Revised Dream Emerging

Ever since I was a teenager - many decades ago - I have wanted to spend time building and cruising/sailing on a sailboat. I can recall spending hours perusing the plans for "Gypsy" in the magazine "Science and Mechanics" - dreaming of building and sailing this boat. Well, over the years I have done some building and sailing on many boats but I want to do more. Recently I have been working on the latest version of my dream and have made some decisions how I plan to follow through on these decisions.

The purpose of this blog post is to present the executive summary of the details of the emerging revised dream. But before I begin with the description of the revised dream - I collect sayings, poems, and readings. I have thousands of them. Almost every one has special meanings for me. It is reasonable to expect that you will see many of those if you read this blog. Here is one I thought of that is relevant to this post:

"DREAMS"
by Langston Hughes

Hold onto dreams
For if dreams die
Life is like a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

On to the newest iteration of the dream:

I selected a design by Jim Michalak. He calls it Jukebox 3. I won't go into all the reasons why I chose this designer and this plan. That will come later. I will say that he is one of, if not the, foremost designer of this type of simple homebuilt design. Here is the profile of the boat:

I have been communicating with the designer regarding changes I would like to make in the design. Here is a link to more information about the boat design:
More Agape Information

and here is a link to many other Michalak designs:
More Michalak Designs

For towing the boat and for serving as a shore base I am looking for a 15 or so years old Ford F150 4 wheel drive truck. The plan is to refurbish the mechanical systems.

Now comes the part that is still being planned:

My life has been centered around the east coast of the United States - from Texas to Maine and points in between. I would like to sail from Mexico to Canada along the coast. The idea for doing this comes from knowing that some people hike the Appalachian Trail - from Maine to Georgia and do it in segments. I am exploring sailing from Mexico to Canada is relatively short sails.

Stay tuned.