Time is NOT on your side
Work-forever then sail vs go younger and lean — why time beats money if the dream is real.
We’ve been hyper-aware of time much of our lives. Hard medical chapters made that tick even louder. If the average person lives to be 80 (generous — the US average is more like 75), that means about 29,200 days from birth. Assume most reading this and interested in sailing are at least 25 — that’s right at 20,000 days left. Closer to 50? Just under 11,000. The point: TIME IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE. Why are you waiting? If you want to get more macabre, most are not still starting long-term cruising in their 70s — it can be done, just not typical for health reasons. Take another ~3,650 days off the board…
Most people dreaming of sailing fall into two camps. Those who work their tails off for decades, buy a bunch of stuff, then one day sell it all and sail. Upside: money. Downside: TIME. If you work to standard retirement at 62–65, your window is ticking away. The other camp throws caution to the wind in their 20s and 30s — used boat, pinch pennies, DIY improvements, fewer luxuries like air conditioning, watermaker, genset. Personally, if we had to do it all over again, we’d pick the latter hands down. For us, time is more valuable than money.
Time is ticking, nagging: what are you doing to get closer to the goal? Will you waste an evening on something meaningless because you “deserve” mindless me-time after a crappy workday? Easy trap. Ask yourself: what matters more — 120 minutes of Netflix, or 120 minutes reading, studying, watching a sailing YouTube? Where you spend your time is where your heart is. If you’re not spending it focused on pushing off, ask honestly whether your heart wants this. It’s perfectly fine if the answer is no — better to find that out now than several hundred grand in. Assuming 95% of you answered an emphatic YES — what are you waiting for time to do? Stand still? Ha.
You own your outcome. The calendar will not negotiate for you.
— Dave & Beth