Live Aboard and Sailing?
Hmmm…
Something seems to be happening here. The longer we live aboard the less sailing we seem to be doing. Others had told me that when you live aboard that your sailing habits would change but I did not believe them. And here we are – the second week of June and I have not actually sailed this boat yet this year. I have motored around a couple of times – once to bring the boat over from our winter marina and a couple of times to do pump-outs but sailing just for the pleasure of sailing we have not done.
Why?
Well, I’m not exactly sure but I think it has something to do with the boat also being our home. When you live aboard you tend to operate just like when you live in a house. Dishes from dinner get stacked in the sink for washing later. Books are left out on the settee (couch) and the kettle sits on the stove. Now, in order to go sailing all this stuff must be cleaned up and tied down or it will be everywhere. The only real solution that I can think of is to designate a specific spot for everything and when you are done using it – put it back. That way when the sailing bug hits, all you do is a quick check down below and off you go. But what fun is that? I don’t want to live in such a regimented manner. I want to go with the flow – you know – I’ll do it later. Living aboard … who would have thought it would generate such a tough dilemma?
So here we are – going with the flow, doing stuff later – but not sailing. There’s got to be a happy medium somewhere. Any suggestions?
5 Comments
Norm & Cheryl
Same deal with us, not as much time sailing.
When we weren’t living aboard, we pressured ourselves into squeezing every possible sailing second we could into the season. But now we know that we’ll be on the boat tonight, and tomorrow morning, tomorrow night, the day after, etc. The urgency to go sailing at every opportunity just isn’t there anymore: we’ll go sailing when we feel like it; the opportunity is built-in to our lives now.
My suggestion is, relax and enjoy. You’ll find the time to put things away and go sailing, when YOU feel like it.
(Sounds good but in reality, we’re just too lazy!)
Tillerman
Buy a couple of Lasers.
Strathy
Haha – ya right – that would be a tough sell to the 1st mate.
candy cane
The other option (which I employ more than I care to admit, being the sort of maniac who races his home) Is just to acknowledge that you’ll end up spending an hour or two (depending on the conditions) after your sail cleaning up all the residential debris.. that and hastily throwing things into bags while you run the blower and wait for the weather to come on the radio.
Albert
I will go with the flow for six Months and get the sails up for another six Months then six Months to write about it and then six Months Island hoping then six Months writing again and star all over again just siting on a sailboat and wasting all that good wind is a waist!!