Changes Ahoy!

I'm sitting at my faithful hand-me-down Wal-Mart desk perhaps for one of the last times. Tomorrow I'm headed to New Orleans for a medical physical for a new job, and once I get back, I only have 3 days to make the move to the boat before I once again leave. The laundry machine is working overtime as I am washing my entire wardrobe of clothes and sorting through it to find what I really want to keep.

The storage on my boat isn't all bad actually. There is more than enough for me as a single person. The downside is I have accumulated an unbelievable amount of junk in the last two years. Not to mention once again, my insane amount of clothes. After all, 25 months ago I moved back to Florida with a weeks worth of clothes and my laptop. My how things change.

See, the problem is that nearly every single shirt I own means something to me. I've had this one since college, that one since high school, and, oh my, this one from that time I did that thing I shouldn't talk about. Some are gifts from friends and businesses, others are memories of my father. I think I have full complement of black Daytona Beach biker shirts. Luckily they're all really thin material (maybe cause some are older than I am?) and don't take up hardly any room. To combat this I've decided to let myself have about a dozen shirts, which maybe a a few more than some liveaboards but hey, if I have the room I might as well use it.

The next problem however, what about winter clothes? Or Jackets? Or my suits? Well the winter clothes will just have to make due with three pairs of khaki pants, two pairs of jeans, two or three hoodies, and my Nautica sailing jacket (Foul weather gear not included). Ok so where the heck am I going to put sweatshirts and jackets? I could actually use my hanging locker, if I can bring myself to give up that space, not there is really much in there to begin with. What about the suits? Well I think I'll just get them dry cleaned and have the dry cleaners hold on to them. I've heard of arrangements being made so it makes sense, keeps them off the boat which is a good thing. And do I really need two of them? Probably not, maybe I'll just send one back to my mom to hold on to. Or heck I could get rid of both and just rent. I don't go to many events that actually require me to wear a suit.

Ok so maybe clothing won't be such a problem, at least once I get past having to get rid of 90% of it. I could give it away to charity or sell some of it. But what about my other stuff? My surfboard will fit in the quarter berth, the desk can stay for the next room mate, that huge print of a sailboat tied to the dock can be sold, after all I'll actually be living that scene. My TV is huge, bulky, and never really worked right... it's gone. The electric guitar and amp can go, the acoustic is going to stay. All my beer brewing stuff is going on loan to my room mate. I won't have the time to brew anymore. I don't own a bed or a dresser, instead I now own several berths and a couple of drawers. I already consolidated my movie library to a binder. Who knows where I'm going to stick 9 fishing rods? Somebody has got to need that bed frame I don't have a bed for. Everybody wants my wakeboard.

Moving onto the boat is like starting over again. I was incredibly happy when all I owned in the world was a weeks worth of clothes and my laptop. That time is almost coming again. Except now I have a place to call my own, a place that's got half the living space of my tiny room in my apartment that I sit here typing in. A place where I actually have to think about NOT buying more than buying. And a place where everything will have a home and everything must be in it's home. And hopefully a place where a simpler life will be the life I crave. But now I really have to get rid of that leak in the V berth!

It's been far too long.

It's been quite a while since I posted on this blog about my live aboard dreams. In that time I tried to join the US Coast Guard but was shot down at the last minute due to past problems of delinquent debt. Fair enough, it happens I guess. Unfortunately I also lost my place of residence in the process. I was told I was on my way, so my room mates had gone ahead and replaced me, which was going to effectively leave me homeless. Luckily for me fate had other plans.

A good friend of mine just moved up from his 1982 Hunter 33 to a 38 ft, and he was in dire need of getting rid of his previous boat. The price was right, and the terms of payment more than agreeable so I jumped on it. I'm sure the pressure of being homeless didn't have much to do with it either. In fact it's eerily similar to how he originally ended up with the boat. Any boat you get for this cheap definitely has its quirks. The two biggest would be the smell from the horrid soft holding tank, and the fact that the rudder is bent into an almost perfect "L" shape.

For an added bonus, only two days after buying the boat a job offer from the heavens (or hell, I havn't truly found out yet) descended upon me. It's a chance to be a deckhand for a shipping barge, good pay, great benefits, and the ability to move up rapidly all come with it. For me it's a great, as my list of modifications and additions to the boat grows by a couple of feet every day.

So I've finally gotten my boat, right when I least expected it, and now I can actually start blogging about fixing it, and living aboard. The only downside is I will be gone from my boat for 4 out of every 6 weeks. The upside is having a full two weeks to actually work on the boat.

Until next time,
CJ