sounds cool, but be aware of piracy as a strong probability when the SHTF. Piracy is always a problem, and it will get worse when things go to Hades in a hand basket.
But, sailing away would be a cool way to exit the danger zone on land. Just realize between Mother Nature, structural/mechanical issues, and the pirates out there ready to take what you have (including your life) it’s not just “smooth sailing.”
Bttt.
Speaking of timing...
Enjoy...
When my Dad passed, I wanted to keep his 36’ Islander. Alas, death taxes,,,,,,,,
Still dreaming of one of these...
http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1978/Irwin-52-2443158/Orange-Beach/AL/United-States#.UpN2ZF7gLaY
Damn it, Bracken! You will mess up the cheap sailboat market for me! I have a pull the pin date of early next fall intending to buy this coming spring. I would be gone by now but for a family health issue.
Shush! Dang it!
I like the idea. If only I could sail... And get my wife and kids to sail with me.
B.reak
O.ut
A.nother.
T.housand
The thought of being at sea, in a pretty small vessel, on the vast expanse of blue...Puts an ice cold feeling somewhere deep in me. The thought of being alone in the wilderness, the vast forests, the mountains, fills me with peace. I guess I'm just a landlubber. The ocean is just such an alien environment. Man is so out of his element, unless you are an expertly proficient mariner.
Ping.
Now he's in his 50's, has his PH.D and is a successful shrink. Recently out from under a bloody divorce, I think this is exactly the thing he's going to love. In fact, he's been thinking that what he really needs isn't so much this huge Morgan, but rather a smaller 30-35 foot sloop without the center cockpit and hydraulic steering. Rather than the Morgan wallowing down Biscayne Bay on a light breeze and needing a 25 knot gusty day to get "heeled" something that has cable steering and acts a bit livelier in lighter south Florida weather. Do you think he could find something good on a trade? The Morgan is I think a 1980 vintage. The boat before that was a 41 Out Isle and that was the boat we took to the Bahamas as kids, then he moved up a notch.
No way I can afford a boat.... yet.
Wow, this sounds like it came directly from Castigo Cay.
If the ocean stayed a calm as in the picture , a 30 footer might interest me. However I have seen 30 foot waves and I prefer to fly thank you.
Back in my mid 20s I worked with a guy, about 10-15 years older, who actually made me think of going tn this direction.
He’d regale the younger male staff in the office of how, as in O2 or O3 serving a Pentagon tour, he had a 30 or 35’ sailboat he owned and lived on at the Pentagon Marina.
He also, as a result, had his choice of the more attractive and nubile members of the Pentagon secretarial staff. And would, routinely, take a rotating cast of up to four or five of them (at a time) for rather “comforable” weekend excursions down the Potomac (”Once one found out I had a boat, all her close - and soon to be closer -friends found out as well. And THEY’D bring the food and beer too!”)
Alas, I was already in a serious committed relationship with the young woman who would become my wife of, now, 20 or do years. Which I in no
way regret or would trade for anything.
But occasionally i do wonder of the possibilities of hearing that particular story four or five years before I did ...
Isn't that the dufus in the white hut?
No wait I'm confusing it with Coruptus Cahoutes
/Emily Latilla "Never Mind"
Thanks for posting this. My thoughts have been sailing the same course for a number of years. My biggest hurdle is being landlocked in NM, but that hasn’t stopped me from dreaming and planning. I went down to the kid’s place in Florida, and bought a Thompson 260 in need complete repair, stripped it down to the hull, replacing the stringers, giving them multiple coats of epoxy, a silicon coating, and encasing them in fiberglass. The deck got the same treatment, multiple layers of epoxy, covered with silicon, and encased with fiberglass.
I believe this boat could sit for thirty years under water and not have any touch the stringers or deck. The outdrive has been completely torn down and rebuilt with new parts, and the upper replaced. All cables, hoses and wiring have been replaced, along with the gauges, motors, sump pumps, everything electrical. It has a new engine, built on a 350 four bolt main, finished in my shop with Vortec heads and stainless valves. Every cylinder has exactly the same compression.
We stripped it down to the gel coat, and gave it multiple coats of epoxy topped with multiple coats of polyurethane and clear coats. Everything from the anchor wench to the toilet has been stripped down and rebuilt, inside out. The fitting and materials are better than when it first rolled out of the Thompson factory.
I hope to sell it, or trade it for a good sailboat, something that can be moved to Boston where friends have offered me their dock, so long as I keep the boat down to a 40 footer.
Another great essay. Even in my late 40’s, I am tempted.