When we haul our boat out of the water in November to escape the winter storms, our mechanic has four months to fix all of the broken stuff on it. He does this while we are in Montana in deep powder snow. Both Laurie and I make up a list of what needs to be fixed by the next spring when we get back so we can cruise without worrying. Some years the list is long and very expensive and some years it is short and just as expensive.
This year when we were all set to go to launch our big boat at the boatyard they discovered that something was wrong with the muffler. We needed a new one. The boat is 17 years old and this part is no longer manufactured so we had to have a special one made for it. When something goes wrong with one of our two engines, we might as well replace the same part on the other engine because it has the same number of hours on it and it will break in the same way very soon after it leaves the repair yard.
The really bad part of the whole deal is that we also have to wait two more weeks for them to make the parts.
We made the decision many years ago to live on an island in the Northwest when my body got too old to ride a surfboard or windsurf. I have to stay in touch with the ocean. This started when I lived near the beach in Topanga Canyon when I was a kid.
Unfortunately, the water up here in the Northwest is a lot colder than a body born in Southern California can tolerate for very long, but our friend and her daughters swim in it regularly. They are either crazy or we are for missing out on their fun.
Cruising in a boat is not like cruising in a motor home. If something breaks on an RV, you just pull off of the road and someone will show up and fix it for you. In a boat you are 100 percent at the mercy of your mechanic and you are at the mercy of your credit card. We are very lucky to have had the same boat mechanic for many years and he is great with Laurie and diagnosing boat problems.
I am not complaining about the cost of maintenance, but rather just pointing it out. A lot of my friends think nothing of paying hundreds of dollars for a single round of golf. Chances are they use their corporate credit card to pay for it and always include at least one customer in the foursome. The government got wise to deductions with boats about 30 years ago and so you just pay the bill and enjoy the sunset.
At anchor, if you plan it right you can put out your crab pots and in the morning, while your wife is cooking breakfast, you can bring up a limit of crabs that you cannot put a price on.
In 1962, I bought my first sailing catamaran, at a time when surfing was getting too crowded. The wind was free for my catamaran and the ocean was never crowded. The price of total freedom is whatever you care to pay for it. Right now, that money is being spent in the engine room and that will guarantee our freedom to cruise all summer without worrying about getting safely back to the dock.
What probably bothers me the most is that we had to postpone our spring cruise until that special part gets made so we can leave. In the meantime, I can wrap my hands around a golf club instead of a pair of throttles on our boats. I’m very lucky that I can do either one until the mountains in Montana turn white once again. And I can plan on that happening, on schedule.