Not ever perfect...

When my grandfather was a very young man he was a Teamster. He was a Teamster when that meant driving teams of horses as the primary way of getting heavy things moved. He followed the “horse power” as it became a description of the amount of force an engine could apply to the same task of moving heavy things. Though he spent some years driving those new “teams” his real talent lie in keeping the new engines running. That made him a member of the very first generation of people who could rightly be called “mechanics”. One of the things he taught me was, “Getting it perfect will always be in the way of getting it done.” Words of wisdom for anyone who pays the bills by pushing completed jobs out the shop door.

It is a bit of wisdom that applies equally well to airplanes, motorcycles, boats, houses, and books.

Among the projects we have worked on while being back on land for a while has been the final edit and revision of our book, How NOT to Buy a Cruising Boat. It was a different kind of project for us, not nearly as much pure physical effort as most of our projects, more fun in a way, and more frustrating as well. No matter how many times the written page gets reviewed, no matter how many talented people are doing the reviewing, at each new reading another imperfection will stand out, demanding to be fixed. The same word used too often, some awkward phrasing, and spelling and punctuation errors. Those, I was surprised to find out, are often open to debate among experts in English and writing. It turns out some of the "codes" are more like suggestions. But one still needs to work on getting it as correct as possible. But not perfect. Not ever perfect.

But we did get it done.

And so my bone-headed, often misguided, bumbling path from living in a house to living on a boat is out there for everyone to see, laugh at and, hopefully, learn from. There are surely other ways to do it wrong as even I can't make all of the mistakes myself. How NOT to Buy a Cruising Boat is my story of getting here in spite of myself. For any who are working at their own "Retirement Project" we offer it as a red flag set along roads we found rutted, potholed, and barely survivable; with hopes the reader will find an easier one that leads to the dream of cruising.

Along with being as honest as I can be about my own stumbling, there are some very harsh assessments of much of the boating industry. To my friends who are members of that industry who, in no way, deserve to be in the line of fire, all I can say is, "Sorry". Your dedication and help was fundamental to us making it "out here" but, in my experience, you are in the minority. Without you the cruising world would have collapsed into a playground exclusive to the very rich long, long ago.

Ed Note: The book is available on amazon.com. At the moment, only the printed paperback is available but the Kindle version will be released soon.