Sailors, particularly the nomadic, liveaboard variety, are sometimes considered to be a little deranged, deluded or even downright bonkers by some! How can you want to be away from the civilisation that provides and feeds the consumerism that we are told we must desire? We are so conditioned to the life created around us that sometimes it is difficult to see beyond that or break free to do something different.
So how does a boy from Derbyshire end up with an obsession for boats? A boy who spent his career living and working in Leicestershire, as far from the sea as you can get in England, end up with a passion for sailing that would guide every part of life’s great plan?
This is the ever changing and evolving story of my plan …..
School days and sail days
When I was young, and I mean young, as in just starting school kind of age, I had big issues with this education lark. I never wanted to be at school never mind be doing what the teachers were gamely trying to get me to do. Being the absolute opposite of an early riser didn’t help of course, but there must have been more to it.
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
Oscar Wilde
Years later when talking to my mum about those days she related a story that I had long since forgotten. After one particularly disruptive day at school I was asked what I didn’t like about school. “Because they don’t teach me about sailing!” came the reply from my 5 (or so) year old self. My obsession with sailing was set.
In those early years Lough Swilly yacht club on the north coast of Donegal, Republic of Ireland, was my playground, my spiritual home. It still has a hook in my heart to this day. I initially sailed a little with my dad on a large German design open dinghy and then on an International Dragon Keelboat. When I say sailed, in the early days I was little more than mobile ballast doing my best to keep from underfoot!
Over time I slowly began to become more crew than nuisance on boats. However the story of how I nearly lost my father overboard the first time I was entrusted to helm is one that haunts me to this day. This is also a very large part of why I keep away from competitive racing on boats.
Unfortunately circumstances forced us back to England all to soon. For some years I had to get my fill of sailing through books, magazines and boat shows. This just made my desire to be on the sea all the stronger.
There is nothing more exciting, enticing, disenchanting and enslaving than the life at sea.
Joseph Conrad
Work and life gets in the way
Over the years I sailed with my father on the East coast of the UK. Then on my own, with friends and partners, around various parts of the British Isles. Ultimately I had the opportunity to cross the Atlantic just after the turn of the millennium. The combination of island hopping for the first few weeks in the Caribbean, followed by the epic trip across the north Atlantic was a life changing experience.
Around this time I had began to become aware of a movement loosely known as Sea Gypsies. Living and travelling on small boats, exploring the world in their own time. The internet was just in its infancy, and so information was sparse, but the idea had me hooked from the very start.
However at the time I was already hooked into the circle of consumerism. With a house and a job with a good pension, life was everything that people expected. And then when a new relationship blossomed a short while after, with 2 wonderful kids, long term plans got delayed again. I have absolutely no regrets about those years, but when the circle of life moved on and I again found myself single, there was only one direction I was heading … South!
I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky …
From Sea Fever by John Masefield
I must go down to the sea again, for the call of the running tide …
I must go down to the sea again, to the vagrant gypsy life.
Now, with retirement looming, it is time to start getting things ready to live out my long held dream. To travel the world on my own boat, taking my home with me wherever I go. The life of a modern Sea Gypsy if you like. I plan to see the world as it really is. Not for me the sanitized and processed view of the world provided by the tourist and travel industry.
All about a sea gypsy
My old dad used to describe 2 types of sailor. There is the person who likes to sail, and the person who likes to arrive. I predominantly fit in to the second category, arriving in new bays, visiting new places and meeting new and interesting people. Of course to get there means you have to cast off the lines and leave behind friends both old and new, but after a week or two I start to get itchy feet to explore new horizons. I must go down to the sea again …..
The life of a Sea Gypsy may be nomadic in nature, and there may be periods of splendid isolation while sailing from port to port. But it is far from the insular, hermit type existence some people believe. There is a whole community out there; some sail locally, some cruise for extended holidays and some live the life full time. Everyone is happy to join in the conversation and everyone has something constructive to bring to the party. Sailors are a sociable bunch.
Sure, there can be long periods of isolation while crossing oceans, but these crossings can be as few or as frequent as you want them to be. For me, eventually I’ll cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean, but first there is Europe and the Mediterranean to explore, and after that there will be a few years worth of exploration in the Caribbean. Long passages and oceans are the exception to the rule. Plus there are always willing crew to be found if you look in the right places. You need never be alone on a passage if you don’t want to be.
Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did.
Mark Twain
Many of us dream of a home by the sea. I’m lucky because my home will be just that, with an added bonus of having an ever changing bit of sea to be beside.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a life of glamour, one long beach holiday.
There are still goals and targets involved in this life. They are however low key compared to the demands of working life that most of us are exposed to. Removing the stress and intensity of the “must do” philosophy allows for the freedom to do what you want or need in your own time. Choosing this cruising life over what others demand makes for a much happier and less stressful time.
There is also a constant list of boat projects and maintenance to keep up with. The sea is one of the most corrosive environments on the surface of the planet. And so maintenance of the boat and all of it’s systems is paramount to my safety and security. Maintenance and upgrade projects form a large part of a sea gypsy’s life. There is a saying, sailboat cruising is just fixing you boat in exotic locations.
Of course, quitting your job and heading off into the sunset is not realistic for everyone, at least not at a moments notice. Children and families provide commitments that can be hard to build into this nomadic lifestyle, just as they have for me in the past. But if the bug is really biting then perhaps it’s time to make things fit the plan.
Now with a boat to live on, and a pension to live off, there is nothing to stop me. Family and friends have had to accept the idea that I will be sailing over the horizon soon enough. Some have fallen by the wayside as they are unable to see a life different to their own, unwilling to accept independent thinking. Sorry, but their loss not mine.
Mobile holiday accommodation in exotic and far flung places could be on offer for those who want to experience a different way of life. Of course you might have to go off the beaten track to find me.