More Vertical

I am about finished doing the flight planning for a trip going out tomorrow. At first we were going to Ft. Lauderdale over night, home on Wednesday. Late last week the trip got changed to an overnight in Detroit. This morning the trip got changed again, back to Ft. Lauderdale for the day with a late evening run to Biloxi for the night. Home Wednesday from Biloxi rather than FXE. Constantly changing schedules is one of the reasons business people find their own plane useful and cost effective. (You can't get from St. Louis to Ft. Lauderdale to Biloxi via the airlines in one day, let alone change the trip a few times in a few days. Well, you can, but you wouldn't want to pay for it!)

On a related subject I have been reading the blog of a guy named Robert Watson. He lives aboard a Leopard 40, the exact boat currently at the top of Deb's and my "wish list." (He named his "Changing Spots".) In addition to his boat his playground is the same we hope for; the East Coast and the Islands. In fact he has spent time in Cape Cod, Annapolis, Charleston, St. Augustine, and a whole list of other places I hope to sail to some day. His schedule changes pretty often as well; sometimes due to weather but more often (it seems) because he is really enjoying some place where he has thrown out an anchor and then finds it hard to leave. He seems a man completely content with his life.**

And I have to admit to a certain small bit of envy, of which I am also a bit embarrassed. After all I am already one of the luckiest people on the planet, doing pretty much what I love to do and making a good living doing it. But with a couple of weekends spent working on Nomad, the promise of warm weather to come (though it was snowing this morning) and our chance to learn about sailing catamarans coming up in about 6 weeks, I find myself thinking less about being in the sky and more about being on the water. Can a person who is already content be "more content?" Or is that like being "more vertical?"

**Ed Note: Robert is currently in Malaysia and is a frequent contributor to Noonsite