Finally! The decks are freshly painted, the new boom bag is on, the boat is clean and Children of Phoenix is up on the broker’s site for sale. Now the waiting game begins… it could take 5 weeks or it could take 5 years… this is one of those elements I will have very little control over. Richard has sold Terra Novae, so he’s been busy giving some attention to Ariel (which is also up for sale). Ariel’s a sweet little boat… the opposite to mine (which my crew have nicknamed the ‘twitchy bitch’). Children of Phoenix will give you thrills (easily reaching 15+ knots boat speed when she’s up and planing), but also some spills if you’re not careful. Sail her too close to the wind on a reach when you’re on the wrong point of a wave and she’ll quickly have you laying over in a broach. With Ariel on the other hand, you need to not be in a hurry to get to your destination but she’ll get you there with as much comfort as sitting sedately in a rocking chair with an afternoon cup of tea. Both boats are solid, capable of going offshore; but neither are ideal. So the options are:
- neither boat sells; we wait but get out of Melbourne for winter or we go on Phoenix and Richard puts Ariel into storage in his factory
- one boat sells but not both; we go on the one that doesn’t but we’re limited to the east coast of Australia and possibly the Pacific
- both boats sell, allowing us to choose a more suitable boat in the location of our choice
We can’t control the outcome, so in the mean time we’re exploring what it would be like on each boat. I’ve spent a few nights on Phoenix in Docklands over the past two weeks, getting used to docking and berthing her on my own with the added bonus of being 10 mins walk from the office. The only other time I’ve taken her out on my own was just after the Boxing Day Dash earlier this year, when I decided to bring her back across from Brighton to Williamstown on my own. Murphy’s law was in full flight or my first solo outing – the prop decided to fall off just as I was hoisting the main… leaving me to dock the boat single-handed under sail in a northerly that was building to 20 knots. It was a character-defining moment, but not one I’m keen to repeat. I’m pleased to say the new prop has remained in place for these more recent solo outings! We’re also starting to think about how to convert the bow to an anchor locker with a deployment system. Last night we slept on Ariel for the first time and took her out this morning to watch the Classic Yachts racing. Despite being 6 foot shorter than Phoenix, her bunk is surprisingly more roomy. Spacious would be too much of an exaggeration but it’s a little longer than my V-berth and has a consistent width, so more room for knees, hips and shoulders. More importantly, she’s easy to handle for one or two – in fact there’s no room for more than that.
While we wait to see what happens, I’m staying focussed on the other things that needs to fall into place to join the list of successful dream converters; mainly developing alternative revenue streams. I’ve joined Freelancer.com and have been looking at the projects posted there. Mostly I’m looking at freelancewriting projects and the project budgets and bids you see there are a striking indication of the new global economy and just what the next generation are going to be up against. I’m not interested in earning $1 or $2 per hour to write thousands of words per day, and yet many people in India, Columbia and other places are bidding competitively for those types of projects. Possibly for them having a regular stream of those types of jobs actually produces a reasonable income… their English is good enough and they can do it from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. So I set my slider to only look at projects with a better return, but of course they’re fewer and farther between and the bidding is even more competitive. I’m yet to place a winning bid for a project – I must admit, given the type of projects that I keep seeing, I’ve been keener to focus on other possibilities. First and foremost would be to explore how far NAB’s flexible working arrangements can be pushed; I love my job and the people I work with and the ideal situation would be able to continue with it remotely in some shape or form. Given that’s unlikely, another possibility is the clothing line… the trial run of screen printing is done and there’s now a range of garments available in the Ozi Yoti shop. Check out the Clothing page – let me know if you can think of a catchy slogan! Richard and I have both become walking bill boards in our casual gear on the weekends – apart from having fun making up cheeky slogans my non-negotiable is that the clothing items must be good quality and comfortable.
I’m also structuring a model for delivering French lessons on-line via Skype or Facetime or Google Hangouts, although for the moment there’ll be a face to face component as well. I’m hoping to get the first group up and running before the end of September. Other to-do list items are to renew my listing as a NAATI translator and my VIT registration. All of which has to take a back seat to making sure I’m giving the required focus to my full-time day job as an Organisational Change Manager at NAB. A familiar dilemma for any aspiring Dream Converter… how to work on changing your lifestyle when your life is taken up with working to maintain the current one? I’d love to hear your tips…?