I love boats. I always have. I love looking at them. I like sailing them. I like being on them. Now, as I’m well “past the back nine” to use a golf metaphor and turning the corner to the club house, I need something to challenge me, to “get my juices flowing,” and get me excited about the next phase of my life — before I lose even more mobility, energy, balance, etc.
Fortunately, in the last few years, I have been joined with a new friend, fellow widowed and significant other in my life. Marilyn shares my love for boats, as well as my quest to do something exciting, new and different “while we still can.”
After watching boats of all types sail down the Rhine River this past summer in the Netherlands, we got the idea that a live-aboard could be a lot of fun. We both had already started liquidating properties that are too cumbersome, expensive, and somewhat boring to maintain. As the song goes: “the thrill is gone.” Previewing potential retirement homes and “over-50 communities” did not get us excited, but in fact depressed us.
The more we thought about a live-aboard boat, the more excited we became. It is something new, not totally foreign (I’ve had a bareboat certificate since ’89 and Marilyn’s former husband had a live-aboard trawler in the San Juan Islands of Washington), and it is going to take some thought, investigation, energy and “chutzpah” to make it happen. It will give us something to look forward to before we lose our mobility and have to settle for more mundane environments.
Let’s get going…
Very Exciting! Happy for you both!
ReplyDelete