17 January 2011

Becalmed

Waiting to start my swimming lessons, waiting to go to Strictly Sail in Chicago, waiting for all this to get underway, we spend hours poring over pictures of cats online. We're pretty sure our first boat will need to be 36 feet or so, have two staterooms (no more), and two heads with separate showers. We want the galley up, non-slanted windows, no louvers.

Of course finding out things like who makes reliable engines, or fuel pumps, or water pumps or light bulbs or any of the other innumerable things that makes boats "go" isn't often listed, or if it is, I still don't know what to look for. So, more reading of more books on basic sailing, more discussing how we'll finance this wacky plan, more getting excited about ebaying all our possessions and sailing into the world. We talk about weaning ourselves off coffee (have even started on this), weaning the cats off kitty litter and onto sand, (not this yet), and how impressive we assuredly will not look pulling our boat away from the marina for the very first time (that should make for a delightful future post).

We really are moving into this life and moving out of our old ones as well--Jane, less so than me as my current schedule has enough commitments to make it impossible to look for or learn how to operate a boat for more than two years. We can't wait that long; our "real" lives fade behind us as this not-as-yet-real-life becomes clearer all the time.

I try to be patient and make do with what progress I can. At least I'm making headway on one of the items on my list...