solent clown
RIP
we had 5 kids, it was glorious, wouldn't change a thing. But if we were in your position with what we know now.. Just go for it.
The clocks ticking,
- Thread starter steveeasy
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we had 5 kids, it was glorious, wouldn't change a thing. But if we were in your position with what we know now.. Just go for it.
Balbas
Well-Known Member
The one and only thing I would say that goes against any or all of the above is 'if you're running away from a problem, you'll probably find that it follows you'. I've met a few travellers* over the years (and read a lot of travelling** books) and it seems that some people don't ever really escape, because the problem they're running from is themselves (if that make's sense?).
That said, if you're going for the right reasons and can afford it, then go for it. Make all of those wedded to the daily grind (mortgage, kids etc) green with envy...
*motorcyclists generally, as a younger me sought my freedom on two wheels rather than riding the white horses.
** Motorcycling books - see above. Bad example - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Good example - Jupiter's Travels. Absolutely makes my point perfectly - any of the travel 'writing' by Dan Walsh, formerly of Bike magazine.
That said, if you're going for the right reasons and can afford it, then go for it. Make all of those wedded to the daily grind (mortgage, kids etc) green with envy...
*motorcyclists generally, as a younger me sought my freedom on two wheels rather than riding the white horses.
** Motorcycling books - see above. Bad example - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Good example - Jupiter's Travels. Absolutely makes my point perfectly - any of the travel 'writing' by Dan Walsh, formerly of Bike magazine.
richardh10
Well-Known Member
Interesting thread this.
I got to 60. The ‘kids’ had alll grown up and left home, and I reckoned that I had 10 years of good health in front of me. We were living in a house which was far too big for 2 people with a lot of land which was a nightmare regarding upkeep, so we decided to sell the lot and go sailing. I wanted to buy a boat and go, wife wanted to buy a boat and a house and go. Have a guess what happened!
This was all 3 years ago, and we set off with no particular plan or destination. We decided not to go too far at first, because of the aging relative problem, but had a great time travelling around France Spain and Portugal before ending up in the canaries. The aging relative problem no longer exists - if I can put it like that - so it’s on to the Caribbean.
For a lot of people there is no looking back, but for some, they realise it’s not the life for them. I’d agree with a previous poster who said don’t burn your bridges until you’re sure. Your health is probably the major factor, and there is no point being the richest person in the graveyard. Do it while you can
Oh yes, and Dan Walsh “These are the days that must happen to you” - required reading for anyone interested in travel
I got to 60. The ‘kids’ had alll grown up and left home, and I reckoned that I had 10 years of good health in front of me. We were living in a house which was far too big for 2 people with a lot of land which was a nightmare regarding upkeep, so we decided to sell the lot and go sailing. I wanted to buy a boat and go, wife wanted to buy a boat and a house and go. Have a guess what happened!
This was all 3 years ago, and we set off with no particular plan or destination. We decided not to go too far at first, because of the aging relative problem, but had a great time travelling around France Spain and Portugal before ending up in the canaries. The aging relative problem no longer exists - if I can put it like that - so it’s on to the Caribbean.
For a lot of people there is no looking back, but for some, they realise it’s not the life for them. I’d agree with a previous poster who said don’t burn your bridges until you’re sure. Your health is probably the major factor, and there is no point being the richest person in the graveyard. Do it while you can
Oh yes, and Dan Walsh “These are the days that must happen to you” - required reading for anyone interested in travel
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steveeasy
Well-Known Member
whos to say how far and for how long any adventure has to be to be challenging enough. to some its an every day thing. to others stepping on a boat is reward enough. Im a dreamer, but I recon lots of us are. that's why we do it. Im not thinking of running off to paradise, Just just trying to think up something that might make me look back and think, wow. If the boat goes under well my family would have a chuckle.
Steveeasy
Steveeasy
fisherman
Well-Known Member
I've spent 46 years working at sea and wanting the tide/wind to start or more often stop, or to get from A to B for the next job. We're all built differently, I have my yachtmaster theory, and have been asked to do a trip across Biscay to make up three crew, and from Canaries to Cape Verde or across the pond, it doesn't appeal to me at all, but I'm perfectly happy tooling about the river in small boats, the idea of extended voyages doesn't really appeal, though I can see it would to others and this may change. Having just sold my boat I'm without a FV for the first time and wondering what to go for, something old and interesting but not too big, maybe just enough to sleep on. Mrs doesn't do sea at all, desperately ill, but OK inshore.
macd
Well-Known Member
Did it include the day in which he borrowed a credit card from a colleague only to lose it within hours? Perhaps not the sort of resourcefulness he owns up to.
Stemar
Well-Known Member
I'm the same. I've done a few longer trips, and they just don't interest me any more. I'm quite happy pottering around the Solent, with the occasional daring blue water passage to Weymouth. My pleasure is far more in a glass of wine as the sun sets in a peaceful anchorage than "Butting through the Channel in the mad March days"
alan_d
Well-Known Member
Yes, and it is the mistaken belief that the -ize form is merely an Americanism (like harbor, color etc.) that is reducing its appropriate use in British English.
LittleSister
Well-Known Member
So, applying SailAboutVic's helpful checklist to myself:
Fortunately, although I like travelling, and reading of great seafaring adventures, the long term liveaboard cruising lifestyle, etc., has never appealed very greatly.
My 'dream' is to be able to do a few longer trips of a few months at a time: to be able to get further than I can get in a few weeks, and not have to rush there, turn round and rush back to work. Fantasies include Spanish Basque coast and rias; Irish and Scottish west coasts; French canals; Baltic. (I've also long had an irrational hankering to sail up the River Douro in Portugal.)
If I can survive another year or so of my stressful job and unhealthy lifestyle, without succumbing to heart attack, stroke, nervous breakdown, or whatever, maybe I'll get to live that particular dream.
Health - ish, but declining/at risk
Money - negligible
Equally committed partner - no
Generously sized boat - no
House, etc. to come back to - no
Money - negligible
Equally committed partner - no
Generously sized boat - no
House, etc. to come back to - no
Fortunately, although I like travelling, and reading of great seafaring adventures, the long term liveaboard cruising lifestyle, etc., has never appealed very greatly.
My 'dream' is to be able to do a few longer trips of a few months at a time: to be able to get further than I can get in a few weeks, and not have to rush there, turn round and rush back to work. Fantasies include Spanish Basque coast and rias; Irish and Scottish west coasts; French canals; Baltic. (I've also long had an irrational hankering to sail up the River Douro in Portugal.)
If I can survive another year or so of my stressful job and unhealthy lifestyle, without succumbing to heart attack, stroke, nervous breakdown, or whatever, maybe I'll get to live that particular dream.
oldmanofthehills
Well-Known Member
I would love to do the longer trips, but the Navigator doesn't want to be at sea for days on end. 36 hours to Brittany was fine, but we needed a day after to recover. Though the sea is my first love, I can see a lot of places and harbours with missus and her restrictions, and I don't feel inclined to go off without her.
Many solitary sailor are loners, though not all, and it makes a big difference if you have company. Had I never met the Navigator I might have retreated to some remote anchorage to decay away my remaining years but happily I had better luck.
So I'd say do it whatever makes you happy, just be aware of the price to be paid and risks to be avoided
Many solitary sailor are loners, though not all, and it makes a big difference if you have company. Had I never met the Navigator I might have retreated to some remote anchorage to decay away my remaining years but happily I had better luck.
So I'd say do it whatever makes you happy, just be aware of the price to be paid and risks to be avoided
D
Deleted member 36384
Guest
Why on earth would anyone want to leave this green and pleasant land?
Greenheart
Well-Known Member
Very true.
It occurs to me that owning a dayboat (or any boat which one rarely sleeps aboard) makes every hour aboard feel like a precious high-point amid mundane shore life. Time sailing must justify the money and effort invested in advance, for brief periods of rich reward...
...although even the long time spent thinking about the days one will spend aboard, has a magical feeling in itself...
...whereas I imagine living aboard permanently, even in fine weather, feels much more like dull normality - partly because one cannot complete a schedule of maintenance in advance, in order to prime the boat for an open-ended period of unpunctuated pleasure.
It must come down to money. A boat which is forever in need of work or upgrades will drive the keenest sailor back home for relief in the tedious form of the life he had originally been escaping from...
...but a tidy boat, not oversized or over-complicated for her crew, which can sit unattended in a marina for a season or two without falling apart, while her crew return (or retreat) home, be it one's own or chez one's friends or family...
...hopefully one thus becomes an enviable figure whose visits recall tales of sunsets and southern-ocean storms and encounters with terrible spindly killer-fish...and who flies back to the sun while we in the UK slog on through the drizzle and roadworks.
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sailaboutvic
Well-Known Member
Quite right , be it plotting about in a small weekend boat , or sailing to distain shore .
GHA
Well-Known Member
The world has lots and lots of very pleasant lands of many colours, seems such a shame to restrict yourself to just the one wet, cold and expensive one..
solent clown
RIP
That's an interesting question. Karen and I plan to bum around the Uk coastline for a few years before going further afield, there is just so much to see and discover. It is also a part of our financial planning as there are many places we have earning potential in another field as we go.
D
Deleted member 36384
Guest
Why would it be “such a shame” to live in the UK all your days?
dom
Well-Known Member
Suspect you were at the Last Night of the Proms - you almost have me singing along
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
.......
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PhillM
Well-Known Member
Short version: JFDI
Longer version: We had a dream. Then my wife got Breast Cancer. Dead within 11 months of finding a lump (10 months and three weeks expecting to get better). She was 49 when she passed away.
What did I learn: Life is too short to wait. Follow your dreams. Now. While you can.
Me, well I'm completing the family job - get the youngest to Uni, thankfully only one year to go. Support the others, - 4 kids are grown up and 3 have left home.
Career change into something less stressful (I used to run my own businesses - now I teach in a Uni) and I have more time at weekends and of course nice long holidays. Time for the family for sure. But time for me too. This year I s/h to Falmouth and back. Next year I fancy going to La Rochelle. The year after, well who knows.
One thing I do know is that me and my little Cheverton Caravell (MK2) are going on a series of adventures. Life really is too short to wait. You never know what is round the corner.
Longer version: We had a dream. Then my wife got Breast Cancer. Dead within 11 months of finding a lump (10 months and three weeks expecting to get better). She was 49 when she passed away.
What did I learn: Life is too short to wait. Follow your dreams. Now. While you can.
Me, well I'm completing the family job - get the youngest to Uni, thankfully only one year to go. Support the others, - 4 kids are grown up and 3 have left home.
Career change into something less stressful (I used to run my own businesses - now I teach in a Uni) and I have more time at weekends and of course nice long holidays. Time for the family for sure. But time for me too. This year I s/h to Falmouth and back. Next year I fancy going to La Rochelle. The year after, well who knows.
One thing I do know is that me and my little Cheverton Caravell (MK2) are going on a series of adventures. Life really is too short to wait. You never know what is round the corner.
GHA
Well-Known Member
Cos I love to travel, see new places, meet new people, new cultures, taste new food, and IMHO lots of places are actually much nicer, if you don't look you'll never know. One hit at being alive it looks like, never passing over the horizon to experience something beyond your own back yard seems like such a wasted opportunity.
Each to their own.
D
Deleted member 36384
Guest
Suspect you were at the Last Night of the Proms - you almost have me singing along
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
.......
Not at all, most of that sentiment is just junk and the UK has its share of issues. However, my position is driven by the old adage that the grass is greener on the other side.
I have lived abroad for extended periods, travelled extensively, seen and done some great things. If one feels the need to travel because the clock is ticking, then maybe what they seek could be found at home.