SeaMaker-30


It's been almost 9 months now since I asked Lori if I could take some of our cruising kitty cash (ok, most of it) and use it to start up a watermaker company. It's taken 6 months longer and $6,000 more than I had planned and budgeted, but here in San Diego this weekend, I finally have something to show for all the time I took away from cruising. The first three SeaMakers are scheduled to ship out to real paying customers Monday morning and we used the opportunity to take some promotional photos for the website and sales broachers that we will bring to our product launch at the Annapolis Boat Show this October.

The process of starting up a business while out cruising has had its complications and through the process, I pretty much confirmed my belief that cruising and work simply don't mix. I've written about it before early in our cruise, but since I rarely take the advice of others, why would I listen to my own sage words? Without the help of my long time business partner in San Diego, I (or should I say we) would have never been able to pull this all together. The completed SeaMaker watermaker has 53 different parts coming from 16 different wholesale vendors and countless hours were spent on the web, email, Skype and phone to find the best matching parts. Still more hours (and dollars) were poured into demo testing and revamping the design into what looks pretty simple form the above SeaMaker-30 photo and SeaMaker-20 photo below. I've put so much time into this project, that for the last few months, many days have felt more like a "typical work day" with to-do-lists, deadlines and projects needing completion than a day out cruising. Don't get me wrong, I would take a hard days work from a boat in Mexico over an easy day in a normal office any day, but it's sure a lot harder to get any sympathy while working hard while anchored out at an island in Mexico!

It may be obvious from our blog that I have the type of personality that's always needing to be busy and always feeling the need to do things in what some could and have called a "over the top" manner. The trick for me will be to learn and apply the word "Balance". I'm not honestly sure I can pull it off, but they say knowing you have a problem is half the battle, the only problem for me is that despite what I've been told by others, I'm still not sure that I have a problem! Could it be that everyone else is crazy and I'm the only sane one in needing to be busy all the time, even while out cruising? Maybe, maybe not, but if being crazy is doing what you enjoy and makes you happy, then lock me up and throw away the key, because I'm certifiable.

SeaMaker-20