Ouch. Yeah. I don't want to be that guy.
I'm 50 and still have one kid to get off to college in two years, but after that I plan to do some cruising and live on the boat for a month or so at a time.
The wife really wants to get a bigger "retirement boat", but I would like to give my smallish, simple boat a go if possible because I have it pretty well sorted out and it's easy to handle.
That's a pretty damn neat boat you have there!!!!!
Here in Galveston Bay, there is an island called Redfish Island. It lays along the Houston Ship Channel and was created by the spoil from dredging the channel. The Channel itself acts as a (mental) barrier to most and the vast majority of the boating around here is bordered by Redfish Island and the HSC....so much so that I refer to the HSC as "the edge of the world"...because nobody really goes beyond it...they go right up to it and turn around/tack and go back the other way. Well I friend and songwriter wrote a song about this and I will post two verses below as well as the chorus in between. It definitely brings home the point about timing and our mortality....
She's a good boat and she's sturdy
And I know she'd pass the test
I've fitted her out perfectly
I know she's the best
And patiently she waits for me
She's ready I can tell
But her body's never felt the ocean swell
It's a long way from Redfish to the Islands
It could take a week or more
And there could be a storm
No I don't wanna die on Redfish Island
So just push me to the Gulf and set me free
'Cause that's the only way I'll live my dream
It was Saturday they told me
About Jimmy down the dock
How a heart attack had stopped him dead
I thought about our talk
He swore that in a year he planned
To lay his lawbooks down
Now his boat's for sale and Jimmy's in the ground
Trawler on,
John