Landlubbers often ask, "When are you coming home?" What they
really mean is, "When are you going to buy a house, settle down, and live
like most other people?" Although this is a fair question, it
overlooks the obvious. Real ocean cruisers are already home because their
boat is their home.
Most ocean cruisers are middle class people who sold their house so they
could purchase a boat. They simply traded a terrestrial home for an
aquatic one.
Sailors have homes just like landlubbers. The big difference is that a
cruiser's home moves around, sometimes a little, and sometimes a lot.
It doesn't matter whether the anchor is down or the sails are up, a real
ocean cruiser is still at home. Every day that I sailed on my yacht -
33,000 miles around the world - I always felt like I was home.
Sometimes my home was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and at other times
it was in Australia, Thailand, the Caribbean, or hundreds of other
destinations. No matter where I was, as long as I was on my yacht, I was
already home.
Yachts are an excellent way to travel because they permit you to take your
home with you. There's no need for mountains of luggage or expensive
hotels. You simply need a bay in which to drop your anchor.
When I flew around the world by air, never once in the month long trip did I
feel like I was home. Airplanes, airports, and hotels never feel like
home. Contrast that with my sailing voyage around the globe. For
eleven years I sailed the high seas, and every single day and in every
destination, I felt like I was home.
When you talk to sailors who cruise full time, most of them will tell you
the same thing. Their yacht is their home.
Although some cruisers can afford a house and a yacht at the same time,
usually their house is rented to produce income, and their home is on the
yacht.
Cruisers have a special understanding of the old saying, "Home is where the
heart is." They made a choice to move their home from land to sea, and
it was a decision of the heart. They did it because that was what they
wanted to do.
So when exactly will cruisers come home? When will they move their
home back from the sea to land?
The answer is simple. When land is where their
heart is, they will do it. They will step off their small ship onto
dry land, start a new life, and make a new home.
