I need to escape the house more often.
Seriously, it’s turning out that my “22h/week” job actually means sitting in front of my computer 40-50 hours a week, but only actually working on “work” for twenty or so hours. It certainly doesn’t help that the crazy winter weather has started – well, winter in Vancouver, that is, which means it has begun to rain and won’t let up until – oh, May or so.
Well – let’s just do an update, then. Still working for the media company, still mostly doing crazy celebrity gossip server admin stuff. Still living in the basement. Currently in negotiations to purchase a large sailboat…
Yeah, that’s right. I won’t give *too* many details, just in case I might jinx the whole thing, but here’s what I will tell you:
- She’s big. Really big. Like, sleeps six people comfortably, but could potentially carry a lot more.
- She’s in pretty rough shape. She’ll need a looooot of work before she looks as pretty as she can, but 90% of the work is scraping, sanding and painting.
My intention is to continue to negotiate the sale, to see if I can get the price down to something semi-reasonable. If everything works out, hopefully by the end of the year I’ll be moving out of my basement and onto a sailboat!
The downside is that there are a lot of hurdles – for instance, while she’s got a stove and a toilet, she doesn’t have a shower or a refrigerator. The shower can be retrofitted without too much work – there’s space for one – but the fridge is a bigger problem. Fridges consume a *lot* of electricity, which, on a boat, is a big deal. She does have an icebox though, and really, refrigerators on sailboats are kind of a new invention anyway, they’ve only really been possible for the past ten years or so. Using an icebox will be a shift in thinking, but one that I won’t really have to worry about for at least the next few months – I can keep things nice and cool just by putting them in a cooler outdoors.
Speaking of which, one might question the wisdom of moving onto a sailboat right at the start of winter. Well, rightly so – boats aren’t exactly known for their insular capacity. One might even consider them downright cold – but wait! This *particular* vessel was used as a live-aboard in Alaska for the past few years! She’s got dual diesel furnaces, fore and aft, and she’s been insulated against the bitter cold of the Alaskan winter. Actually though, I think I’ll probably have to rip out all the insulation and repaint her, but I’m quite looking forward to the work.
I’ve been taking a CYA (Canadian Yachting Association) Coastal Navigation class from the same guys that held the CYA Basic Cruising course I took over the summer. It’s been excellent, I highly recommend it – if you want details, feel free to email me and I’ll fill you in. The course is teaching me all about using charts and compasses and navigating the waters of the Georgia Straight – one thing the teacher said that I found particularly interesting was that the Straight (and surrounding waters) contain practically every kind of cruising waters that you’re likely to encounter anywhere in the world – if you learn to cruise here in British Columbia, you can pretty much cruise anywhere.
Anyhow – batteries are running low, and I suspect so is my welcome. I’m typing this in ‘Re-Entry’, a wicked little espresso place on Main Street. Time to pack up and go back out into the pouring rain…