The clocks ticking,

[sailaboutvic]

And on the other side of the coin probably the most common sentiment chatting with cruisers at happy hour is "We just wish we'd done it sooner.." The one's I meet anyway. The timing is never right on a a boat, people need to think carefully before watching the years go by wondering what if we'd gone cruising..

I don't disagree with you may do say that , but the reality is the reason they don't is because they couldn't afford to , and the fact is if they haven't got the money or for other reason like young family , work , no matter how much they wish they did it early , the timing just want right , and if did they probably would had found it wouldn't had worked .
My first house cost me £8000 I wish I had brought it when I was much younger , but I wasn't earning enough to afford the mortgage then so I had to wait till I could .

 

[GHA]

......., but the reality is......
, and the fact is .......
, and if did they probably ......

Not actually reality or fact though , like me you're guessing with human bias based on very little data..

You seem to guess on the pessimistic side, maybe I'm a bit too far on the optimistic side. Another guess is that I'll meet a more adventurous slightly hippy bunch preferring slightly more off the beaten track cruising areas. Or maybe not, no way to know for sure

But you're only alive once in an uncertain universe where the future is hidden, if someone feels like jumping out of the constrained lifestyle society deems acceptable then jumping on a boat and heading off as near a perfect way to do so as there is out there

(Before setting foot on a sailing boat seeing sell up and sail on a bookshelf in Foyles instantly rang a lot of bells for me - now *there's* a way out!!. Few years later it was. )

 

[BurnitBlue]

The word "Dream" comes up a lot in this sort of discussion, like "Live the Dream". To me there are Dreams and their side-bar Bucket Lists. There is a massive difference between the two. A "Dream" (to live by) is a passionate part of a person. It comes from deep within and is all encompassing and must be acted on. A simple bucket list is just that. I list of things that a person would like to do and there can be many items in a bucket list. It is not mandatory to achieve a single item in a bucket list. But a dream is a must and to ignore it can be a severe mental and moral setback that can produce misery. At least for me there is only room for one Dream. I have lots of items in my bucket list though.

There is another well known phrase from (I think) Lawrence of Arabia. Something like there are two types of dreamers. Dreamers of the night and Dreamers of the day. It is Dreamers of the day that must be feared or noted because they act out the Dream in the full light of the day. They live the Dream. (paraphrased as I can't fine the original quote)

 

[dslittle]

You seem to guess on the pessimistic side, maybe I'm a bit too far on the optimistic side. Another guess is that I'll meet a more adventurous slightly hippy bunch preferring slightly more off the beaten track cruising areas. Or maybe not, no way to know for sure

I’m not so sure that Vic is pessimistic so much as realistic. He speaks from experience rather than guesswork. I think that he accepts that different people have different needs/ambitions.
We are lucky that we have harmony, money and health to live our lifestyle. It might not have been so...
‘Just do if’ is a great ideal but sometimes it doesn’t live up to the dream. All Vic is saying (I think), or what I would say, is not to ‘just do it’ with no regard to your future if it doesn’t go to YOUR plan.

 

[sailaboutvic]

I’m not so sure that Vic is pessimistic so much as realistic. He speaks from experience rather than guesswork. I think that he accepts that different people have different needs/ambitions.
We are lucky that we have harmony, money and health to live our lifestyle. It might not have been so...
‘Just do if’ is a great ideal but sometimes it doesn’t live up to the dream. All Vic is saying (I think), or what I would say, is not to ‘just do it’ with no regard to your future if it doesn’t go to YOUR plan.

Dslittle
GHA and I will never agree on liveaboard sty of living , I know he been there and done it , but so have I and many others who we know well who are close friends .
At this moment we have friends who have sailed the world over may time and when I say sailed I mean cruised see place met people and lived , not sail over the pond and found a place a free place to park there boat and rummage through bins to get through day to day .
their boat at the moment is in Brazil and we have had some very long conversation on the Subject as I had with other of our friends .
And it just don't tally up with what I read here , all this stuff about people doing it on next to nothing , what I hear is now and then you find single men and the odd single women ( odd is about right) living in boats then never move not because the find some where they like , more that the can't afford to more the boat and also their boat is in such a state for lack of maintenance it couldn't be move if they wanted to .
Best describe of these people as down and out on boats ,
You could almost compare them with people living in boxes or door ways ,
Some would Now and then they would come around looking for any small paid work ,polishing topside or even offending to sell you some thing they found just to get a few bob for there .
Others looking for any thing they can give them to sell to supplement
next sitting at the bar .


Putting that all to one side , most couples/ single sane people no matter how adventurous they are will way up what will happen when the day come when they have to give it up because of ill heath or what ever and that's why they don't take the advise given here , from some people who wouldn't take there own advise and JUST do it , unless their circumstances aloud them to JUST do it .
I guess we have personally met about 10 of our YBW friends some who have cruiser some the world some Northern Europe and the Med what they all have in common is they all thought out their plain and
Not one have just gone off and done it , and by doing it that way they all have a good cruising life , able to do things that would like to do .

Nearly everyone we met that decided to call it a day and believe me when I say we know quite a lot , all had some thing to go back to or at less a plain or put funds away so they could go back and continue with some kind of life ,
the few that haven't are the type I describe above .

GHA say it all guess work on my part , if he wish to believe that that's fine with me .
It make no odds to me one way or the other .

 

[GHA]

I’m not so sure that Vic is pessimistic so much as realistic. He speaks from experience rather than guesswork.

I've met plenty over the years as well in various parts of the world from various parts of the world. Young and many more old. Still too small a sample to do any more than guess about people unmet and unknown...

Though from experience the majority of cruisers met, having been bold enough to set out in the first place are big enough to look after themselves and don't pay too much attention to some waffle on the web

 

[davidlhill]

There is another well known phrase from (I think) Lawrence of Arabia. Something like there are two types of dreamers. Dreamers of the night and Dreamers of the day. It is Dreamers of the day that must be feared or noted because they act out the Dream in the full light of the day. They live the Dream. (paraphrased as I can't fine the original quote)

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.

Lawrence of Arabia

 

[RupertW]

I completely buy the idea that you need to do it before life gets in the way but in my mid-fifties I could still be 10 years away from retiring as my pension is very tiddly. But part of the reason it's small is that in our late forties my wife and I decided to move from cruising boat owners in the UK to buying a bigger ex-charter boat in the Med and moving to a different working rythmn so we could enjoy city life and rewarding work as well as living some of the dream.

So my routine is aimed at finding contracts for 9 months of the year, with the odd week off sailing or fixing things, then 3 months on board as much as possible. My wife has a different tactic which is to build up a list of multiple clients where she can work remotely as much as possible so uses the boat as a floating office for an hour or two each day at least with wifi, Skype etc except for the longer passages where we could be out of signal for 2 or 3 days.

That way we get to be (at least temporary) liveaboards while losing very little of the rest of our life so if one of us got a bad health scare (I'm a Type 1 diabetic so all bets are off long term) and had to stop then we wouldn't regret never having done it.

Of course it's not always as neat as that - I had far too long a gap this year from April to September so not great for finances and savings but being off all Summer half in London and half in the Med had a lot of compensations too. London has a lot of free things to go to that need time and a mind that's not frantic,and the whole city is walkable if you have a few hours to spare.

 

[rotrax]

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.

Lawrence of Arabia

Sounds like he sussed ISIS out a hundred years ago.........................................

Bruce Brown, the American filmaker made two definitive films, On any Sunday, about motorcycling, still in my view the best motorcycling film ever made, and worth watching by non motorcyclists for its humor, drama and beauty, especially the slow motion bits to really suitable music.

The other was the Surfing film Endless Summer.

First Mate and I are trying to achive the above, at least five months cruising in the Northern Hemisphere and four months in the Southern.

Nearly there, but we both love the English Springtime and Autumn and cant bring ourselves to miss them.

We came to sailing too late to be world girdling cruising liveaboards-we spent 45 years bringing up a family and motorbike racing before we embraced sailing. In our 70's and with physical problems that are unlikely to improve long term, what we do is perfect for us.

We got our rocks off when younger on the racetracks of the world, others do it on the ocean.

Both allow the experience of other countries and cultures, one sees a lot of ocean and harbours, the other a lot of van interiors, motorways, cheap hotels and racetracks.

And sometimes hospitals......................................

 

[BurnitBlue]

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.

Lawrence of Arabia

Thanks for that. Powerful words. I read them many years ago and they resonated with my situation. I was in RAF, Bomber Command during the Cold War and the massive mix of philosophies. So many peace movements and opposite that, so many atrocities still being committed around the world. Would you rather be dead than red, sort of thing. Those words from Lawrence were so clear and precise, at least to me.

Sorry for the thread drift. The connection to this thread is only that the power of destruction available to the various Air-forces made one think that if you had a dream. Don't wait, nobody promised you tomorrow.