WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU THINKING?
The title of this post summarizes the usual look I get from the majority of the people that I share our plan with. Retire from my very stable and exciting job, pack up the family, the dog, some clothes, and head east to buy a catamaran and set sail.
"So, you've sailed a lot?" That's usually the follow-up to the blank stare. I watch their faces contort in horror when I let them know that my sailings days add up to exactly zero. Our conversation will usually continue for a few minutes as I try to convince them I'm not an idiot, and I'm not taking my family out to sea to die. By the time we're through, they're at least pretending like they don't think I'm an idiot, and there's a possibility we are not going out to sea to die.
So how did all of this come about? Well, Lisa suggested it one day a few years back. "We should buy a boat and cruise the Caribbean." I'm sure the look I gave her convincingly depicted what was running through my head: "What on earth are you thinking?" I brushed it off as another one of her crazy ideas. However, the seed was planted.
We did a couple of family Carnival cruises with the kids in the next couple of years, and the thought was always lingering that, even though sailing with little kids seemed nuts, it sure would be a lot of fun. The next thought was always how our financial situation would not allow this to ever happen, as I would be working until I was 100 to pay off debt.
The next step in Lisa's devisive plan was to live full time on a houseboat. This way, we could sell the house, release that mortgage payment, and get used to living on the water. I wanted nothing to do with this. Are you kidding me? Go live on the lake? In the desert? What on earth are you thinking? A few months later, she caught me looking at houseboats on Craigslist. My fate was sealed.
So, long story short, we bought a houseboat that needed some serious TLC, moved on board full time, and never looked back. That was nearly 3 years ago at the writing of this post. In that time, we've managed to relieve that monstrous debt that was hanging over my head, and have put a plan in place that should launch us, in the next few months, to the east coast to start our search for the perfect sailing catamaran fixer-upper to call home.
Along with everything else going on, we plan to document this journey the best we can. Our hopes are that you may have a small flame in your soul that desires to do something outside of the ordinary with your life, and that we may inspire you to fuel that flame. If we can do it, so can you!
