I’ve been struck by this story of two people who lived in Colorado. They quit their jobs, sold all they had, and used that money to buy (and fix up) a boat. This was to pursue a dream of living at sea and sailing the Caribbean.
The dream was short-lived though, and on their second day at sea, the boat sank. They escaped the wreck with their lives, their dog, a cell phone, and $90 to their names.They’re left with no money, no jobs, no home. And the boat was uninsured.
They also had very little experience sailing. And this is why this story fascinates me.
The arrogance of it all.
For people who aren’t sailors, with the centuries of hard learned lessons and wisdom of sailers, to think that they could just pick it up?
Honestly, the pair is lucky they hadn’t made it very far out to sea before the boat wrecked. If they had been in open waters, this could have cost them both their lives.
It’s amazing how many comments I’ve read online that are defending them. People who are like “they were just following their dreams.”
Nothing wrong with following your dreams.
But that shouldn’t preclude doing things with wisdom. Which they did not (no experience, no money, no insurance, sailing in fog, navigating with last year’s maps).
I once decided to move to Chicago in the span of a morning.
It’s one thing to be a free spirit or to be impulsive.
But this was just foolishness. Doing something you didn’t know how to do, without resources, without a plan. You can have the biggest dreams in the world, but you also have to deal with the realities of life, and harsh consequences that can com from poor decisions. Fortunately for these two, they didn’t get themselves killed. That’s what the stakes were for following this dream. Far better sailers have lost their lives to the seas.
Proverbs teaches: The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it (27:12).
The couple has said this won’t be their last attempt at pursuing their sailing dreams. Next time, I hope they will actually put in the time to learning how to master the necessary skills. It’s great to pursue your dreams. But that also requires hard work.
Anything truly worth doing is something you probably can’t just learn on the fly.
jrb
Josh Benner 