I feel the need to surface for some air. The last 4+ months have been pretty hectic. Carl has been working in the Bahamas and Greenland/Iceland to try and keep our family afloat, literally. Moving to Maine has absolutely drained our bank account, who would have thought it would cost so much to return to a land life. I have been playing solo mum for over 4 months now. Dealing with broken down cars, dried up water well (twice) and mice, lots of f*#ken mice all the while battling homeschooling our kids.
Not sure what the future held, we were broke and thought we best make a go of the rat race again. We’ve been in Maine for about 6 months now and the place is absolutely lovely, everything I (maybe not Carl) would have ever wished for in a community but BUT why don’t we feel content?
I haven’t put the kids in school, I haven’t put myself out there to build friendships – actually I did I’m just socially dysfunctional. I haven’t even planted bulbs for next spring, I hear that’s what you do on in the Fall. How do you return to a “normal” life after living on a boat? The answer, you DON’T.
With a bit of good fortune on our side we sold a property that got passed down to us. It had helped us out over the years with a rental income and now it has sold. It was a sign! The mature thing to do would be to invest the money into real estate or a business and make the money work for us but life is short and a life without regrets is in my mind a fine one.
We’re going to buy a boat!
For the last couple of months we have been scouring the online world of yacht sales, hitting all the major websites:
Out of all the thousands of sailboats listed we have worked it down to 3, all aluminum and under 51 feet. Our offer got rejected on one already so we are down to 2 possible candidates, both aluminum and 48 feet. We have a pretty tight budget which is dictating what we can look at. Farewell Garcia, Alubat and Koopmans and hello no-names.
Carl will be flying to check out one of these boats this weekend and fingers crossed she is the one. We have made our offer and even though we don’t have a contract we have a verbal acceptance contingent upon inspection and sea trial, to be done this weekend. The scary thought is that while I sit at home with our 3 kids and God knows how many mice Carl is off making a life changing decision that effects us all. Ultimately we will purchase a sailboat that I haven’t laid eyes on. Carl cares about sea-worthiness, the price, engine stuff and how sexy the hull looks, it’s going to be a man cave with sails.
Hopefully my next post will be of a boat (with a sexy hull) officially under contract.
