When we were deciding whether to do start this crazy voyage, to sell our house, to retire and to sail a small fiberglass bubble around in an ocean of water, one book I found particularly inspirational was Rolf Potts' Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel.

This excerpt from the book came up today in a conversation with a friend and I thought it worth sharing. I, for one, do not believe that long-term travel would be fun for most people. However, for us, the book was motivating and resonated with what we were thinking and feeling.

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Declare Your Independence

Of all the outrageous throwaway lines one hears in movies, there is one that stands out for me. It doesn't come from a madcap comedy, an esoteric science-fiction flick, or a special-effects-laden action thriller. It comes from Oliver Stone's Wall Street, when the Charlie Sheen character — a promising big shot in the stock market — is telling his girlfriend about his dreams.

"I think if I can make a bundle of cash before I'm thirty and get out of this racket," he says, "I'll be able to ride my motorcycle across China."

When I first saw this scene on video a few years ago, I nearly fell out of my seat in astonishment. After all, Charlie Sheen or anyone else could work for eight months as a toilet cleaner and have enough money to ride a motorcycle across China. Even if they didn't yet have their own motorcycle, another couple months of scrubbing toilets would earn them enough to buy one when they got to China.

The thing is, most Americans probably wouldn't find this movie scene odd. For some reason, we see long-term travel to faraway lands as a recurring dream or an exotic temptation, but not something that applies to the here and now. Instead — out of our insane duty to fear, fashion, and monthly payments on things we don't really need — we quarantine our travels to short, frenzied bursts. In this way, as we throw our wealth at an abstract notion called "lifestyle," travel becomes just another accessory — a smooth-edged, encapsulated experience that we purchase the same way we buy clothing and furniture.
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You can read more of this chapter here.

- Livia

For Christmas my true love gave to me, the ereader of my choosing.

I chose Nook.



Why did I choose the Nook? All of the ereaders have their pros and cons, but if you want to be able to check out library ebooks then your choice is the Nook or the Sony because the Kindle hates America libraries. Between the Nook and the Sony I chose the Nook because it is cheaper for the wireless version and I liked the expandable memory and removable battery which Sony doesn't have. There are good reasons to prefer the Kindle, particularly if you are most often in the US near big cities and can take advantage of the 3G downloads. For someone online on a boat those features aren't as valuable. There are also good reasons to prefer the Sony - primarily because the Nook is currently buggy software wise.

Registering the Nook is painful if you aren't near 3G because you have to go to a BN store because you can use wireless to download books but you can't register with wireless. How annoying. I've also had the Nook freeze twice requiring a restart.

Still, I love it, squeeze it and call it my own.

I have hundreds of free books already. In addition to free online sites like Google and Project Gutenberg I have also downloaded free SciFi from Baen Free Library and I have successfully checked out a library book from a library in the US while in Canada.

The other thing I love about the Nook is that it functions like any USB drive. I drag and drop all non-DRM (i.e., digital rights managed) items like .pdf cruising guides posted on forums I read or pictures that I want on the Nook.

For DRM items like copyright protected library book checkouts of Adobe ePub materials, I use the free Adobe Digital solutions program, check out the book and then using the program drag the book onto the Nook. And it just works.

I can read in the sun. I need light at night because it works on reflected light. It feels like a heavy paperback in weight. I don't find page turning slow because I automatically have started hitting the page turn as I'm finishing reading the last line.

Thank you Carol!

- Livia

By the time we leave the dock we will only have the stuff that fits on our boat, plus 3 small legal sized filing boxes of mementos and 2 doors from this boat at my parents and maybe, for the first year of cruising in WA/BC, my car stashed until we sell it.

Basically, we are not storing stuff because we don't know when or if we would want that stuff again. Remember, the plan is "as long as it is fun". If we need stuff again because we move back on land, we'll buy it.

Was it freeing? Amazingly so. I love getting rid of stuff still and am excited when we have another pile to take off the boat or when another stage of our transition life is over and I can get rid of more stuff related to it.

For example, there are formal events that we still need to dress for so I kept a few dresses. Each event means a dress worn and another dress I can get rid of (yes, I'm keeping a few, but that clothes folder is getting smaller and smaller). I also realize how much you can buy when you need it. I bought a pair of $4 Ann Taylor strappy heels at a thrift store for the last formal because I hadn't kept a black pair. I'll get rid of those again before June.

Do I miss my stuff? No. I miss people in Colorado. I miss having a sand pit in my back yard for BBQs. I miss having a big entertaining space. But as long as my current life has a high fun-to-suck ratio, and I foresee more of that same ratio in the future, then I don't spend much time second guessing what I've left.

- Livia