A few sheets to the wind

My annoyance level is keeping me from writing anything that I was hoping to earlier in the day. I can't wait for peace and quiet at the end of my day. It's one of the things that I truly miss about my life. When I lived on my boat it was quite cramped for most people's standards. It had all the basic necessities to function day to day. Though it had a toilet I elected to use the marina's facilities since the idea of storing sewage on the boat never quite appealed to me. A cool service at the marina was a weekly pump out if need be. There were nights when I'd get off work and have a few hours of sunlight to kill so I'd release the lines and drift around the inlet. I can't even begin to explain the feeling of freedom, even within the harbor. Even while in the marina, it was almost sublime to sit outside with my mini weber and a cold beer listening to the pinging of halyards against the masts. I'd get the Jack Johnson playing on the stereo and do nothing but enjoy the sunset after a long day at work. I even sprung for a cheap hammock to hang on the front of the boat. My spot in the marina lines up perfectly with the sun during the day and I had a perfect view of the sunset every night. The gentle rocking throughout the night made for beautiful sleep. The only real frustrations was during a windstorm when the halyards and lines would work loose and reverberate throughout the hull as they swung against the mast and stays. The occasional seagull dropping a mussel in the cockpit wasn't a nice way to wake up either. I would do anything to be able to live that life again. Oh wait, I can! Except I'm holding out for something a little better. I'm sacrificing the good for the great. I've offered to share the experience with a few people. I guess I'm simply at a different spot in my life where I appreciate this kind of thing more so than others. If I find myself forty years down the road without a family, I know what kind of life I'll live and be perfectly OK with it.

It'd be too easy for me to become a drifter. Money is nice, however it's done nothing but cause problems in my life. There was a couple moored next to me for a few months that had spent a few years sailing in the Caribbean. How cool would that be! Someday I wouldn't mind finding the right person that could bear living at sea for a few months. It's an excellent prelude to having a much more fulfilling life instead of wading through the shit that most of us put up with day in and day out. Until then, I'll try to finish what I started. I want to leave here with minimal 'things' to allow me to build a foundation that I actually feel good about.