To Those Unsure if it is Time to Go

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READY2GO

Guru
Joined
Jan 3, 2012
Messages
521
Location
USA
Vessel Name
Walkabout
Vessel Make
1989 Sea Ray 380 Aft Cabin
Came across the quote below the other day and thought it was fitting. When we left a little over five years ago we were very unprepared financially, but we knew it was time to go. We have not regretted it for a minute. You will always have bills and troubles, you will never have the perfect boat. You might as well cruise and enjoy life in your less than perfect boat with your bills and troubles rather than stay where your are and only dream your life was different.


"To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea... cruising, it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about. "I've always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of security. And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone. What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by, the dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?"
- Sterling Hayden
 
Excellent, shared!
 
I had a 'semi-early retirement' period between the ages of 17 and 32. Got to tick off a few boxes when strong & healthy...figured those experiences and memories would be more valuable than a bigger house or cushier retirement.

Here's another good quote; Today only happens once.
 
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I'm still a good decade from casting off (the boat, not life, ha!), but still, I've already started thinking about it. I will miss the dirt house. We have a very nice house. I've spent long summers planting, tending, nurturing all kinds of trees and plants, the koi pond. I know which rain gutters fill up with leaves most quickly. I know how the squirrels wait until the crabapple berries turn to raisins before they start eating them. Someday we'll probably sell the house to some bonehead who will prefer lots of sunshine and they'll cut down all the fruit trees and the very rare giant mulberry tree and they'll never feed the deer or birds or squirrels or possums and they'll make the yard look like a vast barren mall parking lot. I love the ocean, but I will miss that house. But then I suppose even if we never cast off, none of us live forever and I'll have to leave that house anyway, either in a boat or a box.
 
The title of this thread sure does call out for one of RTF's videos! :)
 
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