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Saturday, January 28, 2012
It's not about the boat. Really.
I've been following the blog of one of our followers who is a few years behind us in the 5-year plan. She's in that early stage of Boat Porn and the constant wondering and fretting over the boat that will be required for them to fulfill their dream. I remember those days, because they were us until just very recently - last April to be exact. But this weekend we took our annual train ride to Chicago for Strictly Sail and, it being the first boat show we attended where we weren't looking for "The Boat", I confess (in light of all the difficulties we've had with Kintala) to being just a tad worried that I might find myself regretting our choice of the Tartan once we got there and were confronted with all the nice, new, shiny boats. I was genuinely nervous about it and thought about it all the way to Chicago.
As Tim mentioned in his previous post, we had an opportunity to go hear John Kretschmer talk about his Atlantic crossings. He prefaced his talk by saying that in the early years of your venture into cruising you're all about The Boat. You want it to be perfect. You fret. You search. You buy. You pimp. Then he made a rather profound statement that was one of those epiphany moments that I seem to be having pretty frequently these days. "It's not about the boat. It's about the life. It's about the people." I'm pretty sure if the Strictly Sail people heard that statement they probably wouldn't ask him back. They desperately want you to believe that it's ALL about the boat so they can sell you all kinds of new shiny things. But John's right. It's about the life. It's about the people. No need for me to have worried at all, because now I can see that Kintala is just exactly the right boat.
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2 comments:
There's really no perfect boat, is there? I try to remember that it's about the life, not the boat. Then I imagine trying to live aboard Moonrise, especially with our son aboard as well, and I go back to needing another boat. My boat lust waxes and wanes. I feel the passage of time, both too fast and too slow at the same time. Then I throw up my hands and toss the future into the hands of the universe, and trust that the right thing will emerge. That's on a good day. Let's not even talk about the bad days. I know you must have had them, and still do with all the work you are doing on your Tartan. So glad you were able to enjoy the boat show!
You're absolutely right in saying that you need a boat that fits. That's why we bought Kintala. There's no way we could have gone cruising in the Compac 27. I know some people do, but we are not those folks. I guess the point is that if you decide you need a 40 ft boat, then there's no PERFECT 40 ft. boat, just choose the one that has the most features you like and go.
Bad days? No kidding. We've been really down in the dumps for weeks over the V-drive issue, but getting the hatches installed and the nav seat done really helped a bunch. Keep your chin up and stay the course. It will happen.
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