A Cruiser’s New Years Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE from s/v Winterlude, David & Jan!  It’s the time of year to be thinking about New Year’s Resolutions … or for us, more like goals and objectives for the new year.    #1 on my list is to LEAVE THE DOCK!!!   🙂

Every year, David & I sit down and evaluate last year’s goals and objectives, see which ones we achieved and which ones we didn’t and why.  Keep in mind, this is over a glass of wine and we’re pretty flexible — the “why we didn’t” might simply be that we changed our minds and weren’t interested in pursuing that goal by mid-year!  🙂  On the other hand, it’s our experience if we don’t write down specific goals and objectives, it’s very difficult to achieve anything.  At this point, since I’m writing posts ahead for the holidays – we don’t have our 2012 list yet, but I do know a few items, including #1,  that will appear on my 2012 New Year’s Resolutions list!

#2.  STOP SPENDING SO MUCH TIME ON THE COMPUTER!   …. just as soon as The Boat Galley Cookbook is finalized, of course,  I enjoy writing, but lately I’m finding myself spending hours a day on the computer.  It’s sort of like when I used to go to my son’s USTA tennis tournaments and video the matches — I never felt like I was actually a participant at the match, just an outsider observing what was going on.  For me, spending too much time on the computer is similar.  I’m not actually living, I’m just writing about it.  That’s not good.

So, CommuterCRUISER will be changing format from a daily new post to three times a week — I’m thinking Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with spontaneous posts possible anytime.   We’re planning to leave the dock and go cruising again, not sure exactly when or where, (most likely the Keys and then the Exumas – Bahamas).  After we’re cruising, I suspect there may be only spontaneous posts now and then from “out there” – and I’m not sure if I can post photos from Winlink or not – I haven’t been able to connect and try it while still in the marina.  Too much interference.

Oh yes, we have some other New Year’s Resolutions that are carry-overs:

#3.  Continue our daily walks (preferably 3+ miles) and better nutrition – less meat and oil, no dairy,  more vegetables and fruits.

#4.  Finish editing and finalizing The Boat Galley Cookbook!  What an exciting project!!!

#5.  Every summer we travel so much we don’t really get to enjoy the lake (mudpuddle) we live on.  Last year I made myself a promise not to go anywhere, stay at home AND slalom ski every day so maybe by the end of the summer, I can actually “cut” across the wake versus just flat-skiing across – every time I try to put a ski edge in the water, I get zipped out of control across like a stone flung out of a slingshot!  Control might be a good thing!  🙂  SO, #5 becomes, stay at the lake, no major traveling for several weeks at a time.

And who knows what else we’ll come up with. Generally we find that if we don’t put it on the list, time passes and things never happen — such was the case with our Acadia, Maine trip last summer — but it was on the list and we did it!

It’s always good to add some things that are dreams and out of your immediate reach.  If we had never dreamed of a sailboat, we wouldn’t own Winterlude and we wouldn’t have commuter cruised over 10,000 miles.  At the time,  it was hard as a single mom with 2 teenagers to logically figure out a way to own a sailboat … kids college coming up, normal life expenses, etc.  BUT we put it on the list anyway.  And no one was as shocked as me when it happened, but that’s another story.

So be sure to write down your New Year’s Resolutions and keep them in a spot you’ll run across them periodically.  Doesn’t do any good to write them down and then put them somewhere where you’ll never see them again!

So we’re raising a glass of wine to your cruising dreams and ours!  HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!  Make it a GREAT one!  Do you have any New Years Resolutions you’d like to share?  Leave a comment!   CHEERS!  J