The Why and the How

The Why:

Heather mentioned in her last post that I have been bugging her for a while about taking the family on a sailboat.  Obviously, this would be a huge change in our lifestyle (I'm a lawyer, she is a stay at home mom, and we have four children). What she has not asked me directly is why. Yet, why is a good question.

Have you ever had a moment where you looked around and said to yourself "What the hell am I doing? I have--too many times.  I have worked steady since I was 15. Chicken houses, roofing, construction, sales, deputy sheriff, lawyer. Clock in, grind, and clock out. But to what end? For a long time I did it because that is what I thought I was supposed to do. I went to college (and I'm glad I did) because that is what I was supposed to do. Mortgage, cars, furniture, etc, etc. Society says we are supposed to have these things, work your entire adult life to pay for them, retire for a few years, and die.  Why does it have to be that way? That question of why has nagged me for years, always bubbling up to the surface to cause grief.

It doesn't have to be that way. That is the secret. Work is merely a means to an end. The real question is "what is your end?". If your end is acquiring things and dying, then hey, no worries.  That is not my end however. If you don't like the story, then change it. That is what I hope to do. Ultimately, I hope to give my family the experience of a lifetime. I want them to tell their children and their grandchildren all about the time their parents made them live on a boat and sail the world.

The How:

We obviously have a ways to go before we cast off. Lucky for me, Heather is the planner (I have always been a bit more big picture--great on ideas, light of specifics). Together we should be a good team.

Big picture then, I need to focus on two things: money and experience. Money to buy and outfit the right boat and pay for our cruising as long as possible. This money question is made up of a lot of smaller questions, such as "Do we sell our house or rent it out?; and "How long do we want to be on the water?"; and "How much boat can we afford?" or better yet "Can we afford a boat?" We are starting the process of working on those questions now. Those are big questions, but the key is breaking those big questions down into smaller, more manageable questions. The whole "small strokes fell great oaks" thing.

Experience is more straight forward. Sail as much as possible and learn as much as  possible. My boat is relatively small (22 foot Catalina) and I have only sailed on inland lakes. I'm gonna need some big boat experience on large bodies of water. things like safety and sea, navigation, chart reading, and heavy weather sailing are high on my to-do list. (navigating is easy right now--if I run out of lake, I turn around).