Launch and Thoughts of Living Aboard.

Launching is a curious thing. On one hand you have the anticipation of another great sailing season. After all, once the boat is in the water – summer is practically here, right? On the other hand, you have the worry that something might go wrong. Maybe the engine won’t start. Or maybe those new thru hulls you installed are going to leak. Oh man, did I remember to close that one in the head?!? You know, that sort of thing.

Summer ’05 launch went well. They dropped the boat into the water and after I quickly jumped aboard to check for leaks I was sent down the dock to install the mast. The crane made short work of it, and in about half an hour I was in my home slip – freezing my butt off, but oh so happy. Summer’s here – yaaaah! After celebrating the arrival of summer I jumped into my truck to try to warm up. I guess summer is a little cold this time of year.

At this point, we had not seriously discussed moving aboard. My wife had taken her maternity leave and did not expect to go back to work. I had started my own appliance repair business less than a year earlier and while I was doing well, I did not feel like putting in the long extra hours needed to makeup the money that we would surely need when the maternity ran out. Plus I found spending time with my son and wife rewarding in that I did not miss anything and my wife never really felt alone in raising him. (Mind you, I have no illusions – she did all the hard work.) We had a little brick house in Toronto proper that we had bought some 13 years previously. We did not have the mortgage paid off, but had taken a good piece out of it. Plus the house had grown in value somewhat. What to do? Do we move away – to some area of the country where living was cheaper? Would A. have to go back to work and little L. go to daycare? (In my mind, this was never an option.) Should we sell the house and just find a cheap apartment somewhere? None of these sounded good to us.

Then there was “the plan” (see the post titled Where to Start … Some History.) Were we still going to sail around the world? We had the boat… Well, if one were going to sail for a great distance and for a great period of time, it would be good thing to do a bit of a trial run, right? Slowly, the idea began to filter into our minds that we could solve our living arrangement problems and continue the sail around the world dream all in one move. And that is how we got to the point of thinking that this might be the perfect time to try out living on a sailboat.

To be perfectly honest with you, I was shocked that A. was willing to give it a whirl. With all she was going through – giving birth and being on call 24/7 to feed the boy, I never dreamt that she would seriously consider it. But consider she did and shock me she did. I guess I should not have been too surprised. In our time together, A. had always had an adventurous side. She more than I sometimes. I tend to become a bit of a homebody although once I get going I always end up asking myself, “what took so long”?

So that ended up being the plan. Sell the house, pay off all our debts and move aboard the sailboat. A mighty plan it was!

Up next: Break it to me gently – telling our parents.