We change course

Yes I know. A 45 year old man, turning his life around. Nope, there won’t be a motorcycle(already got one), I won’t get a 25 year old girlfriend. Nope, the next step I’m going to take is WITH Carla.

Like so many of you of my age, you walk through your career and at some point you think it should change. Carla and I had a software company and we sold it in 2014. At that moment we fell into some kind of no men’s land. Of course I didn’t stop working. But after 6 years now, I must conclude that this can’t be the goal of life.

Carla made that same kind of conclusion in her own way. Her dad suddenly died in 2014 and her mother died in 2019 after a short period of disease. And on top of that, her sister got sick in 2020, so her conclusion was the same as mine. You don’t suppose to live to do a job until you are 67 en with a little bad luck never reaching an age of 70…. No that CAN’T be the case.

In 2020 I accidentally discovered some YouTube channels about sailing. At first I was searching for information about Victron Energy chargers/inverters because we wanted to upgrade our energy system on our powerboat. When you’re searching for that in combination with boats, you will find a lot of DIY videos of boatowners and especially cruisers. People who refit a boat and sail around the world with that. And from one channel you will find another channel and before you know it, you see all the episodes of www.sailinguma.com, sailing exodes, svdalos and much more. And then I realized that sailing around the world is not just only for sailors of the Volvo Ocean Race, but also can be done by people like we are and who have just passion for life.

Back in 2014, when we were searching for a boat, I was sure about one thing. It must be a powerboat. I grew op on a powerboat. A powerboat had more living space then a sailboat and when the kids wanted to take some friends with us, you (or I) need space. At that time we bought Casper, our Vri-Jon Contessa 40. Carla grew up on a small sailboat en she agreed that in our situation back then a powerboat was the best thing to do. We enjoyed the last couple of years sailing with Casper in Friesland, a province in the north of The Netherland with al lot of channels and lakes.

And then there was in 2020 the world epidemic Corona(Covid-19). In spring, when there was a partial lockdown in The Netherland, it was great on the lakes. Almost no-one was sailing, but we were! Unfortunately in the summer almost no-one could arrange a vacation abroad. So a lot, really a lot, people got on the water this summer in The Netherlands. We used to have a nice relaxed time on the lakes, now it was full. So we decided to sail more distance and go away from Friesland. We sailed from the Friesland, to Overijssel and on the IJssel river we wend to the IJsselmeer. Our goal this summer: Almost no visits to shops, no visits to marinas and just enjoy together as a family. Just the 4 of us. By living like that, we tried to escape from Covid-19 and we loved it!!! And when we didn’t expect it couldn’t be better, there was that trip, in the early morning. Sailing over the IJsselmeer, almost no other boat around us. The peace, the silence, wow!!

After that feeling you just slowly put all the pieces together. Where are we going in life? What do we want in life? How does our free time looks like in the future? Do we need that much of people around us? Do we really mis a lot right now because of al the rules of Covid-19? Wouldn’t it be great if we could enjoy life without that many people around us? Wouldn’t it be great to spend more time on the water and maybe live on the water? Our whole life, we enjoyed being on the water. As a child with parents, as a teenager my own dinghy with 4hp motor, Sailing school and now our own boat with the kids. What are the possibilities for us right now? How can we live our life different? Shall we take the first small step? Can we say goodbye to Casper? Are we going to search for a sailboat on which we can make big adventures

YES! We are going to do that, but not like Roelof and Carla always does. No we are going to make baby steps. Do we have a goal? Yes! When will we reach the goal? No idea! Are we going to enjoy every single small step which brings us closer to our goal? Yes!, YES! And YES!

We change course, but do not burn all the ships behind us. 🙂 We will make small tiny steps en we will enjoy every step. Together we know, one day we will set foot on foreign soil, in the beginning nearby and perhaps later on the other side of the world!