Let us try again!

I can't believe that it has been over a year since my last post, but I guess life got in the way... again. I did get my job working on towboats which has been great, I make more money than I ever did before, have great benefits and I've seen a huge part of America's navigable waterways. The downside is that I had to get rid of the boat. My buddy who was selling it to me forgot to mention all the back slip fees he owed as well as some other shady dealings. So the dock ended up selling the boat (a month before I was to take over dock payments) with half my stuff on board. All those shirts I was worried about? Well I don't have to worry about them anymore. Which turns out to be a good thing. This little lesson in trust and finance taught me that I really can let go of things that I thought meant something to me. Granted there are a few shirts that I had stashed away that I wish I still had, but alas I don't really need them.

So I was sad that I lost the boat and seemingly my dream to move aboard. I moved back to South Carolina into my mom's house again. It wasn't really all that bad, I work for 28 days straight and then I'm only in SC for 14 days before going back to the boat. However my company doesn't want to pay the ridiculous plane fares they dish out to fly me from Columbia SC, to Houston. So I volunteered to move back to the Tampa area, a place I'm much happier in anyways. This also rekindled the liveaboard dream. This time when I buy a boat though I will do it right. Well that and it's still a year away at least.

I plan to move in with a friend of mine in the middle of April, and over the course of the next year I plan to save around $10,000 for a boat purchase. I've already started saving actually. I'm making my move back to Florida in about two weeks, so as soon as I get off the boat I get to go through the whole throwing out process once again. This time though it'll be getting rid of childhood toys and junk from my mom's house. I have every intention to move back to Florida with my work clothes, about a weeks worth of warm weather clothes, and just a couple of winter clothes (most of which are for work anyways).

The dream may have been postponed, but it is alive and well. I have every faith in myself that I will pull this off. I have a terribly complex yet simple savings plan. In short I have managed to trick myself into thinking that every spare penny that I have is to go into savings, and that my savings account is actually a bill that I have to pay off every time I have more money that what I need for my other bills. I budgeted so that I can have a little fun on my time off, but in all honesty I think I would rather have another job for two weeks so that I can put more money towards a boat.

The only downside I see to my plan occurs when I actually do buy a boat. In about a year from now when I have a boat to live on, my biggest concern is going to be leaving it for such an extended period of time. I mean I'm gone for a month at a time. I know many people leave boats at the dock for months on end with little to no maintenance, but for them it's not their home. And Florida is prime hurricane country. I have friends who would look out for my boat and all, but perhaps I would be better saving for an additional year or two? Yet that just isn't who I am. I have a desire to change my lifestyle to that of a liveaboard. And I'm not about to let a little thing like fear stop me. I don't really plan to be at this job for more than a couple more years anyways. It's just too hard on the body, plus it's a long term health risk. Nothing like breathing benzene every day.

So wish me luck, I'm at it again.