Living in Modern Luxury

Fort Lauderdale – 8 kilometres walked

My day today was simple. I spent five hours deep cleaning the boat and doing a few small jobs then walked to the Publix supermarket (stopping for Indian lunch at the Bombay Darbar along the way – Christmas present to myself) and picked up a few groceries. It was 26 degrees today with high humidity and it felt fantastic. As I was paddling the dinghy back to SeaLight I saw Corey was in his cockpit so stopped for a chat with him. After that I finished up a few things on the boat then did a daring solo water raid to fill up my four jugs and ensure we had maximum water supplies onboard for the teenage cyclone that was about to hit. After this I just hung around, waiting for my family’s 12 am flight and subsequent taxi to arrive so I could give them first class chaperone service to their vacation home on the water. I am so, so excited to see them!!

I did come across something today I'd like to write about.

 

I follow a Toronto real estate developer named Brandon Donnelly who writes a daily blog primarily about real estate, but he covers many over topics too. Today he mentioned another online blogger named Justin Welsh who wrote the following:

 

Modern luxury is the ability to think clearly, sleep deeply, move slowly, and live quietly in a world designed to prevent all four.

 

I thought about this all day. It’s a profound statement. It seems clear to me that this sailing trip is the ultimate in modern luxury.

 

Think Clearly – I have been able to think clearly simply because I have less to think about. My entire attention has been focused on getting this boat from place to place safely. I have not been thinking about the thousands of things that regularly clutter my mind at home (work, house, vehicles, administration) because these are either being taken care of by other people or I’ve deemed them currently unnecessary.

 

Sleep Deeply – I have been sleeping deeply and I have been sleeping longer. Admittedly, on sketchy anchorages I have not been sleeping as deeply, but on rock solid morning balls, I drift off to la la land shortly after 9 pm and I do not wake up until 5:30 or 6 am. That’s over eight hours of sleep every night, at least an hour more than I usually get at home. And I have felt great. Now, some nights I am woken up by my menopausal partner doing all kinds of weird shit – piling all the pillows and blankets on top of me as the hot flashes erupt, then taking them all away when she cools down, leaving the stable-temperature, innocent partner lying there freezing. She also flicks the cabin fan off and on with her toe all night. I don’t even think she knows she’s doing it – her toe is automatically regulating her temperature. She also gets terrible insomnia some nights and I’ll be awoken several times by the blue glow of her phone illuminating her face as she is playing a strategy game or catching up on the latest in American politics. Menupause also requires 6 to 11 bathroom visits per night so that can be disruptive. But with practice, I am usually able to sleep through most of her nocturnal frenzies but I think she’s starting to secretly hate me for it.

 

Move Slowly – There is nothing easier on a sailboat than moving slowly. It’s built right into the operating system. For our land excursions, we do move slowly, taking time to stop and smell the whatever flowers are around. We don’t have to be in a rush, so we are not.

Live Quietly – We don’t quite nail this one. It’s impossible to have much quiet in our life as one partner is Portuguese and permanently rigged to volume 11 (especially when on the phone with her parents) and the other is addicted to music and needs something playing in the background at all times. As for the trip, there has been precious little sailing so SeaLight’s 54 horsepower diesel is running a lot, and it is loud, boisterous, rumbling, and vibrating beast. But we have had some beautiful quiet moments - in anchorages, in parks, sitting on the deck of SeaLight as she is gliding through the water with the engine just a faint drone in the background, and in the v-berth at night before going to sleep as it is dark, quiet, and snug. If we put our minds to it, I think we could adjust routines to provide more quiet time. Wait, the kids are about to arrive. Scratch that plan, it's nothing but noise all the way from here!