Keeping the faith…Along with the fact that it’s an amazing Billy Joel song, we’ve spent YEARS keeping the faith that we’ll actually get to the point where we leave shore. From our first Marguerite in 2016, a 24 foot Bristol sloop that stayed on the hard for a year and a half, to our newest boat, Nuala, a Hunter 27 we purchased in 2020, we have been wishing and waiting for our moment to escape. Now, (FINALLY), April 2025 is when we plan to cast off our lines and head for the wild blue yonder. But for the past decade, “keeping the faith” has been an important part of the journey from being landlocked and working full time to being on the open sea and cruising the world.
While my husband and I tend to be a nice balance of “feet on solid ground” and “head in the clouds” kind of people, I think one of the ways that we have managed to stay hopeful through ten years of planning is by fitting a little bit of the cruising world into our lives right now, in the moment, EVERY SINGLE DAY. We have found that finding little ways to feed our dreams while we’re still firmly stuck in reality is not only important in helping us to keep our minds focused on our goals, but it also helps us acclimate our family and friends to the idea of us going off to sea. We have also attempted to continue to feed our dreams for free (or pretty close to free), because the last thing we want to do is sink our own ship, (pun totally intended), by creating a financial situation that takes us farther away from the dream. With that in mind, here are a few of the things that we have found helpful to incorporate into our day, (especially on the weekends), to keep our eyes on the prize.
WE DO STAR GAZING: One of my favorite meteor showers of the year is the Perseid Meteor Shower. My husband, the older kids, and I stay up until the wee hours of the morning watching the night sky from our landlocked Tennessee, talking and wondering about how amazing it would be to see the sky from a place where there is considerably less light pollution. We talk and learn about constellations, like The Southern Cross, that are simply not visible in our part of the world and how sailing opens the opportunity for us to be able to see it in person. We talk about sailing in the days of old and how important the sky was for spirituality, inspiration, and even survival. Doing things like this together is important for any family, but particularly for ones that are considering spending a lot of time together in such close proximity! It’s also a good way to acclimate to “unplugged” life.
WE PINTEREST: I was absolutely shocked when I went from pinning Nautical Decor on my Pinterest page to finding and pinning things relevant to the cruising lifestyle! My page, “retirement afloat“, already has over 1300 pins and I find a few more every day. Finding the pins while I wait in line to pick the kids up from school, or wait in line at the grocery store, or wait anywhere, is quick and simple, then, I usually try to read one or two before I go to bed at night. Even better, despite my husband’s reservations, we set up a Pinterest account for him, and the girls already have them, so we can all share in the fun and learning! Not the best way to acclimate to the “unplugged” lifestyle, but, at least it’s free! We’ve also found that Pinterest pictures and articles have led us to TONS of digital resources like The Boat Galley, Seven Seas Cruising Association, and several magazines.
WE SPOTIFY: This is another free activity that I can enjoy from my smartphone, and the husband and kids participate on this one too. Spotify allows me to make my own music playlist for any event, emotion, or activity available. I have a playlist called “HereThereTravels”, (the same as the website chronicling this journey, www.heretheretravels.com) where I keep all of my sailing inspired music. I listen to it often just to put myself in a positive place, particularly on those days where it seems like we can’t get to the ocean fast enough. Music tends to be pretty inspirational for me as a rule, so having a playlist designed to keep me in a salt water state of mind is a pretty fantastic thing to have.
WE WINDOW SHOP: So, our window shopping today wasn’t completely free, because we decided to have lunch at Uncle Buck’s Restaurant inside Bass Pro Shop, just down the street from us. There’s also a West Marine near us in Knoxville with a really knowledgeable staff who are always available to point us in the right direction. (I just had a conversation the other day with a West Marine associate on what antifouling paint we should use). This allows us to go and look at the things that we NEED for our boat as well as the things we WANT that would make boat life so much more comfortable…at least in theory.
“I” DECORATE: I also just love the ocean, so, I find lots of things that remind me of being near the water. Everything I know about decorating (which isn’t a lot and basically comes from whatever I see on Instagram) states that your bedroom should be a bit of a sanctuary. With that in mind, mine has star fish and sea shells, pictures and poems all over that remind me of the sea. I even used a lot of my household items to do Ethan’s 1st Birthday decorations in 2015 (a nautical theme of course!).
WE CONNECT: Social media is a beautiful thing! We have “met” so many people from the cruising community through our Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook connections. Additionally we watch lots of YouTube and even had a chance to meet some of our sailing YouTube heroes last October at the Annapolis Boat Show. These people not only continue to inspire us, but help to give us direction and a better understanding of what we’re facing. Through these connections, I’ve learned tons more about sailing and the sailing lifestyle, as well as about blogging, minimalism, parenting, and travel. Above all, just hearing the stories and seeing the pictures renews my motivation to keep striving for getting our little boat out on the open water and giving our family an unforgettable opportunity to experience the world from our own floating home.
WE PRACTICE GRATITUDE: Even though we wake up most mornings with wishes that we were somewhere on a beach, we remind ourselves daily of the blessings that we have. My husband and I both have our own business. We have a great home. We have 6 kids, 3 cats, and 2 dogs that also help to keep us pretty busy. Life is absolutely, 100% NOT EASY…but it is very, very blessed. Sometimes, it’s right in front of us, and some days, we have to search, but there is no denying that our lives are filled with lots of joy and there are some incredible advantages to being us. Blessings surround us! Additionally, we know that all of the little things that we face every day, good or bad, are continuing to teach and prepare us for enjoying the life to come. If we got bogged down in the details, minutia, and difficulty of everyday life, it would be easy to lose sight of our goals and dreams; we’d just give up a resign ourselves to the notion that “it is what it is”. It’s important to be grateful for the life that we live now, in order to really stay focused on the goals we have…not to mention, it really is a good life.
Finding time to fit these activities into our schedule not only allows stay focused on where we’re headed, but also helps us enjoy where we are in the present moment. It’s given us the opportunity to do things together as a family while we feed our passion. We have managed to not just endure, but ENJOY the time we’ve spent waiting for our chance at sailing off into the sunset to come around. It’s been a long ten years, but here we finally are. Along the way, sometimes, I just needed to see some Ernest Hemingway pictures, listen to some Otis Redding or Jack Johnson, and remind myself to enjoy our life in the moment as we prepared for our fun filled future to become the reality.
Peace and Blessings,
Mindi
Comments