2012… Wow!
Well here we are, the start of another year, the year 2012. Is it just me or does that sound weird? Twenty twelve, is sounds ridiculously futuristic, or maybe it’s just because this will be my fifty fifth year on this planet and when I talk about things I’ve done in the past it now sounds like ancient history. Like over Christmas when I happened to mention that I joined the Navy in 1975 and then realised how long ago that was!
Anyhoo here it is, another year and, scarily, the beginning of my sixth year of building ‘Gleda’. I’ve always been wary of falling into the trap of ‘perpetual building’ that many other have done. I’ve always tried to stay focused on the fact that I was actually a sailor who just so happened to be building a boat.
I set out on this journey with a five year build in mind and loyal readers may recall that my original launch date was May 1st 2012. For reasons documented elsewhere in this blog I made the decision to extend that deadline by twelve months in Spring last year, my intention was to focus all my time and energy on building the business that would finance completion of the build and subsequent cruising funds thereafter.
Unfortunately it hasn’t happened, if anything I’ve gone backwards and truth be told, at this point in time completion and launch of ‘Gleda’ seem like an impossible dream.
I confess that I’ve been in a dark place these past months, it’d would be easy to succumb to depression and helplessness and I have the scars to show how hard I’ve been fighting. But this New Year has brought new hope. My head is in a much better place, my optimism is high and I’ll be doing my damnedest to make 2012 the best year of the build yet.
It’ll need to be if I’m to reach my target for this time next year because by then I want the hulls sheathed and painted, portlights and hatches installed and the interiors fitted out well enough that I can live aboard. I also want the beams built, sheathed and painted so that the boat can be assembled and put on the water if needed. It’s a big ask I know but if I’m to reach to re-vised launch date of May 1st 2013 one year and four months away it has to happen.
