Plan? No Plan? A plan written on beach sand?

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by daletournier

Personally Ken I believe work some of the year and then cruise is probably the best balance as long as you enjoy the job. Employment provides more than just money at times and the contrast between the two lives can add pleasure to life.
I don't work but have considered trying that balance.... pity I'm unemployable [emoji3]

Dale,

Obtaining a nursing degree only takes a couple of years at the university. My present job/career when not on the boat, is working for a multinational company which specializes in short stay, crisis intervention psychiatric care, I’m on the front line for those folks among us who’ve attempted suicide or who suffer from some form of acute psychosis. My collegues are fantastic individuals, and when I return home each day, I know without a doubt I made a difference... some of us need that experience to keep us going. It works for me.

Others just seem to need a cheap cold beer.... whatever.

[Sojourner]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I like

Another one I use to describe our (my spouse and I) approach:

“We have no where in particular to go, and all the time in the world to get there.”

But I know my approach is not everyone’s. I have good friends, much like Ken here, who would “go nuts” if they anchored for two months in one remote location. To me, it was perfect. To them, it would be like suffering slow water torture (drip, drip, drip).

Me too.... being on the water, or wandering through old marinas with paint peeling off into the warm afternoon breeze.....heaven. I never get bored. I do a thing I like to call "close-water sitting" (mainly to bother the people around me). Just sit where I can dangle my feet inches above the water--a dock, the transom, the very end of the lowered passarelle--with a beer in hand, the sun in my eyes. I can close-water sit for hours and never get bored with my own thoughts

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Sojourner

Me too.... being on the water, or wandering through old marinas with paint peeling off into the warm afternoon breeze.....heaven. I never get bored. I do a thing I like to call "close-water sitting" (mainly to bother the people around me). Just sit where I can dangle my feet inches above the water--a dock, the transom, the very end of the lowered passarelle--with a beer in hand, the sun in my eyes. I can close-water sit for hours and never get bored with my own thoughts

Sojourner, I can identify with those thoughts... and I think the ability to enjoy such simple pleasures is the mark of the successful long term cruiser. Being happy to live for a while in your own head and thoughts means that the "boredom" that worries so many neophytes posting here is not a big worry to the cruiser in question.

Good onya, I think you will find joy in cruising as I have... with decaying plans and diminished need to "do it", but an abiding pleasure in the world around and the folks inhabiting it.

Jim

[Pelagic]

Exactly Jim and Sojourner.
That is what I love about long passages, that close water sit and my own thoughts
Fishing with a float does the same for me .

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

.... I’m on the front line for those folks among us who’ve attempted suicide or who suffer from some form of acute psychosis. My collegues are fantastic individuals, and when I return home each day, I know without a doubt I made a difference... some of us need that experience to keep us going. It works for me.

Others just seem to need a cheap cold beer.... whatever.

Ken, sometime a beer and a bit of humor at the right time is the best medicine for suicidal tendencies

My favorite scene in the movie Mash was when the suicidal dentist called "Painless" enlisted the help of the doctors to kill himself.

From memory, I think the real cure was a very willing Nurse, not that I'm suggesting anything Ken [emoji42]

https://youtu.be/TRHN5vxnZrI

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Dale,

Obtaining a nursing degree only takes a couple of years at the university. My present job/career when not on the boat, is working for a multinational company which specializes in short stay, crisis intervention psychiatric care, I’m on the front line for those folks among us who’ve attempted suicide or who suffer from some form of acute psychosis. My collegues are fantastic individuals, and when I return home each day, I know without a doubt I made a difference... some of us need that experience to keep us going. It works for me.

Some people enjoy their work; others just want to escape from it temporarily (vacation) or permanently (retirement).


This doesn't really have that much to do with cruising, I think. But I always thought that not enjoying your work is a curse which is possibly even worse than not enjoying sex. Work being such a core part of life, absorbing more time for most people than having sex does . But people have all kinds of circumstances and reasons for doing what they do; I think it's not right to judge in the abstract. Some people may have just made bad choices based on wrong priorities; but others might be driven by circumstances to do something they don't love, in order to make a living. I don't think we can distinguish those cases from on here.


I do need to work -- there are still some things I want to do in life which require more money than I have. But if I didn't need to work I don't actually think that would change anything for me. I would still want to work, and I would definitely go crazy just goofing off on the boat with nothing to do but repair my macerator pump or drink. Few weeks of hard work, few weeks of hard sailing, couple hours of work, couple hours of fixing something, and above all, interaction with people, whether employees or business partners, crew, friends, family, and meeting new people -- for me, that's a nice rhythm. But there is a great variety of different ways to do this, and to each his own.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Ken, sometime a beer and a bit of humor at the right time is the best medicine for suicidal tendencies

My favorite scene in the movie Mash was when the suicidal dentist called "Painless" enlisted the help of the doctors to kill himself.

From memory, I think the real cure was a very willing Nurse, not that I'm suggesting anything Ken [emoji42]

https://youtu.be/TRHN5vxnZrI

Beer and humor to cure suicide? Obviously you don’t have a clue, but that’s OK... it’s a good thing others have a plan that doesn’t include watching MASH reruns.

Cheers.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

.....nothing to do but repair my macerator pump or drink. .

Word to the wise. Fix the pump before drinking...

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Beer and humor to cure suicide? Obviously you don’t have a clue, but that’s OK... it’s a good thing others have a plan that doesn’t include watching MASH reruns.

Cheers.

Some suggested reading Ken if you haven't studied the book

https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/sisyphus/summary/

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by weavis

Word to the wise. Fix the pump before drinking...

..

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Sojourner

Me too.... being on the water, or wandering through old marinas with paint peeling off into the warm afternoon breeze.....heaven. I never get bored. I do a thing I like to call "close-water sitting" (mainly to bother the people around me). Just sit where I can dangle my feet inches above the water--a dock, the transom, the very end of the lowered passarelle--with a beer in hand, the sun in my eyes. I can close-water sit for hours and never get bored with my own thoughts

Yup. I can (and do) stare at the same slice of nature for weeks or months (or years) and never see the same thing. Last season we anchored in the same spot for two months. Although it was the same hillside we were looking at, it never stayed the same. It was never boring.

To me, the worst part of cruising is passing through fast. I love settling into a region or a place and really getting to know it — to become part of it. Passing through multiple regions or countries fast is being a tourist. This kind of travel does not feed my soul, although clearly it does for others.

So yeah, give me a secluded anchorage or a kitchen party with real people and I’m happy. Toss in a cold beer and I’m in heaven .

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

To me, the worst part of cruising is passing through fast. I love settling into a region or a place and really getting to know it — to become part of it. Passing through multiple regions or countries fast is being a tourist. This kind of travel does not feed my soul, although clearly it does for others.

So yeah, give me a secluded anchorage or a kitchen party with real people and I’m happy. Toss in a cold beer and I’m in heaven .

And get to know the people who live there much better, many lessons in the benefits of a little humility and acceptance to be learned away from the money is everything rich west

[GordMay]

To Reduce Travel Stress, Plan Less
“It may seem counterintuitive, but one of the best ways to reduce stress while traveling is to just plan less and let spontaneity take over ...”
New York Times, May 14, 2019 ☞ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/t...plan-less.html

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Some suggested reading Ken if you haven't studied the book

https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/sisyphus/summary/

Sparknotes of the notes:

..... Camus opens the essay by asking if this latter conclusion that life is meaningless necessarily leads one to commit suicide. If life has no meaning, does that mean life is not worth living? If that were the case, we would have no option but to make a leap of faith or to commit suicide, says Camus. Camus is interested in pursuing a third possibility: that we can accept and live in a world devoid of meaning or purpose......

The absurd is a contradiction that cannot be reconciled, and any attempt to reconcile this contradiction is simply an attempt to escape from it: facing the absurd is struggling against it.
......
Living with the absurd, Camus suggests, is a matter of facing this fundamental contradiction and maintaining constant awareness of it. Facing the absurd does not entail suicide, but, on the contrary, allows us to live life to its fullest......

[Mike OReilly]

Hmmm, I’ve not studied Camus, and only explored existentialism in a superficial way. This brief summary of Camus’ thoughts has me wanting to read more.

I’ve long viewed the search for “meaning” or “purpose” in life as one big psychological wild goose chase or fool's errand. There is no meaning to be had out there. The Universe doesn’t give us a purpose.

These things can only be found within.