Are You Looking For an Adventure?
August 24, 2013Sitting behind my office desk on many fading afternoons, I’ve often daydreamed about a grand adventure, traveling to places far away to explore areas hidden from most other people’s view. But two weeks’ vacation never seemed like enough time to do anything other than rush around and get a superficial overview of where I was going. Maybe you’ve spent similar afternoons feeling the same way.
Then, four years ago, my wife and I discovered a website (www.captainjohn.org) that is about to change our lives. The site was run by a man named “Captain John” and described to us a different way to live – by cruising America’s shorelines and rivers for months at a time on your own sailboat. I learned that a sailboat wasn’t just a way to get you from point A to point B, but equipped with a kitchen, bathroom, bed, and storage, it allowed you to travel America and even the world from the comfort of your own floating home.
I’ve always loved rivers, lakes, and oceans, but I never gave much thought to boats when I was growing up, and I thought sailing was a mysterious knowledge reserved for a chosen few. Captain John’s website made me realize that regular people with no previous sailing experience were capable of doing this. Even more intriguing was how affordable an adventure like this could be. When living on a sailboat, you have no housing payment, no car payment, and no taxes or maintenance associated with either. And since boats are so much smaller than houses, you’re less likely to spend money buying things you don’t need simply because there’s less space for you to store it.
This October, my wife and I plan to leave our jobs and set out on the sailing adventure we’ve been dreaming about for quite some time. I have to admit that I feel an anxiety about leaving my life here and my friends and family behind, without knowing what to expect from making such a big change. After all, there’s something that’s comforting and secure about the familiar places and routines that we know, and although I’ve been diligent enough to make sure that my savings will last me a really long time, I still feel some uncertainty about paying bills from now on without a regular paycheck.
So why do it then? There are two main reasons, and for us, they’re compelling enough to think that the payoff for taking this risk will be deeply rewarding. First, we’re persuaded by the unrestrained freedom in knowing we’ll be able to go anywhere, do anything, connect with people, and explore hidden places that most people will never get to see, all at our own pace. It’s an adventure that offers the excitement of each day being different from the last.
Second, we’re really interested in the idea of being self-reliant. When you’re living on a boat, you can’t just pay someone to solve a problem for you, especially if you’re faced with an immediate issue involving weather or sea; you have to use the skills you have to deal with things yourself. It’s not just a long vacation for us but an opportunity to see what it’s like to live an unconventional life.
If cruising by sailboat appeals to you, even if only as something you might do on a short vacation, there are courses out there that will teach you to sail for just a few hundred dollars. I’d recommend learning on small boats (14 feet or less) because they’ll teach you a lot about how boats respond to wind and water conditions unlike larger boats where it’s harder to feel the effect that weather has on a boat. Once you’ve got that experience under your belt, try Craigslist, your local marina, or a local sailing club to find people who own their own boats and are looking for crew to help them on day sails. Practice as much as you can. I’d also suggest joining the U.S. Power Squadrons, a great organization that runs lots of courses on marine education.
And for inspiration or some daydreaming, these are some of my favorite websites by people who are out there doing it right now: www.sailingsimplicity.com, www.hobosailor.com, and www.zerotocruising.com. I’d also recommend a great book called Voyaging on a Small Income by Annie Hill. These websites and that book will both showcase the cruising life and show you how it can be done frugally.
This isn’t a choice or lifestyle that would appeal to everyone, and even if you’re intrigued by it, I know it’s not possible for many of us who have obligations in the here and now to make it happen immediately. But even if what I’m doing isn’t the choice you’d make, I think it’s important for everyone to know that the choice is there. I wrote this blog post because I feel fortunate to have learned that there were options available to me alternative to the conventional advice to work for forty years and save ten percent of your income for retirement – like extreme saving or traveling America by sailboat – and it’s important to me that everyone knows that these and other alternatives are out there for them too if they’re interested. Sometimes learning about a previously unknown idea can be powerful enough to change your life, even if the change doesn’t happen overnight. If something I’ve written about or you’ve read elsewhere has resonated with you, don’t be afraid to take concrete steps toward making it happen just because it seems difficult or different.