Get Lost On Purpose

Category: General

General posts about life, travel, and more…

  • A 14yr update – Home on Lake Oconee

    14 years since the last update on the blog. Where does the time go? Drew and I still talk about this adventure and our time aboard Dosia nearly every single week. The journey burned itself into our souls and we have never let it go. We still get emails from this site and have even been recognized at a few boat shows over the yeras. And our plan is to return to boat life again…eventually! In the meantime, we have settled into a happy existence here on Lake Oconee in Georgia. We now have 3 kids growing at the speed of light – Shafer (13), Lydie (11), and Lincoln (9). Days sitting in the cockpit of Dosia have been replaced by weekends driving to soccer games in our giant land yacht Yukon XL, full of chairs and coolers.

    We did find a bit of paradise though. We live a hugely fulfilling life here on Lake Oconee. Post covid, this area has become a thriving relocation and second-home destination. It really is the perfect place to live. Still country enough to know everyone. But developed enough to give us ample activities to keep the family busy. We bought a house on the lake, a wake boat, and our kids have grown up in and around the water while attending Lake Oconee Academy, one of the best schools in the state. I transitioned into my full time career in Lake Oconee Real Estate and have helped hundreds of families from all over the US find their dream homes here in neighborhoods like Reynolds Lake Oconee, Cuscowilla, and Harbor Club.

    So there is happiness on land albeit in a different way than happiness on a boat. We are so happy we were able to get out and really live life to its fullest before committing to a more traditional life. And we will encourage our children to do the same. There is a short window of time in everyone’s life where health is high and obligations are low. Take advantage of that time. And never regret it.

  • Traveling Around the World – Greatest Hits 6th edition

    Wow.  Almost a full year since our last post on this blog.  We are completely assimilated back into the real world now with car payments, cell phones, business lunches, and limited vacation time.  Weekly lottery tickets give me hope that maybe, just maybe, we can give it all up and head back out there but I know in the back of my mind that it will be a while.  At least business is great.  We stay too busy to follow other blogs and see what we’re missing so out of sight, out of mind as they say.  In the meanwhile, here’s a few more photos for the world to see (though they are probably more for me than anyone else at this point)!

    The Hong Kong Jockey Club right in the middle of the city is an AWESOME experience
    The Hong Kong Jockey Club right in the middle of the city is an AWESOME experience

    One Foot Island in the Aitutaki Lagoon. Still one of our favorite places on Earth!
    One Foot Island in the Aitutaki Lagoon. Still one of our favorite places on Earth!

    One of the very few salvaged from a faulty memory card during our time in Paris 🙁

  • Arrival in Australia!

    (posted by Marge)

    Land ho!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8 and a half days later we’re here. Despite some mild setbacks in speed on the last night thanks to the leaky radiator, we slapped a bandaid on her and kept on trucking! We arrived at the entrance to the Brisbane harbor around sunset last night only to realize we had another 40+ miles winding in and out, up and down the harbor/river before we hit the customs dock. Pulled in about 3 in the morning. Its now a little after 7 and the customs officials have already come and gone. Waiting on quarantine and soon Trevor and Alli will be here as well. Got some packing to do here onboard, pick up the rental car, say a very bittersweet goodbye to Dosia, and we’re off. Stay tuned into the blog as we attempt to get lost on land and thanks for following us along!

  • Crossing the Tasman Sea – Last Day?

    Oh silly me. What does a new radiator cap cost these days? Ten bucks? I wouldn’t know. I don’t have one on board. I have a used one that came off the exhaust manifold when I first got the boat. I decided to bring it along as a spare. I put it in a ziploc and tucked it away in a hole and there it sat unused for 4 years of sailing. On to the irony…

    I’m sitting in the companionway on nightwatch, shift one (8-11pm), watching an episode of “Breaking Bad” on the iPod when I get a big whiff of coolant. “Hmmm…that’s odd. We’ve been motoring for hours and I haven’t smelled any coolant before,” I said to myself. Having learned that when an odd noise, or vibration, or smell occurs on a boat there’s probably something that needs immediate attention, I went on the hunt. Opening the engine room I notice a splatter of green towards the back of the engine. Uh-oh I think, a leaky hose. Access to the major components of the cooling system on Dosia is through the starboard cockpit locker so I closed up the engine room door and headed outside. Upon opening my shiny, newly painted, bright white cockpit locker I was greeted by what looked like a green explosion on top of my battery box immediately beneath the engine’s cooling expansion tank. Great. Why is there coolant leaking/spraying out around the cap? Throttle back, engine off. After 13,000 some miles on Dosia, 96 miles from the finish line, a radiator cap that has never given me a single problem decides to bust and my only spare is an older, rusty, slightly less leaky one. It is functioning enough to give me 1500 rpm’s with an occasional spit and dribble so I can’t complain. But I can sit and wonder how something so small can know exactly the right time to break. We were on schedule to make it into Brisbane mid afternoon tomorrow with plenty of time to check in and get legal before the weekend. Now, at our measly 5 knot pace, we’re hoping for a night arrival tomorrow. Boats are freakin hilarious.