The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of
09 April 2011 | Lake Macquarie New South Wales / Canberra
The past week has literally flown by, fuelled it seems by dreams and talk and more dreams and more talk. Into the small hours almost every night we have planned and talked and thought and wondered, moving closer and closer to the moment when we made what we now see as the decision of our lives!
A life changing decision.
Every time we left Selah we felt such a rush of sadness. Such a strong sense of loss. This boat, this yacht has somehow become the place we felt at peace, content, rested. Even with children with us it gave us great satisfaction to simply be on board.
The days spent sailing were magical – serene, calm – even when things went wrong.
Each time, as we drove home, under the spell she had woven about us, we spoke of the years ahead of us when we would finally be able to stop visiting her and stay – live aboard, travel, live a free life. We thought this would be some years away. When the children were grown. When we no longer had a mortgage to feed or a car to support. Each time, as we drove the many miles home we talked about how soon we would have enough leave to be able to undertake a long trip – more than a weekend at least – and the answer was too far away – we knew that realistically we wanted more than we could have. And we would sigh.
On out last trip though we started to ask ourselves more penetrating questions – like why do we need to feed the mortgage and support the car? We work so hard to keep all the infastructure of our lives and then run away from it all on the weekend to the place we really like to be. We began to sense that something was stirring within us that would need our attention. Urgently.
Thats when the talking began – in earnest.
So why can’t we sail now? Peter asked. And I had no answer.
I have long been committed to home education – so the children were not an issue – they can do school at home (or on board!) and without a mortgage over our heads or a car to pay off we realised we would be able to live on the equity we had and on the jobs we could pick up along the way.
The only real hitch is that our lovely Selah, who introduced us to sailing and the delight of living on the sea, is not big enough for five of us to live aboard – we never intended that she would have to do that! So we have made big decisions. We have work to finish on her, and we are confident that we will leave her in better shape than we found her in, but we have found a vastly bigger vessel, well equipped and very pleasing to the eye and have made an offer, had it accepted and we are, in truth, on our way to a life on the ocean waves!
We plan to sail around Australia first and then head further afield (or would that be a-wave maybe!!??) – eventually winding our way across the oceans to England and Scotland and the trip we have long planned there. We will pay due attention to piratical issues – and have learned a lot about storm management. Yes our reading will pay off then!
We have one more trip to Selah planned – and then we hope to find her a new home where someone else might finish what we began and see her truely restored.
And so the dream continues – it has grown wings and taken flight – we hold on tight – excited about where this amazing dream will take us and thrilled at the prospect of a live without alarm clocks or difficult bosses, where children can learn to sail and where we can all learn to take each day as a new day, in a new place and as an amazing delight