A dream gone wild

It was during my most recent sailing trip, last August. I was exploring the beautiful coast of southern Scandinavia with a handful of sailors I’d met through a yacht forum. We were passing by lots of enchanting little coastal towns, lonely red wooden huts and, of course, lovely sailboats. It soon became one of our favorite pastimes to discuss which one of the cute little houses and which of the boats we’d like to have. At some point I got the idea that, if I had a sailboat, then what would I need a house for? I would want to be on my boat all the time anyway. I don’t need much space. I don’t make high demands. Yeah, a nice little sailboat would be enough for me! I would just live on it, maybe have a home port, and otherwise mess about and practice sailing to my heart’s content.

During the following few days I’d elaborate my funny idea. Hey, how handy would that be? I would save so much money on rent! I can’t stand the idea of paying a whole lot of money each month for something that’s not mine. I could get a rather inexpensive used boat and learn to renovate it. The whole deck would be my balcony and I’d have a view of the sea all around! Nobody could build a high-rise block in front of it, or if then I’d just sail somewhere else. Oh nice, this blue one – I’ll paint my boat blue, too! And I’ll try to cultivate herbs on my “balcony”. Oh look, a bicycle – on my boat I’ll keep a bicycle, too!

My fellow sailors, all somewhat more experienced, amusedly reminded me that having a boat would also mean dealing with a lot of dirt, oily mechanical stuff, fuel, gas… Eww, I said. I’m not going to deal with mineral oil or diesel! – “You’ll have to”, they laughed. “And what are you going to do in winter anyway? You’d need a crazy amount of the stuff to heat up a boat when it’s freezing!” – I frowned. There had to be some other way. I’d use electricity or something, I replied defiantly. Maybe even from alternative energy sources. Wind power? Solar panels? On a boat that should be possible.

Over the course of the trip, I came up with more and more bold ideas which I enthusiastically explained to my pitiful fellow sailors. On a boat there are always waves. Would it be possible to even use the little movements in a harbor? What about the winches for the sails, they could be used as generators? Hey, what about rain? All the little falling drops have kinetic energy! Wouldn’t it be possible to use that..? Oh, and something completely different – maybe I could offer special-diet sailing trips for Celiacs and other food intolerant people like me? That would be awesome! And so I went on. I got a lot of input and a lot of skepticism from my fellow sailors. They probably thought I was a hyperactive nutcase, but I didn’t mind.

Obviously, this whole thing was just some sort of running gag. Something nice to dream about. I started to realize, however, that my fellow sailors seemed to think I was serious about it. That I was actually making plans to live on a sailboat that would run on renewable energy. That I was going to create my very own special home. Hey, wait a minute… Why exactly did I think this couldn’t be serious..?