Here's Something to Think About...

bbilly

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Here\'s Something to Think About...

Here's Something to Think About...

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen, who play with their boats at sea-"cruising," it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.
"I've always wanted to sail the South Seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the routine of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense. And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?
Sterling Hayden 1916-1986
 

Stemar

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Re: Here\'s Something to Think About...

He obviously didn't have a wife - or kids who are expecting help to go to uni! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Here's the quote from a websire that decided me that I was going to get a boat. And start looking seriously NOW:

"There comes a time when you file away the dream forever. You attach a rationalization of why it cannot be, and why that is really not such a bad thing. You convince yourself that you do not and indeed cannot feel bad about it. Then you put it away.

Basically you kill it, with intent and with cold blood. You may not know it, but part of you dies too."
http://cuagain.manilasites.com/stories/storyReader$33

And I've got a boat. She's little, she's old, but she's my escape back to sanity /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

absit_omen

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Re: Here\'s Something to Think About...

Thanks for that. I shall write it down and present it to the next official who tries to charge me for anchoring.
 

Peppermint

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Re: It\'s where your heads at Man!

The secret is to avoid regrets. Either way.

Most of us could go now, in the boat we own, with the gear we've got. Just buy a few charts and away. Most of us could afford it.

Of course that'd piss of the boss, the wife, the extended family. It would also show the sort of singleminded determination that few people can muster.

I've got an excuse for not going. For me sailing is, sometimes a job but mainly a game. The idea of adopting it as a lifestyle is as outlandish as adopting rugby or lacrosse as a lifestyle. If I want to see the world I'd rather do the long bits by jet plane. I'm sure I can find a boat when I get there. I don't mind doing it on a budget. It's just that I need a substantial budget.

I'd recommend an urgent change of lifestyle to anyone who feels "enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security". That being said boats & voyages represent a
fairly demanding taskmaster.
 

ColdFusion

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Re: Here\'s Something to Think About...

A small boy heard the ocean roar,
"There are secrets on my distant shore
But beware my child the ship's bell's wail
Wait not too long to start to sail."

So quickly come and go the years
And a young adult stands abeach - with fears.
"Come on, come on," the ocean cussed,
"Time passes on, oh sail you must."

Now its business in middle aged prime
And maybe tomorrow there'll be time,
Now is too soon - it's raining today.
Gone, all gone - years eaten away.

An old man looks out, still feeling the lure
Yet he'll suffer the pain than go for the cure.
The hair is white, the step's with care...

So all too soon the secrets are buried
Along with him and regrets he carried
And it's not for loss of secrets he cried
But rather because he'd never tried.

“Author Unknown”
 

Alastairdent

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Re: Here\'s Something to Think About...

Gotta echo Stemar here. 2 kids. 4 stepkids. 1 ex-wife. Hell, who needs a fancy anchor?

OTOH, I just picked up an old 28ft yacht, with a little work, she's suitable for sailing anywhere . . .
 

aitchw

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Re: Here\'s Something to Think About...

For every one person who has a job they love there must be hundreds just getting by. Across the board we seldom earn what we really want to earn nor have enough time to ourselves, families or whatever.

I have read so many posts on the forum about the costs/affordability of sailing and it is obvious that a large number of forumites can afford it and a large number can't but find ways anyway. I'm one of the latter and just owning my tiny careworn boat keeps my dreams alive and a hairs thread hold on sanity. I could not abandon everything and go off on a voyage, my family are too dear to me but I can go down to my boat, whether afloat or in the yard and get lost in a world of my own for a few hours and pray I might yet change our life for the better.

The boat is my refuge, my bolthole, and those few days in the year when my wife and son can join me afloat are more precious than all the wealth I could aspire to and all the more so because of they are so hard won.
 

Stemar

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Re: Here\'s Something to Think About...

[ QUOTE ]
I'm one of the latter and just owning my tiny careworn boat keeps my dreams alive and a hairs thread hold on sanity. I could not abandon everything and go off on a voyage, my family are too dear to me but I can go down to my boat, whether afloat or in the yard and get lost in a world of my own for a few hours and pray I might yet change our life for the better.

The boat is my refuge, my bolthole, and those few days in the year when my wife and son can join me afloat are more precious than all the wealth I could aspire to and all the more so because of they are so hard won.

[/ QUOTE ]This is me to a 'T' - though a degree of timidity /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif is makes it easier to say the family's too dear

Still, maybe, one day, when the kids have finished uni and got set up in their own lives...
 
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