Dream vs. Reality
April 2023
When Stewart pitched this crazy idea of selling everything to buy a boat and cruise the world he showed me a You Tube video of a boat tour by a family already living the life, to try and sway my decision. The boat was a fancy pants 2020 Lagoon 46 catamaran and it definitely helped me come around to the idea, I could picture us living on it, no problem - it was like a modern floating apartment, complete with dishwasher and washing machine!
The reality of the boat I was sold on vs. what we could actually afford though - what a stitch up! It’s like the social media videos you see of Instagram vs. Reality.
Well, said boat went up for sale a while back, with a price tag of a mere $1.5 million USD!! Ha! Dreams are free! Well played Stewart, well played.
‘Nohma’ for sale
Truth be told - I do actually really love our boat, we all do but when we first decided to do this thing, we had our hearts set on buying a Catamaran. That’s the story I was pitched, the vision I was sold on. Typically though, once we’d made the big decision, house prices went down and boat prices rose, rapidly.
We had a bit of work to do on our house before we could put it on the market so by the time it actually sold, 9 months later, our budget just wouldn’t stretch to a Catamaran, not a very seaworthy one anyway. This was really disappointing and we did have a moment where we wondered if we should delay things until our coffers were a little more full, maybe it just wasn’t the right time? But if not then, when?? Would there ever be a ‘right time’? The kids were growing fast and the older they got the harder it would be to take them away from friends. Ideally we wanted to give ourselves three years sailing and be back for Isabelle to start high school. Plus, we weren’t getting any younger ourselves! If we put it off, who knows what tomorrow may bring? Shit happens and we could be dead.
So we adjusted our expectations accordingly and I had to deal with the idea of buying what I thought of as ‘a floating coffin’.
There are pros and cons to each type of boat but for me, the thought of living below deck on a monohull just wasn’t appealing when you compare it to the light, bright living above deck on a catamaran. In a monohull it’s not so easy to see the world outside and to me it felt like going down into a coffin, with a closed lid! Or perhaps being buried underground. It does sometimes feel like anything could be going on in the world outside and you wouldn’t have a clue!
I think we ended up with a good happy medium though as ‘Kawai’ (our boat) has a modern, light Oak style interior with light upholstery colours so it doesn’t feel dark and gloomy even in crappy weather.
