunities afforded us, which I must constantly remind myself not to take for granted. At the same time, we must take responsibility for the postive choices that have defined our existence thus far. Choices that, while unconventional, have enriched our lives and allowed us a chance at maintaining our souls and sanity in a society that has little room for either.

Maybe we are all allowed a chance to be young again, with no Faustian bargaining required. As we continue to move forward in the present moment, I being to recall our purpose again, and hope that we have not been too long separated from it; that we have not forgotten our intention of hanging on to and reveling in the beauty and wonder that we have had the good fortune to experience and the drive to seek out.

So what does it all boil down to? Why are we out here?

Clifford Ashley, reknowned seaman and topological genius, explained it in this way:

Some of my friends did not hesitate to take me to task for what they regarded as a flagrant waste of time. More than once, I was tempted to explain my prodigality as an individual's protest against the materialism of his age. But even if that were true, which it was not, it would hardly have been deemed a sufficient excuse.

Without a doubt my critics would have been entirely satisfied if I had announced that I proposed to write a book on the subject, because the urge to write a book is nowadays accepted as ample excuse for almost any delinquency.

But I had given no thought to writing a book. I am not convinced that an excuse is called for. Throughout history, from the early peregrinations of Marco Polo and the first voyage of Christopher Columbus down to more recent expeditions to Antarctica and the Himalayas, the thrill incident to the pursuit of untrodden ways and the joy that attends occasional discovery have ever been accounted sufficient reward in themselves for almost any human effort, or sacrifice.

Or, in simpler parlance, the words of "Slo-Mo", the roller skating sage of the San Diego beachfront (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn87-mcnoVc):

"I just want want to make it to old age without becoming an arse again."

[Frank]

Congrats on getting mobile again and on a very well worded post...very well worded!!  At 27 I had a decent boat, waterway guides, youthful enthusiasm, plans to leave and a ton of vigor. I was READY! Sadly..."life" got in the way. At about 45 I started slowly again...finally in southern waters. Now...at 57, I spend about 8+mths per year afloat. I wonder how many more years, with bad knees, bad shoulder and a re occurring bad back I can haul up out of a dingy or do all the things needed. A lifetime in construction has taken its toil.  The boom trucks and stone slingers came out as I moved more into admin. No longer do we carry shingles up ladders, haul drywall sheets up stairs or wheel barrow clear stone around foundations. I did....  BUT....as I watch myself and others older, albeit in better shape than I, dingy around like kids...wide eyes and full of life...I think youth is not needed....just wonderlust!  Keep going...have "wide eyes"...enjoy the moments....have fun. It is those "moments" that make up our lives!!   Post pics as ya go!!

[w00dy]

Thanks, Frank! I'm not 30 yet and I'm already feeling the toll of years of power tool vibration and perhaps too many sniffs of various boat glues  :o That may explain quite a few things! But I can see how it must really start to add up over the years. To heck with our bodies, though! Charge ahead and live! We're not dead yet!