When Harry turned 60 in October, 2019 I passed this essay onto some family and friends. Now he is retiring and we are even closer to “Living the Dream” and heading south, to Mexico. I post it here for more eyes to read and more hearts to resonate with. This is – “How we got here!” from the Captain’s perspective. We didn’t make it South in 2019, but there are very good odds that the year for this milestone is 2020.

Anyone who has ever read the words of wisdom from the sailing pundits that say bringing an old boat back to life is not worth the time or the money has probably nodded wisely and agreed. Far better to pay someone to search the world for that gem of a boat that almost has it all and just needs a quick touch up of new sails, rigging, and an electronics update. Hmmm…

The executive summary is pretty simple, Leticia and I have worked for over 40 years while moving around the planet a little and enjoying the pleasures of bringing three daughters into the world. Of course there are some underlying details that likely some will find they understand only too well while others might find hard to imagine.

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I have been pretty lucky to never have a truly crap job. Even when I was a teenager pulling stramonium weeds (as tall as me) from the never ending acres of sorghum crops I had time to dream. I have always dreamed of the next great adventure. For some, simple enjoyment comes from staying still and letting the world wash around them. For others, myself included, I am always wondering if there is something interesting to learn or do just over that next hill. You think I would have learnt from my 20 or so years of trail running that over the next hill is usually just another hill though maybe it is a little taller than the last.

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The Royal Australian Air Force taught me many things. Responsibility to our commitments, ownership for our actions, always question the pedigree of facts, self-reliance, no matter how much you spend someone always has a faster/nicer/hotter car, the amount of beer you think is needed for a given event increases exponentially as you approach the time for a last beer run…amongst other things of course. It was in these formative years that two very significant things happened. I started getting serious about a young woman and at some point we married. The other was that I spent a lot of time messing about in boats. Thirdly, (yeah well nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition’s chief weapon either) Leticia gave me a copy of Chapman, Piloting and Seamanship with an inscription in the front with words for a man to live by, “May all your dreams come true”.

So that was how it started and now fast forward through a few little boats, work in various places, tears and happiness, children (more tears and happiness), a home in Tucson, and finally me getting cancer in 2007. To be sure it could have been a lot worse. I got out of it with a few scars from surgery. But it can focus the mind a little on one’s time aboard this blue orb. So here we were in Tucson, the daughters almost grown, the house partly renovated, and I hatched a plan. Two, maybe three years tops, finish and then sell the house and buy a Volkswagen camper. Then go and spend the next 20 years surfing every beach in the country.

You can see that plan worked out well. I really wanted that young woman to be part of it all but I guess the beauty of the ocean sunsets or sunrises and the feeling of warm sand between her toes could not really compete with the potential privations she could imagine if we became graying nomads in a micro bus. Could we have afforded the lifestyle and gotten old and poor together? Probably almost if we were really careful. Some of the surfing glamour faded and I started having grander thoughts.

 I had to move us in a direction that meant that I did not have to work till I was truly old (if I were to live that long) but I still had to keep that young woman as part of the future. So I did what anyone would do and bought another house. It was desperately in need of attention but it was only half the size of our other one so how long could it take? Well as it turns out quite a while. When I say renovate I mean everything. Tear down walls, new kitchen and bathrooms, lots of plumbing and electrical, all new floor tile, paint inside and out, landscaping…I am not very bright as it turns out. It takes a long time for one man to get through all of it. So by mid 2012 I now had two unfinished house renovations going on. I figured that was good progress.

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It took a while but in 2014 we had the big house almost renovated so we sold it. The house where our three daughters grew up. The house where we had live bands play at late night soirees. The house where I had fixed cars and motor bikes and had Ham radio contacts across the world. The home where we had lived and laughed and at times even shed a few tears.

With only one house to finish it was time to get serious about a boat. Not just any boat of course. I had spreadsheets and books. I had come to terms with the Physics of Sailing. I knew my comfort factor from my capsize ratio. The best available, blue-water capable, cruising sailboat that didn’t smell. That last one is very important if you want a young lady to move aboard. We scoured the country (well physically only the west coast) for that perfect cruising boat, the Corbin 39 that could fulfill all the dreams. Instead we purchased a Kings Legend 41.

So now things were becoming geographically interesting. We had a house to finish and a boat to renovate and it was not in Tucson. I have read it numerous times that fixing up a boat is a fool’s errand as the costs are high and the work never ending. I think that actually about sums it up nicely.

The house renovations were complete in 2017 and the boat renovations were not. I had put about 70,000 miles on various vehicles rushing back and forward between renovation sites. Learning a lot and humming along to every Jimmy Buffet song ever written. In amongst it all we even managed some sailing. But now the boat was ready for that young woman to move aboard. Heady stuff when she actually, finally did. Of course the renovations continued. Some things were done once. Some things were done twice. Some things were done in the wrong order. But things were getting done. The dreams were being dreamed and the laughing has been mostly longer and louder than the crying. But things take time.

As we approach mid 2019 and we are getting ready to move to a marina that is actually close to the open ocean I think I can see the end in sight. We are not there yet but come the end of the eastern Pacific hurricane season in October, we just might point her nose south and finally not turn back for the shelter of San Diego. Of course I might need to wait a few extra days for that young lady I married a page or two ago to finally buy into the whole thing. But hell, after 40 years another week or two won’t matter.

Of course then the boat maintenance can actually begin.

So many photos could have been included to illustrate this narrative; however if we were to wait for me to locate them, this blog might never be posted. I leave you with these few gathered images instead.

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