Have you ever dreamed of sailing indefinitely on your own sailboat toward unknown destinations? Have you ever dreamed to be one with the sea? It all starts with a dream. Sometimes this dream is shared, sometimes it is not, sometimes all it takes to start your journey is to be decided to challenge yourself into a way of life that little has in common with what you are used to. Let’s see if you have what it takes to grab the dream with your hands.
If you are lucky enough to find a partner in crime for your adventure, then it will be necessary that you and your sidekick have some common qualities. Patience, flexibility, tolerance and love. It doesn’t matter if it’s couple’s love, friend’s love or family’s love, love will help you out in situations where it will be hard to understand each other, love will serve as a channel for patience, flexibility and tolerance. You need to assume the fact that many times you will need each other to save the day, to enjoy and to decide the course of action and direction of your sailboat. To take on an adventure with someone else will require that you are willing to accept each other and to learn from each other, as a key part of traveling with a partner means you want to deeply connect with him/her and work together toward a common goal no matter the differences that might come up along the ride. You will be tolerant, you will have patience and you will be flexible for it’s the only way you are going to enjoy your common dream of discovering new seas and connect with mother nature.
In case you decide to leave the port on your own, all the above mentioned qualities will be great for you, even if you will need to exercise them in a different way. A journey through the seas is a journey to find the best of yourself and you will need to have patience with yourself, you will need to be tolerant with those you will find along the way in the ports and islands you will visit, you will need flexibility as things will never go exactly as you wished of. That’s the beauty of long term cruising by yourself, you will put yourself in a position where you will test your abilities and that will require you to go even beyond your dreams. Mother nature will not always smile at you and you will need to show strength and creativity to go along with her when the weather will test you; you will need to be creative when it comes to finding solutions along the way that only a thinking outside the box can give you.
It all starts with a dream but to be sure you are cut out for long term sailboat cruising you will need to be sure you are willing to be the better version of yourself, you will need to get experience, save money, of course, and test yourself in short sailing trips, you will have to learn everything about your boat and be ready to take the opportunity when it present itself. To be ready to chase a dream takes time, it’s not something that you will be ready for in just a few days. Rome wasn’t built in a day, you know that. Take your time as the exercise of patience will pay off during your journey.
Before you spend your life savings on a boat of your own, you better be sure you can stick it out on the seas, say, a month at a time. One of the best ways to do it is by chartering a boat from Seabbatical Long Term Bareboat Charters. They have very reasonable prices – for the money that would get you maybe a 2 week charter with some other companies, you can get a boat for a whole month, skipper it yourself and sail around the Caribbean at your own leisure.
Are you ready? Start training your mind, start exercising all the things we talked above and when the time comes you will now you are ready to take on your childhood dream, to take your sailboat on the sea and to become one with the sea.