We have goals and I am having a hard time waiting. I know learning to sail is a life time endeavor and experience is not something which can easily be rushed. And then there is the whole time and money thing, not to mention day jobs and family obligations. What is that lotto up to now?

Our long term goals consist mainly of retiring and living on our sailboat and traveling the world. This is a long way off for us retirement wise, on the other hand, we have so much to learn that in other ways I don’t know if we have enough time. We have not taken any certification courses yet, but plan to. The whole economy down turn thing has put some of that on the back burner for now. Yet, we are learning much from just sailing on our own, school of hard knocks degree anyone? Books are great, most everything we know about sailing has been gained in this manner.

But it is just not going fast enough either. Winter has come, the boat is wrapped up for at least four more months and all we can do is plan, read and dream of sails to come. I suppose some forced down time is not all bad. Time to reflect on the lessons learned last summer, time to dream of next summers trips. But still, living at 45 degrees north is not easy. Oh, how I envy sailors of warmer climes. Reading about their adventures in the sun. Picturing warm December sunsets in the cockpit, enjoying a cool beverage and time with loved ones. This is the life we are looking forward to.

My wife likes to remind me that we(I), shouldn’t spend too much time looking to the future, while wasting the present. She is right, of course, we will have much fun getting to our destination. Sailing, more than anything else I know, is about the journey as much as the destination after all. This is sailing’s appeal for us as well. I read somewhere that with power boats its where you are going, whereas with sailboats, you are already there. Now I just need to apply that to my winter layover as hard as that may be.

So I will force myself to be patient, I will constantly remind myself that winter will end. Summer will return again and we will be back on the water where we are happiest. My fondest memories are seeing the smile on my wife’s face when we are having a great day sailing. The warmth of this memory will keep me warm and fuel my dreams till our next sail come spring.