Flashback Friday | A Day In The Life Of Cruisers & Worker Bees

Today is Michael d’Agostino’s Flashback Friday. The idea is to republish an old post of yours that maybe didn't get enough attention, or that you're really proud of, or you think is still relevant etc. We started this blog three years ago and have lots more followers now then we did back then (thanks guys!) so many folks may not have seen some of our earlier blog posts. 

I wrote this post when I was living in New Zealand. We had sold our old boat and were both working for a while to top up our cruising kitty (savings account in sailing speak) before we headed back to the States to look for our next boat. After having lived aboard and cruised on our boat in New Zealand, it was quite a shock to the system to have to go back and work in an office. This post compares a day in the life of a cruiser living full-time aboard their sailboat and a cruiser wanna-be stuck in an office. 

{This post was originally published in May 2014. You can find it here.}

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Scott and I are working for a few months to top up the cruising kitty. It got me thinking about what my average day looks like cruising versus working. We need to get a new boat pronto.

A Day in the Life of a Worker Bee

You are not my friend.

 
GETTING UP

The alarm screeches at you at 6:00 AM. Grope around in the dark to try to find it so that you can hit the snooze button. Give up, turn on the light and silence the little beast.

Get out of your spacious double bed. Yawn. Stretch. Take a shower with hot water. Wash and rinse your hair as much as you like. No coins required.

Make coffee and turn on the TV. Get depressed as you listen to the news stories about people starving, wars, corrupt government officials and the latest sporting scandal. Get distracted when the way too cheerful weather presenter tells you about all the rain headed your way. Wonder what kind of drugs he takes. It is really possible to be that chipper when talking about the weather? Apparently it is.

Sigh. Get dressed. In clean clothes. In tights, a skirt and a top which silently whispers, “I’m a professional. I know what I’m talking about. I have a PowerPoint presentation to prove it.”

GETTING TO WORK

Get on a train. Full of people. All sneezing and coughing and spraying germs on you. Sneeze and sniffle back at them. We can all play this game.

Stare out the window at the office buildings and the shops. Watch the people on the train think about going to work in the office buildings so that they can get a paycheck and buy stuff in the shops. You can see it in their eyes, "We must drive the economy. Work, work, work! Earn, earn, earn! Spend, spend, spend!"

Hand the lady next to you a tissue – she really needs one. Get off the train. Walk to your office building. Stop in at the shop across the road. They sell chocolate. It's going to be a long day. You'll need some.

WHILING AWAY THE HOURS

Sit in a chair at a desk with a computer. All day long. Stare at the computer. Make fancy PowerPoint presentations to convince people that you’re a professional and you know what you’re talking about. Stare out the window. Such a lovely view of McDonald’s. Think to yourself, “At least I’m sitting in an office building, not serving hamburgers.” You feel better. Because inner peace comes from knowing there is always someone worse off than you.

Send a few emails. Talk to people on the phone. Have a cup of tea. Eat your chocolate. Turn off your computer.

GOING HOME

Wait at the train station. Wait some more. Get on a train. Wonder why people are so rude. Watch the young mother struggle to get her pram on the train. Watch the people right next to the door watch the young mother struggle to get her pram on the train. Obviously, they have been superglued to their seats and are unable to help her. Fortunately, you sat in the one seat without superglue. You help. Poor cute little baby – doesn’t know he has a life of working in an office and making PowerPoint presentations ahead of him. Maybe that's why he is crying.

CHILLING OUT

Stare at the fridge. Will it to produce something delicious for dinner. Give up. Go get takeaway pizza. Sit on the couch. Turn on the TV. Watch a show about people starving, wars, corrupt government officials and the latest sporting scandal. Highly entertaining because it can't possibly be real. Plus everyone is wearing such nice clothes. And their hair looks shiny and pretty.

GO TO SLEEP

Set the alarm for 6:00 AM. Drift off to sleep and dream about sailing.


A Day in the Life of a Cruiser

When you live on a sailboat, you get views like this.

 
GETTING UP

The splash of the water against your boat gently wakes you up at 6:00 AM. Have a good stretch, look out the porthole and smile. While you’re stretching, bump your head against the side of the cramped little v-berth. Stop smiling for a minute. Okay, back to smiling. You’re on a boat and the skipper has made coffee.

Grab the clothes you had on yesterday (and possibly the day before and maybe the day before that) and put them on. They don’t smell any worse than you, so you’re good to go.

No shower. No hot water. Oh well. You’re on a boat. It could be worse. You could be starving, living in a war-torn nation run by corrupt government officials and watching the news on TV about the latest sporting scandal.

GOING TO WORK

You don’t.

WHILING AWAY THE HOURS

You have a leisurely breakfast. You go for a hike. You have a picnic lunch. You stare at the incredible views all around you. You sail to a new anchorage. You enjoy a sundowner in the cockpit and watch the dolphins play and the sun set. You eat a dinner of fresh snapper. And you sigh with contentment.

GOING HOME

You’re home already. On your boat. Home is where the heart is. Your heart is on your boat.

CHILLING OUT

See above – whiling away the hours.

GO TO SLEEP

Drift off to sleep and dream about sailing. No alarm required.

If you work, what's your favorite and/or least favorite parts of your job? If you're retired or not working at present, what's the biggest difference between your days as a worker bee and what you get up to now?

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Wordless Wednesday | Glow Plugs

Wordless Wednesday is supposed to be about posting a photo(s) without any words. But, I'm a rule breaker, so here are a few words:

1 - The engine on our boat works now! {If you've followed us for a while, you'll know how darn exciting this is.}

2 - We had to remove this panel to access the glow plug starter and replace an inline fuse.

3 - There's a reason for panels like these. They hide all of the scary bits and bobs that lurk behind them.

4 - Whenever I hear the term "glow plugs," I think about glow worms which makes me think about the "Inchworm" song from the Hans Christian Anderson musical. I can't get it out of my head now. 

What words does this picture(s) bring to your mind when you look at it?

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, click here. 

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Finding A Wee Beastie In The Eggs

I had a rather ordinary start to my day. I got up, had some coffee, went for a walk with Scott and then started to make breakfast.

When I opened the egg container this morning, I found a wee beastie lurking inside.

Here's what he looks like up close. Doesn't he look a little cranky to you? I'm guessing he hasn't had his morning coffee yet.

 

Scott brought him back from Glasgow with him. Every day he keeps turning up in new places. Scott's fun like that.

We used to have another wee beastie on our boat in New Zealand.

Here's a close-up. Clearly, he's had way too much coffee. And he's got a weird kind of drool thing going on.

For some reason, neither of our wee beasties have names. Odd, isn't it?

The rest of the day was far less entertaining than the egg incident. We worked on the engine. There were wire brushes, grease, grime, oil, dirt, dust and other unpleasant things involved. Plus a lot of paper towels. Lots and lots of paper towels. There's a reason why boaters call paper towels "white gold" - they're essential to most boat projects.

Just in case you needed proof that I actually worked on boat projects today, here's what my hands looked like at the end of the day. That's oil and grease under those fingernails, not a new trendy manicure. Living on a boat is just so darn sexy and glamorous.

How did your day start and end? What do you think we should name our wee beastie?

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Happy Holidays!

Image courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

We'll be having our usual holiday festivities over the coming days - enjoying a Christmas curry and watching Monty Python's The Life of Brian. Whatever your plans are during the holiday season, we wish you heaps of joy, good cheer and happiness and a wonderful New Year!

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Wordless Wednesday | Nativity Scene In Tenerife

Wordless Wednesday is supposed to be about posting a photo(s) without any words. But, I'm a rule breaker, so here are a few words:

1 - Several years ago, we spent Christmas in Tenerife. Tenerife is one of the Canary Islands, located off of the coast of West Africa.

2 - On Christmas Day, we went to Loro Parque, a zoo in Puerto de la Cruz, and then walked around town checking out the Christmas decorations. 

3 - I got a kick out of the nativity scene and how they used dolls to represent Mary and Joseph. I love the beard they drew on Joseph with a magic marker. 
 

What words does this picture(s) bring to your mind when you look at it?

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, click here. 

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Sandcastles | Anna Maria Island, Florida

One of the first things we did once Scott came back was to go through the very long list of boat projects that we have to do before we can head off to the Bahamas.

Here's the problem with project lists - they're utterly depressing. They make you realize how much you have to do, how much it's all going to cost and how much you don't have a clue about.

What do you do when you're overwhelmed by your boat project list? You lock up your boat, get in the car and drive as far away as you can before you run out of gas. We got as far as Anna Maria Island on the Gulf Coast of Florida where we rented a cottage for a week so that we can chill out and muster up our courage to tackle the boat project list.

We've been going out for long walks on the beach while we've been here and admiring sandcastles.

This one isn't so much a sandcastle as a sand snowman.

And it wouldn't be Florida without a turtle made out of sand and shells.

There were plenty of more traditional sand castles. Some were pretty elaborate with complicated moat systems.

Do they have better sandcastle making equipment nowadays? The ones I made as a kid never looked as good as the ones we saw.

And of course, sandcastles as a reminder that everything fades with time. I wonder what this one looked like originally before the water and wind eroded it.

When's the last time you made a sandcastle or played on the beach? 

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Kililing Time At The Airport

Scott made it back yesterday, but not without a wee bit of drama one comes to expect from air travel. His connecting flight to Orlando got canceled, but they were able to reroute him on another flight which got in an hour later.

Since I had time to kill at the airport while I waited for him, I wandered around taking pictures and doing some people watching.

For those tourists flying into Orlando to visit Disney World, the whole experience starts at the airport. 

I had fun watching all of the little girls sit next to Snow White to get their picture taken. I kind of wanted to get my picture taken with her too.

Traveling on airplanes is hard enough as it is, fighting your way through the crowds and struggling with your bags. It's even a million times harder if you aren't fully mobile and have to get around in a wheelchair.

 I did a double take when I saw this statue. It looked really life-like.

The airport was decked out for the holidays. There was a great a cappella choir wandering around the airport and singing Christmas carols.

And that's it for today. Scott's got jet lag and he's still a bit shattered from his trip, so I forsee a lot of napping on today's agenda.

Do you like air travel? What's been your best and/or worst air travel experience?

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