When I first purchased Daphne, I moved to Gloucester, Mass to settle in, work, and save. When I arrived to Gloucester by boat, I went to East Gloucester Marina to speak to Raymond about a dock space for the winter. My plan was simple and affordable. I would live on the anchor in the fall, when the warm season dock prices were off the charts and move to a dock for the winter, a more affordable but less pleasant season for boaters. There, I would be able to have electricity and kerosene for heat (until I was fully off the grid and equipped with solar panels) and a nearby shower house. Then, in the spring, I would leave the dock again and begin voyaging.
“Manuel,” Raymond hollered, “this gal plans to live here on her boat all winter.” Manuel was a Spanish man with dark curly hair and a large round belly. He walked over to me with a big grin on his face and put the back of his hand on my forehead. “She seems healthy,” he said. We all laughed and I wondered what I had done wrong.
“I am Manuel from Espania,” he said. “But my real name is pronounced Hey-seus. In English it is spelled Jesus.” His speech was slow and deliberate. “People say to me, ‘Hey Jesus, you can walk on water?’ His grin was growing wider and wider. “When the winter comes I go out on the water and take picture. I say ‘yes, I can walk on water…see!’ But really I am standing on the ice.” Manuel laughed at his story. I’m now beginning to learn what his laughter was about. Shifting from living in an apartment to living on a boat, but changing nothing else isn’t living simply. It just makes things more difficult.
Comments 3
At the age of 30, to feel these experiences, is a blessing….while I am not going to critize “material things”, as one gets older and has more life experiences, one realizes, and hopefully not too late, it is not the things…nor necessarily living “simply”, but loving ones life and appreciating all the people that come into it is truly a blessing. While “living simply” means different things to different people, we can all learn from one another. “The dawn of a new day is most beautiful…..when you are awake to see it”. Love you
So this is where it begins huh? I can see I have some reading to do! Found your blog via Jomamma, or was it SmallSteps? Not sure. Anyway, I ended up here. It’s nice to know there’s someone else out there of a similar mind.
Best wishes
Keith
Ok, Found your blog by Google Sailing blogs then going to a link that someone suggested. My wife and myself plan on in 2 years and 9 months buying a sailboat or a catamaran. Hope for the catamaran. I read and read blogs and take all the info that I can get. I plan on taking the USCG Sailing courses next year so I can get insurance on the boat. So much to learn but I am like a sponge and absorbing as much as I can. Hope to have your blog read in the next two to three days. Yes, we will be more mature in 2 years 9 months but that is when I retire and will have a income to help with the sailing costs.