Sheep

When I look around at all the other cruisers, they are all old guys and that annoys me. On one hand it is comforting knowing that there are other kooks out there like me, and that if I get stuck on a problem, there is a wealth of knowledge out there that others are more than willing to share. But what rubs me up the wrong way is that I hate being put in a box. I hate following in others footsteps like a sheep. I would prefer to forge the way to new heights. Also it is all wrong to go cruising when you are knocking on death’s doorstep. Not that I am ready to go down to the river like an elephant just yet.  It should be done when you are young and can climb a mast in a gale without fear.

 

Don't fit the mold

So It has been said that I am not the cruising type. I’m not a big one for parties, and I am not a drinker which most cruisers are. It seems that beer is the primary goal for most cruisers and it is hard not getting sucked into alcoholism from peer pressure. After 2 drinks I always get a headache in the morning and feel like rubbish. I can mitigate it by having a glass of water between drinks and that does help a lot but it is really the staying up late after midnight that gets my goat in a big way. The other thing is that I don’t relish the thought of getting dressed up in a white suit on a hot, humid day and sanding down the outside of a very dirty hull. That or crawling around in tight spaces beside a hot engine trying to undo a nut from a rusted bolt using my third hand. But there are other things that drive me to do this. Like the sheer beauty of the glassy ocean, first thing in the morning. The sound of bubbles rising up from the deep to stir the imagination. The dark stormy sea or the white out from a sudden squall. I want to at least try it out and if I don’t like it then I will move on.

chattahoochee

I got up at the crack of dawn with my 14' portabote and went down to the river where I met Mark and Lois for a row. Glorious morning, with lots of cloud around and not too much wind. Took a few pictures and they are on my flickr account. That is only the 4th time I have used my boat. I need to sell it but I want to use it a few more times this autumn. I need to get rid of it because I will not have enough room at our new house.

hypochondriac

I took a couple of ibuprofen yesterday and that helped. By the end of the day I was walking normally without a cane. It still looks real bad, swollen and with ugly looking bruising and my challenge now is to get through 5 hours of mowing lawns and to somehow convince my step son to come and help me. I am a bit of a hypochondriac generally but everyone has been saying that I should go to the emergency room or at least see a doctor. I don't want to of course because in this case I think that it will repair itself in its own good time.

Twisted ankle

I am sitting on the couch feeling like an idiot for walking backwards today and twisting my ankle. It hurts but what hurts more is knowing that I will be limping around for the next 2 weeks not being able to walk properly.

Starting off with a hiss and a roar

I always do this with something new. Go like mad for the first bit, cruise along for a while and then slow down or stop when I get bored with it. And perhaps it will be like this for my blog. If so, so be it. But for right now I am enjoying this. OK I am not a writer and I will not win any Pulitzer prize but hey, who cares. Just don't read it if you feel this way. I am managing a project at the moment that I call the Alf project. Before he died, my dad wrote down his memories in a book of questions for my kids so that they would be able to look back in the future and see what sort of person their grandfather was. Well Dad also wrote down his observations in a travel log after he retired. I have a few of them. Trouble is they are so hard to read. Indecipherable. (That's a big word for this time of the morning.) I would quite like to read them but it is too much work. Anyway, that's where this blog comes in to play. At least it is easily readable.

boats

Ok so I am at least looking. That I can do. I really don't want to take the plunge yet though. Case in point. Last May I found the perfect boat. Just back from an extended, blue water cruise after a refit. Price was right, in low tax state Alabama, in a hurricane hole. Of course, Hurricane Issac made a direct hit on it last month so I saved myself a bunch of worry. I looked closely at some videos and realized that it is not the wind that does the damage, but the effect of the tidal surge along with the wind. After all Cook Strait, back home in NZ regularly gets 100km/hr winds along with a 10m swell. Actually I came across another pretty good one last night. A Contessa 32 that is pretty well set up for cruising. Nowhere as good as the Southern Cross though. That boat was perfect. Had everything you could possibly want and then some. There are 4 for sale on Sailboat listings and 3 on yachtworld so no worries about picking one out at the last minute. Besides I don't want to lose the momentum (which I may if I start too early.) If it is still for sale at the end of October, I might wander down to Fort Pierce in Florida and take a look. There is also a Pacific Seacraft Mariah down there that I could also look at. I looked at one at Lake Guntersville west of here a few months back but found it was cavernous inside. Too much room for me. I like the idea of a smaller boat. More manageable and less maintenance.

game plan

So what do you do? Do you enjoy life as you go along or do you save up until you have enough money and then go? What happens though if you get sick? Oh sure, the statistics don't tell you all. Statistically there is about a 4% casualty hit every year. But after age 70 your mobility gets severely impaired. So anyway my take on it is to take the risk and hope like mad that I make it without too many health problems. No guarantee though and if anything happens, well I gave it my best shot.....and I will live with it. Golden years? Myth or reality?

Train ride

One of the joys of life is in commuting. I love having time to myself to do whatever I want be it sleep, read, watch a movie. Just the opposite is having to drive. Nothing seems to be worse. I am almost tempted to try out Greyhound once more to see if I could enjoy a long trip. I guess it would depend on who sat next to you and how close to the back of the bus you are. Actually I have heard good things about megabus and their prices are really good. Perhaps I will give them a go at the first opportunity.

this blog is just for me

Initially I wanted to set this blog up so that I could update family and friends with my latest crazy antics. But it is quite nice to be able to write all this stuff down that is going at 100 miles an hour through my brain. So anyway I will use it as a log so that if need be I can refer back to it at some stage in the future and console myself about whatever calamity has befallen me. So I need to start writing down a few concrete things that I do each day. Not a lot but about 100 words a day should put in a nutshell what I have done

Don't jinx me

I really don't want to put down into words what I plan to do, not because I am afraid of jinxing myself but because I am afraid that they will not come to fruition. I really don't want to aim at a grandiose goal, because it seems unattainable. I can put one foot in front of the other no sweat however so that is what I plan on doing. Having a rough idea of where I am headed on this journey and then concentrate on the task at hand. Like right now catching a bus after this train ride and making a phone call and eating dinner.

Life's biggies are not that hot

OK so think about the milestones in your life. The big ones I mean. Being born, graduating, your first car, getting married, buying a home, having kids, retiring, moving into a rest home and then passing....whoops.....what did you just say? Kicking the bucket you say. Now that must be the grandaddy of all biggies. If anything counts that must be it right? Naaaaaaaaa....I don't think so. Like you think about these biggies your whole life and then when they come along they are not all that big. So why should dying be all that different. It isn't that big a deal. What is a big deal is all that living stuff that you do. Watching a funny movie. Going somewhere to visit. Eating a ripe banana. (Ha ha) Achieving a goal. They are the biggies!

Pet Peeve

Ok I have to get this off my chest. According to Mark Twain, "Twenty
years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover."
So I say bollocks! What a load of stuff and nonsense! Maybe others think
differently, but I wouldn't do my life over any differently if I had the
chance. OK perhaps a few things. Little things. Not major decisions.
Anyway hind sight is 20/20 so the comment is academic. Do I think twice
about future decisions based on experience? Sure. But to become more
adventuresome because of possible dissapointment? Doubt it. In fact I am
more careful these days because it takes a lot longer to get over
physical injuries. Psychologically there is so much going on in life
that every day is an adventure. In fact, it is the very routine that
helps us strive to perfection. You can concentrate on the things that
count and drill down to focus on improving details.

OK this is my first attempt

I am attempting to do this post by email. If this works I will be able
to update my blog from now on on the fly. Cheers! Peter

Decided today to start a blog. Setup is tenuous. Not sure whether this will work out or not so I might change. It sounds like the best of all options so far. Looked at Wordpress and others, but basically what I want to be able to do is update this blog by sending an email. Nice and simple. KISS!!!!