What I Thought Was a Boat

I started this blog with the intent of documenting all of the unique daily adventures and challenges that would surely come for an unlikely candidate to be living on an old wooden boat. I knew it was sure to be interesting, but more importantly, I believed that documenting life on Xta-Sea was going to be the telling of my big come back story.   

I've realized that only writing about time spent on the boat isn't doing justice to what that time was and to what Xta-Sea is.  What I thought was a boat turned out to be the catalyst to recognizing the life I am meant to live. I may not be experiencing life on the boat every day, but I will forever be living on Xta-Sea. Here's to the rest of the story!

I struggle to find the words to adequately describe the level of self discovery that took place over the course of the two years from signing title and swearing in as a new member of the yacht club to pulling her back into the boat house at the end of my summer living aboard.

That whole summer my biggest fear was the end of the adventure and the unknown of what would come next.  I spent so many months clinging to the vision of what it would mean to  be living on the boat.  I dreaded the end before it even began.

Ultimately, the experience was phenomenal, but nothing like I expected. There were so many surprises I hardly know where to start. I didn't blog as much as I planned but I journaled a lot for which I am grateful. So much of it seems like a dream. I am grateful to be able to read and relive the little things that are easy to lose from memory.

I don't know what I learned more about - the boat or myself. There is a reason so much romanticism and lore exist around boats and life on the water. I feel the soul in my boat, and never have a sense of being alone when I am aboard. Whatever magic it is, I am a believer and I know we were on the journey of transformation together.   My most spectacular moments of self discovery came through the unexpected surprises that, at face value,  had nothing to do with living on a boat but at the same time, had everything to do with the fact that they happened while I was living on that boat. Those memories and experiences are exquisitely entangled and the best parts of me were unearthed and set free in the process.