Life is funny.
We all walk around with certain expectations about things. Sometimes without even realizing we have formed them. Our subconscious creates them. Have you ever been to a movie that was hyped up so much before you saw it that you walked out of the theater thinking, “that was good, but it wasn’t that great.” ?
Expectations.
You expected the movie to knock your socks off based on the reviews and your friends telling you that you have to go see it because it is sooooo good… so you’ve subconsciously set your expectations at a 10… the movie is great… like a 9.5… but guess what… that 9.5 rating is lower than your 10 expectation, so you end up a little disappointed. Had you heard nothing about the movie… like most of the people who saw the movie right when it came out… you might have had an expectation of a 7 or an 8… so a 9.5 movie seems amazingly awesome comparatively. Which is why everyone else raved about the movie… it blew their expectations out of the water.
Living on a boat expectations:
- Our family becomes completely granola.
- We live off the sea.
- Throw away creature comforts.
- Disengage from computer screens, TV, cell phones.
- Enjoy each other’s company.
- We spend our days outside on the water.
- We are free from materialism.
- And stuff.
- And we become anti-normal.
Living on a boat reality (to-date, which is barely a week):
- We’ve eaten out almost every meal since we moved aboard a week ago. (It is too hot to cook on board.)
- We brought all sorts of creature comforts from home, and are bursting at the seams. (And so I ordered some rugs off Amazon this morning.)
- The boys have been on their computers, while skyping with friends, like 12 hours/day while Matt and I have been working (on our computers) and unpacking and getting the boat organized.
- The boys annoy the heck out of each other more than usual because they are together 24/7.
- We have spent the last week cooped up inside the boat with our portable air conditioners running 24/7 to cool us off. We haven’t been off the dock, on our kayak, or SUP, or even to the beach. (In our defense, our boat is still not functional after the lightning strike, and there is a flesh-eating bacteria at the beach here, so there’s that.)
- We are addicted to our ice maker.
- And we are living the same “normal” life we were on land, but doing it on a boat.
Yep. Week one is pretty much in the books. And we are exactly the same. Sigh.
Our boys are fighting so much lately, it’s driving me crazy. I think it’s because we are spending a lot more time at the boat not doing things because we need to save every bit of money to sail to San Diego in a month. Got any advice for getting them to get along? I’ve had so many “talks” with them I’m about to lose it. Should be fun on our 2-3 week sail down south!
haha! I feel you… our biggest struggle right now is the amount of screen time they are getting… the whole point of moving onto the boat was to get away from that!! But once we get out of the marina, and actually start cruising, I’m hoping it will naturally go to the wayside…
I have no advice for getting them to get along… The best thing is when they team up against me or Matt… best for them to get along… not so great for me and Matt. haha.
San Diego will be great! Excited for you!
Ha! Great post. Hang in there guys! Get off that dock. The key is to keep moving.
Dude… If we could get off the dock, we would be so happy… “next week” (according to our fix-it guy… same answer every week for the past month. sigh.)
Where are you guys at these days? We have returned from our trip to Grenada and completed ASA 101, 103, 104 & 114. I highly recommend that corner of the world! We had a great time learning on a Leapord 444 sailing from Grenada to Carriacou to Piete St Vincent and back again.
Allen