Happiness Level, Graphed: Work Life vs Boat Life

Full Disclosure: You should be getting a photo tour of Long Island, but I'm too lazy to find the photos. So instead, you're getting an old post that I forgot to publish. Lucky you!

So, how does day to day boat life stack up against day to day 9-5 life?
Well, here's a handy graph!

0 is neither happy nor unhappy
Positive numbers denote joy
Negative numbers denote despair

Work Day:
7AM-9AM: Drive to work. Deep unhappiness, many near death experiences, complete loss of faith in humanity. - 7
9AM-12PM: Work. Prefer to be on the beach, sure, but at work I made money, which is the source of all happiness and joy, and I got to talk to people I am not married to about things other than toilets.  0.
12PM-1PM: Lunch. Slight happiness spike. 1
1PM-5PM: Work. 0
5PM-7PM: Drive home. Despair level higher than drive to work as humanity has somehow gotten angrier during the day. -8.
7PM: Dinner. Yay! 3.
8PM-10PM: Convenient chores. Easy things like throwing laundry in a machine, driving to a nearby well stocked grocery store, etc. -2.
10PM: The highlight of the day: Game of Thrones! 5

Boat day: 
7AM: Sleep in. 4. 
8AM: Coffee on the patio. Maybe Humphrey the Manatee will do a swim by. 6.
9AM: Take Hastings to shore for a walk. 5. 
10AM: "Talk to Flex-o-fold", or "Boat Drama". Boat drama could be dragging across the anchorage, dropping a Japanese screw that will take weeks to replace, an engine belt snapping, or the dinghy engine dying on the way back from shore. -4
11AM: Break engine. AKA Even More Boat Drama. -7.
12PM: Take a break to have lunch while enjoying a lovely waterfront view. 3. 
1PM: Start fixing engines. It's not that bad really, aren't we lucky to live on a boat, oh look there's Humphrey. -3.
2PM: Still fixing engines. Oh my god, why is the engine room so small? Argh, I dropped a screw! Why is it so hot? Where is my screwdriver? I can't see it! Blood is streaming down my forehead! I hit myself in the head with the screwdriver I was looking for! HELP! -8.
3PM-5PM: Move onto inconvenient chores like hauling laundry to a machine miles away, or doing it by hand, running the watermaker, scrubbing mold from a ridiculous spot, or removing seagrass from the fridge strainer while crouched in the corner. But hey, aren't we lucky to live on a boat? 0.
5PM: Watching Humphrey the manatee, or a dolphin, or coloring, while drinking tea. Life is good. 6.
6PM: Dinghy or paddleboard trip. 6.
7PM: Lovely sunset. Isn't it lovely to have the time to watch the sunset every night? Just lovely. 8.
8PM: Dinner. Eating gourmet meals while enjoying the view. 5
9PM: Underwater light show, featuring barracuda eating baby fish. One day Humphrey the Manatee will swim under our lights to give us a 10. Right now it's stuck at 8.
10PM: Watching DVDs. 5
Sunset from Cambridge Cay, Exumas
The takeaway: The highlight of our day used to be watching TV, at 5 points of joy. Watching TV still gives us 5 points of joy, however it is a let-down from the many highs of the day. If you count up all the points during the day:

Work= -23
Boat = +35

So, according to this very un-scientific spreadsheet, work life was an overall negative and boat life is an overall positive. Yep, being stuck in the engine room, waiting for a Japanese screw to be shipped from Siberia, after Debbie the Parts Department person gets back from her safari, is a big pain in the neck. But waiting for the screw means I can have a more complete spreadsheet of "Humphrey's movements around Tarpon Bay, Key Largo: is it random or by design? Is the design random? Is Humphrey happy? And, wouldn't he be happier if we were swimming under my lights at night?" 

What daily item brings you the most joy and the most despair? 

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  1. I'm glad you were too lazy to look for your pictures of Long Island because I really enjoyed this post -- it's VERY clever!I especially liked your 2pm entry because no boat job around here can be done without David bleeding in process. And it's nice to know that we're not alone in that struggle.

    Stephanie @ SV CAMBRIA

    1. We're pretty much in an abusive relationship with the boat, constant bruising, gashes. It's such a regular feature we don't even remember which project that scar came from. Boating: blood, sweat, and tears!

  2. Nice comparison. The making money part must have gotten good points in the work department, right? Now, if only you could combine all the good things from both categories into one lifestyle. :-) Don't worry. We're still working on that part as well. The solution is impossible: a comfy boat that never breaks and only has to endure good weather.

    1. Man, do I miss making money! It gets depressing when it's all just departing. I guess if it was easy, everyone would do it and I'd have to say goodbye to quiet secluded anchorages.

  3. This is a great post - possibly one of your best ever! There are days when I wonder what the heck we're doing, like yesterday with our dinghy davit breaking, but overall the score for cruising outranks the score for working in corporate la-la land.

    1. Hey, there will be blood when you are boating! Whenever we are sad due to boat frustration, we remind ourselves it is still better than the daily commute.


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