Would you like to sail around the world?
As a sailor, I know the maritime rule: Each day you spend on a boat with someone is a day your boat shrinks by a foot.
I can be high-strung and cranky when famished. "The Grizzly family," my ex-husband and I called ourselves when we were hungry. Groucho Marx once famously said, "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member." I could relate.
From online dating, three men asked me to sail from Seattle to Chile on their sailboat and back. Sounds romantic, but I lived on a sailboat in Seattle in my 20s. Rocking to sleep on the waves is lovely. Each item you bring aboard- even a toothbrush- reduces your living space.
"No way in hell," I thought and politely declined. I know what it's like to be cooped up on a sailboat with others. You reach a point where you want to jump overboard or strangle someone.
Growing up on a lake in Michigan with three sailboats, I spent hours cramped on a 36-foot Wayfarer sailboat with four kids, two parents and our 100-pound Labrador Retriever. Lady often swam after the boat. When she got tired, "Heave-ho!" we pulled her into the sailboat. In my imagination, if someone was going to walk the plank, I voted for my brother.
By age-11, I could handle a 10-foot sailboat. Loved when it was just me, the boat, wind and waves. Mom put oarlocks and oars in all sailboats. When the wind died, I rowed home.
Also spent the past forty years protecting my skin from sun. "The damage to your skin was from all of that sun reflection when you grew up on a lake," a dermatologist said.
In reality, long-distance sailing is difficult and dangerous. Hurricanes. Equipment failures. High winds and massive waves. Run-aground in extreme low tides. Circling sharks.
All of this happened to my parents while sailing in the Bahamas and Virgin Islands.
9
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14 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.What bothers me about online dating is shit like this anyway...romantic promises (life on the beach !)....I couldn't get a woman to hardly meet for coffee (But, but....I don't know you !). Yes let's just text forever until Mr. Right pops up on your profile page.....
I always got the feeling they wanted to fall in love, plan their futures and book their international romantic getaways before they'd consider a face to face to meeting.
Exaggeration, I know. But I don't need this bullshit. It's NOT that complicated.....You either like each other, you don't or you might. But there has to be a meeting 1st. 10 am/ 2 pm/ 7 pm in a coffee shop....Oh that's too hard.
Whatever.
(then there's the pictures of the ladies, partying and wining and dining....all I can say is, don't bitch about the fish pictures girls!!)
I'm in a great mood this morning in case you couldn't tell. I DO NOT want to return to dating hell
twill
Level 7
July 31, 2021
1
Wise observations!
BudFrank
Level 8
July 27, 2021
1
Thank you.
I had a day-sailor when I lived in Virginia, I enjoyed sailing it around Chesapeake Bay. I would not want to take a sailboat around the world but would love to take a cruse ship. I have crossed the Atlantic 3 times in my life. The first time as a 2 y/o child. The ship passed by a hurricane but finally made it to NY harbor. I deployed to to the Mediterranean on a Navy ship as an adult.
Robert_2001
Level 6
July 25, 2021
1
There is a YouTube channel called Salt & Tar that I follow...the couple starring are Ruth and Garrett...they have been together as a couple since HS and have owned 4 or 5 boats together. They decided that all the boats they had owned were lacking one thing or another so they decided to build their own boat so they would have everything they wanted and needed. They started from scratch and the two of them work together as a team...they are seamless. They have been at it for 5 years now and are almost finished to where they can leave out...the sails are being made and when they get them they will be off...Mexico for the winter is their first stop. If anyone is thinking of "sailing around the world"...I strongly urge you to watch these two and you will see a "gold standard" that very few are able to achieve. ...... Would I attempt it? Knowing what I know now...yes, but my partner would have to be exceptional. I don't see that happening but it's never a bad thing to dream.
phoenixone1
Level 8
July 25, 2021
1
Not to mention that what if you got a week into the voyage and realized you really don’t like the dude......
Dhiltong
Level 8
July 25, 2021
2
Exactly.
There is a lot of beauty on and in the sea. I did two cruises in the Navy, on the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Mostly avoiding sea lanes, I got to see a lot of different creatures, and constellations, even under the equator. So, no, I've no reason to go back out again.
Beowulfsfriend
Level 9
July 25, 2021
1
My parents flew to the islands, rented a large sailboat and spent three weeks sailing from island-to-island. Six couples. They brought their own regulators and rented scuba tanks when they arrived.
To avoid extra luggage weight costs, they wore their scuba weights around their waists on the planes.
They scuba dived for lobster for lunch. In the evening, they ate dinner on an island and the men played jazz with the band.
When I was four, me and another kid built a raft out of a wooden pallet and a truck tire inner tube. We were going to explore a nearby storm drain, but got made to put in by a pair of cops.
It was at that age also, that I attempted to dig a hole all the way to China. I never did get there. But I dug a pretty big hole in the backyard. Had I been offered a chance to sail around the world, I'd have jumped at it. But nowadays, I'd rather make the trip in a yacht, or a cruise ship.
No sailboats for me!
davknight
Level 8
July 25, 2021
2
I had an aunt in law who tried to sail back from Hawaii as a honeymoon with her fourth husband (she was thrice widowed).
They found a storm and got pinned against Mexico's coast for two weeks. She got her first divorce less than a month later. 
Some ideas sound clever until you think carefully about them -- let alone try them.
Ha, ha.
RichCC
Level 8
July 25, 2021
2
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