First boat

I promised that this log would begin at the very beginning and then I spent day after day, thinking to myself, what is the very beginning? What leads a person to decide that he can leave behind everything you know and get in a small boat and attempted travel entirely around the world by his or her self. And I realized that those are in fact, the questions that the journey itself is meant to answer.
So.
My first boat.
Last year, almost exactly a year ago, I found myself spending time (Perhaps too much time) looking at ads for used boat's. I looked at cruisers and houseboats and trawlers, but mostly, sailboats. Eventually I found a listing of a boat for sale near where I live, that was being sold by Marina.
The ads said "This is a nice shallow draft sailboat with trailer. Included is the boat mast boom, two bags of sales. Some safety gear and trailer the Marina's staff has used or water trail this boat ourselves. The boat was in use by the prior owner at one of our dock slips for two seasons before we halted out in shrink wrap it. So we believe it to be complete and ready for use"

It looked good in the picture and most importantly, perhaps. It was listed at just exactly the amount of money I had in the bank. So I went out and looked at the boat. Of course, I've never owned a boat and had no idea what I should be looking for, but that's okay...Right? It wasn't very mildewy, and it seemed to have all the parts far as I could tell, although the motor mount on the back was naked. The man at the Marina told me that perhaps for a few more hundred dollars Something could be done about that. We negotiated a bit more. I started with my entire bank account. I subtracted the amount I needed for my next rent payment, and then made an offer. The offer stipulated that the boat had to have the motor that ran mounted on it with a gas tank and that he should include dock space for the rest of the season. The idea as I explained to the seller was that if I bought the boat I needed to be able use it. And I wasn't going to be able to afford to fix it up. I needed the boat to be operable from the start, and so an agreement was struck. I would buy the boat, with sales and motor and dockage for the rest of the season. The boat included a trailer as well, on which I could store the boat in the winter and the boat would be launched for me but I'd pay labor for the launching.
I wrote a check and left with a combination of great joy and fear. I have two days off each week, but they're not the regular weekend, rather than having Saturday and Sunday I have two separate days, so no my next day off I came down to see which dock my boat would be floating at, and founded it exactly where it had been, on the trailer. I was told they simply hadn't got around to it yet. On my next day off, I returned and was told that there was a problem with the motor mount and that I was going to need a new turnbuckle for the back stay. The next time I called before going down and I was informed that the Bay, which this Marina sits on was having very low water and the sailboat wouldn't really be able to get out into the lake. So the boat would need be launched down at the river. I made it clear that I'd like the my boat to be launched by my next day off. I was thinking that I'd get my son who lives with his mother and bring him down to see my new boat and we'd taken it out together for the first time. The following Friday I went down to the river and looked for my boat to see which dock it was at and did not find it. So call the owner of the Marina to ask where I might find it. He told me that his people had put the boat in the water but it was sinking, so they pulled it back out and I should look for them at the launch sling. It seems that the hose which connects the drain in the cockpit to an outlet under the water line below the teller was cracked. When the boat was placed in water the cockpit drain went to work draining the great lakes into my boat. This hose was replaced with a Pice of scrap plastic flex house and gentlemen launching the boat showed me how to step the mast and where all the cables would be connected to the boat to hold the mast up. I found out later that the side cables are called shrouds and the ones to front and back are called stays (I'm going to try to remember to mention things like that under the assumption that some people who read this may not be boating people and some these terms may not mean anything to you as they did not to me yet on that day). So the boat was relaunched the motor put in place and started. It ran for about 30 seconds before it stalled. the two men working on my boat tried this several times before removing the motor and taking it off to be fixed, but mentioned to me that thay were going to go to launch first.
Great start.
I finished attaching the cables, that hold the mast in place. I tightened them until they all felt reasonably tense to me. I installed the ruter. Then I went off to the marine supply store, West Marine to be specific, and bought some life jackets. then I went and got my boy.
By the time I returned to the boat. The motor had been reinstalled, but the workmen were nowhere to be seen so I called the Marina owner again and asked what dock the boat was supposed to be at. I started the motor and we shoved off into the river. The dock I'd been assigned was about 300 yards down river and we got almost two thirds of the way there before the motor died. I tried to turn the boat toward the dock by pushing the teller (the handle on the ruter) which snapped off in my hand I tryed to restart the motor I tryed to remember what I was thinking when I spent all my money on something I know nothing about.
So there we were my son and I the first-time on my boat drifting down the river toward the lake (or maybe towards somebodies half million-dollar yacht) with no ability whatsoever to control the boat movements or direction. Fortunately a passing power-boater offered us a tow over to the dock. My son (he is not a Little boy) jumped off with a rope and we tied up.
My first voige.
Now, there was no way that I was going to go out into the lake without a working motor to bring me back up the river and into the dock. But I also didn't feel completely satisfied with my day of sailing. So I decided to at least raise the sails. I got the three canvas bags that had been presented to me as the sails for the boat and pulled out each of the sails. I had a mainsail (the big triangular one) were all so familiar with. I also had a jib (that's the sail that goes in front of the mast and fills the space between the four stay and the mast) and a genoa, which also goes in front of the mast, but stretches further back along the side of the boat for when there is less wind and you need more sail. First I raised the mainsail. It had a rope sewn into the leading edge, (the luff) which fit into a channel going up the mast and another along the foot that fit into the boom there were also two reef points where the bottom of the sale could be folded in And then the sail tied to the boom to shorten it when the wind is too strong for the size of the sail. Naturally I was still a little frustrated that I wouldn't really be able to take the boat out on the first day because of the motor, but I was really shocked when I raised the sail and found that it was about 4 feet taller than the mast. It turned out to Genoa was also completely the wrong size sail for the boat that it came with. So now I have a sail boat that didn't have sales that fit didn't have a working motor and the teller was broken off.

This was my first day as a sailor

I received a bill from the person who sold me this ... "boat" for the labor incurred during launching $540.18

In the blood?

I purchased my very first boat less than a year ago. It's fairly small, used, had been neglected, and so far, seems quite unreliable. And so I admit that even to me. The idea that in such a short time, I should have already determined that I want to sail around the world seems quite absurd! I'll tell you more about the boat later. But for now I'd like to share my thoughts on what may be behind such an absurd and quick acceptance of a new idea. You see, although I have never truly been to sea, no wait That's not quite true. When I was nine My family moved for three years to Germany, and we traveled there on a small ship. Again I'll speak more of that later. So anyway, my sailing experience until a year ago was limited primarily to a little bit of small boats sailing on the lake in the Adirondacks when I was a Boy Scout. My mother, however, was raised sailing. She and her brother sailed almost every day in the summer, her father, My grandfather had had a small sailboat, which he kept on the Genesee River and sailed on Lake Ontario. My grandfather had come to America from Holland, where his family lived for generations on an island, although I have not researched this, according to my family's oral history Everyone their sails. Power boats were almost unheard of there at that time, and the economy on the island was small, regular shopping for goods of whatever nature generally brought one to the mainland and the only way to do that was to sail. Every family had a sailboat, and most of the men went off to sea, either his fisherman or as merchant Marines. My grandfather I am told, sailed into New York Harbor as second ship's engineer of the Dutch merchant vessel the very week that World War I broke out in Europe, his ship immediately was quarantined. With the ship held indefinitely in New York harbor, he eventually jumped ship and became an illegal American. Or at least that's how the story goes, so sailing I suppose one could say is in my blood. Even though I myself am very new to the ropes the rigging in the spray.
When my mother was young. In 1945 the war was over, and she was a single working girl who had money put aside and as a lifelong sailor of small boats (lightnings to be specific) on Lake Ontario. She thought it would be wonderful while she was still free and young to get a great experience taking the Windjammer cruise out of Main. Of course I've only seen a few pictures of this trip but in 1995, at the age of 71. My mother received a letter from the company with whom she had sailed 50 years before. The letter informed her that she had been on the first voyage of the clipper on which she had sailed and that as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of that ship. Anyone who sailed on it the first year was invited back for another cruse at the same price they had originally paid. My mother did not hesitate. She responded immediately and at 71, she set off on to haul line and hoist sail on a tall ship out of Mystic Harbour. So; in the blood?
I have had the pleasure of reading several online logs of sailing adventures, as well as some print books ( and I'll share some of the these are sources with you if you choose to stay with me) So far I have not found any that are started from the very beginning of the story.
So that's the nature of this log, to begin at the very beginning, with the simple realization that if a person with true determination has a sailboat he might literally go anywhere in the world.
Although I've read the storeys of some who have sailed around the world successfully, some would sailed more than once around the world and some who started off only to find disaster very early on in their journey.
So far, my plan consists of putting away 20% of my income in hopes that in five years I'll be able to buy a boat capable of an ocean journey. : ) So I'll share my progress with any who choose to share with me I hope that I'll have something to say and I hope that you'll have something to say in return. Certainly anyone who has real experience in sailing on the great deep sea who wishes to respond to my posts with advice or criticism I welcome you, gratefully, and I hope you'll consider me one of you.
My next post I'll start talking about my first experiences with my first boat and what I've learned so far this season.

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I have a dream I'd like to share. Come along if you dare. But be warned that this is a dream that my last the rest of my life, or, may end it!