We have been here in B&V Marine attending a course that we signed up for voluntarily. The honeymoon thrill of buying a sailboat is officially over as the reality of owning a boat sets in… many questions flood my mind at the end of each day. (Especially if I am not tired enough from the day’s activities.)

The hard part which was once buying a sailboat is done. Now the next “hardest” part is here and we really both are rookies in this new unknown world of sailing. To cross that bridge of buying a sailboat was really difficult because of the commitment that boat ownership entails. I am aware of the crazy thing Rene and I have done. We now own a sailboat and we have seen so many boats in Marinas around Malaysia – unloved and rotting away. Either the boat owners have a terminal illness, lost their motivation to continue their dream, some run out of money and so many break up with their partners which is sad because they just want to forget that they ever owned a sailboat.

Yes, there’s plenty of sad frightening stories but we have to remember the good stories too from inspiring sailors such as Lin and Larry Pardey who sailed the world in a 24ft and 29ft sailboat. I read their book Self Sufficient Sailor regularly to stay focused.

My dream is now finally my real life as we start learning to adapt, to adjust, to find balance, to discover the amount of work we need to do and whether it will cost us a lot of money. Questions, doubt, fears, are mixed together with the excitement of potentially sailing on our own to unknown places one day. Will we fail? Will we run out of gas? At this point we try and focus on the now and the very next day, not planning too far ahead and just keep on moving. Progress slowly and make sure we can strike of at least one or two projects in our very long to do list.