What Karl wants to do next
I’ve been attempting to retain my equanimity. I should be ecstatic--we arrived safely in Bridgewater, after more peripatetic travels. Since leaving Alna, we have visited, in Maine: Newry, Mexico, Rumford, and Bar Harbor. We kicked it trail-style for a little while, even sleeping in the truck one night. It’s one of those ideas that seems great in theory, and works out much less than great in actuality. We were so exhausted and grumpy the day afterwards, that we ended up forking over the big bucks for a motel room, meaning that we would have been better off buying a gigantic car-camping tent for half of what we paid for the motel room and we would have been in the black. We could have even been much happier staying for the entirety of rally race, the stated reason for driving all over the state this past weekend.
We had a great time, though. We attended the New England Forest Rally, the largest race of its kind in North America, carried out entirely on dirt western Maine logging roads, at speeds averaging 117 miles an hour. This sport is Karl’s new dream, his new vision for future adventure: build Subarus at the farm in Maine, turn them over for a profit, and meanwhile put together an award-winning rally car. Actually, I’m not sure he cares at all about awards. What he likes is going fast, just like Ricky Bobby, and since he has 120 acres of dirt road to ride around on, riding around on dirt is what he’s going to do.
That’s all well and good. I’m completely supportive (except for, perhaps, when it comes to $5000 struts), but I don’t see how this adventure can be fully mine. He wants me to train as co-driver, the navigator who sits beside the driver and is the brains of the operation, and that sounds fun to me, but I’m not going to get all sold on this adventure like I was on the last one. I’m not having my heart broken again.
So here we are. The turnip greens look fabulous, as do the burgeoning jalapeno peppers. We have a new possibility for an online business, and this house should feel like home. Maybe it will begin to. I’m supposed to be posting my Secret ad today, online, though, and I keep procrastinating it. I don’t want to take that step. I’m not quite ready, even though I need to be, because I’m already broke.
I just keep thinking of that stupid, stupid engine, not starting, and how naive of me it was to expect it to. My boat sat for eight months and I just feel like such an idiot, with all my talk of faith and destiny and hope and a calling. All I am is a stupid, stupid girl, who left her boat for too long, and now it’s useless and virtually worthless.
8 comments:
So Cap'n,
What u gonna do with the new sail's?
Did u consider putting the old sail slides on the new sail?
Did u consider a bracket on Secret's stern and an outboard to get her back to where she can be fixed?
Just wondering,
Cap'n Dave
S/V Selah
Ranger 33
where u gonna advertise Secret and how much are u asking?
So you're back in Maine. We will be at Katahdin weekend of 8/22 and 8/23. I'll call you before that, would be great if you could come down. Get some of those Maine reservations!
Dave P.
So your back in Maine. We will be at Katahdin 8/22- 8/24. Would be nice if you could get some of those Maine reservations and come down. I'll call you before that.
Dave P.
Somehow going from the purity of foot-power travel and then sailing to tearing through the woods with a souped-up engine just doesn't fit for me. Of course, I don't like fireworks, guns, or loud motorcycles, either, my opinion is probably skewed.
Thanks for keeping up the log.
--Rodger
Seriously, if you were any more lame I'd have to find you and shoot you myself.
Do yourself a favor and get off that little soap box/horse you seem to live on. Life is tough, get over it.
I saw your boat in April when we were returning from Cuba on our way back to Florida. Let me ask you, who in their right mind leaves their boat in a foreign country, at anchor, with no one really watching it for 8 months?
What's wrong with you? Dump that loser boyfriend of yours and start living your life rather than whining about it.
I'm sorry he got sick and stuff, but he didn't want to be part of this sailing life before and it seems to me that all that has changed is that he now has an excuse to keep you from doing what you want.
Racing Subarus? Give me a break. Kick him to the curb and get on with life.
I wasn't going to respond to some of these posts, but I guess I will, if only to show some of you the kind of criticism I've been dealing with this winter. To anonymous number 1: my boyfriend nearly died. People who almost die leave their boats for eight months.
I'm going to hand-sew the new brackets on for the sails, which is what Ullman recommends. It doesn't seem like the best solution to me, but they are sure I can do it up to their specifications and standards, and assured me that the hand-sewn sail would be able to be sailed offshore.
I was planning to post Secret on eBay, but there fees are ridiculous. In the meantime, I've posted ads in local Want Ads, offering to serve as a delivery crew or captain to New England. Especially in Massachusetts, where sailors tend to be exceptionally avid. I have considered the outboard option. Until I can find a crew member willing to accompany me for an indefinite period of time, I don't think it's worth it financially. I'm thinking about asking $23,900... Karl thinks that's overpriced, but that's what equivalent boats on the West Coast are going for. I'd be willing to take offers, if anyone's willing to take them. I'll send you a phone number or email address if you'd like to talk in a less public forum.
Karl's actually thought about racing vehicles for a long time. He likes to go fast. The contrast is fairly extreme, considering what we've been doing the last four years, but he bought a racing motorcycle intending to race it before me, and decided to hike the AT instead. I'm being supportive, although I'm thinking instead I might hide in a log cabin somewhere, write my memoirs, and raise wolfdogs.
Melissa,
I've been following your blog since the beginning and admire and am envious of many of the things you have done... Living in northern California I can say that $23900 is a high price for a R33 without a running engine, even if it were here and didn't need to be moved from so far away... Since you paid $6000 when you bought it you should probably add what you have invested in it and hope to get that much for it. Local brokers in the San Francisco Bay area charge 10% commission (with a minimum of $4000).
A friend of mine paid $15000 for a R33 located in the San Francisco Bay in 2006. You can check www.latitude38.com for boat classified ads in the Bay Area. Hopefully this information will help you in pricing Secret to sell quickly.
Good Luck, and I look forward to each of your posts...
John
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