Two Who Got Away (Life On A Small Boat)
(Page 4 of 5)
July/August 1972
By Lynn Monfort
We've never yet been lucky enough to cruise for a whole year but we've talked to dozens of folks who have and we always try to find out what it costs them. Gross expenditures quoted to us have ranged from a low of $500 per year to a high of $500 a month. The people spending the big money are addicted to freshwater showers, public docks and restaurants . . . while the folks on the other end of the scale use some of the ideas we've found for cutting costs. Still, it's significant to us that—without exception—all the other live-aboards we've talked to depend on relatively expensive canned food as the mainstay of their diets. If you're handy with sprouts, foraging and similar MOTHER ideas, you can probably cut your living expenses to a figure lower than the lowest quoted above.
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To the people who tell us, "Oh, we'd love to do what you're doing . . . but we have children", we reply, "Phooey!" Living on a boat is the best thing that can happen to kids. Very young ones have to be watched, of course, but they have to be watched in houses and apartments too. Children respond well to the discipline and beauty of the sea and quickly learn to pull their own weight.
Let me add that sailing, while a wonderful life, is by no means all roses. I vividly recall one grim night when, in heavy weather, Bob was violently seasick to port and I to starboard. I was certain that nothing could ever get me on a boat again and even Bob—normally stoic—admitted he had never felt worse.
But, when we had at last found a safe anchorage and had sopped up some rest and hot food, we just as firmly decided that we had never felt so happy and elated. We had discovered that—without the challenges, the occasional deprivations and hardships—life wouldn't be nearly so interesting. For without contrast, there is no real appreciation . . . and without appreciation, nothing.
Everytime we read in some moronic publication that, in today's world, it's inevitable that men should live in platoons and march to the same drummer . . . we feel as if we've gotten away with the perfect crime. Being free, happy and independent isn't exactly criminal, of course . . . but it's the kind of life that's awfully hard to find these days.
It can be found, though . . . and we hope you come sailing by some sunny day with your skin tanned, your laundry in the rigging and bananas ripening on the mainmast. We'll know immediately what you're about . . . and if our dinghy's here, it means we're home and you're welcome.
An Evening Aboard The Monfort Sloop
The Bahama islands offer some of the finest cruising waters in the world . . . especially to skin divers, who find the coral reefs here indescribably beautiful. My favorite spot is just off the island of Bimini, marked by rocks jutting up from water so clear that a small shell can be seen on the bottom 20 feet below. Beneath the surface, large schools of brilliantly colored fish swim in and out between yellow sea fans. Everywhere there's an awe-inspiring abundance of life.
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