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.