I want a boat.

Well, to be honest … I think I want a yacht.

I have no idea what got me off on this tangent as I was out walking the dog this evening, but for some reason I started thinking about how cool it would be to own a really big boat to just bum around to wherever, whenever…

Granted, it’s probably an idea better left for retirement when one doesn’t necessarily have anything to do on a given day … not to mention that still gives me another 20-30 years to save up the couple of million dollars that I’m finding a nice, simple, 65-foot luxury ship will run you these days! Not to mention yacht fuel and dock fees and I’m sure that there are about a billion other expenses involved with owning one of these things … but still, yacht!

I wonder what the right terminology is here. I mean, “boat” is probably understating yourself just a bit, but yacht sounds super big and fancy and ultra-rich. Mine doesn’t have to be ultra-rich – just kind of rich … I’d be happy with the kind that turns a few heads and doesn’t sink when you try to take it out in the ocean. And not out in the ocean, but you know, sailing up and down the eastern coastline and around the Keys and the Gulf of Mexico and the Bahamas would be kinda neat.

Maybe you call it a ship … from some of the pictures that I’ve looked at tonight, the moniker certainly seems appropriate – especially when I learned that one boat in particular didn’t have engines on the back, per se, as much as it had an engine room like a miniaturized version of the one you’d find on a cruise ship!

I’m not a very good mechanic, so I hope that’s not going to be a problem.  😕

I’ve been feeding my random curiosity this evening gawking over some of the blog posts and pictures and specs on Ken’s Blog … you might remember Ken Williams and his wife Roberta as the founders of Sierra Online, pretty much the makers of most of my favorite computer games growing up. Well, now they own a 68′ boat that looks absolutely gorgeous from all of the pictures, and they spend their summers floating around wherever the water takes them. Apparently this summer they’re touring Europe again, and I guess it all just seems like a really fun way to spend your time when you don’t really have a particular schedule that you’re required to keep anymore.

I got a big kick out of watching this video that Ken posted a couple of weeks ago where he gives a tour of the controls of his boat, Sans Souci. So many buttons and controls – see what I meant about it looking more like a cruise ship than some smaller power boat that you might take out on the lake for an afternoon?! I was absolutely fascinated when we took that behind the scenes tour of the Carnival cruise that we went on a couple of years ago, and even though I’m sure there’s a ton to learn, click around to some of those other videos and check out the views and tell me that it wouldn’t all be worth it!

Seriously – he even has a hot tub on his boat! Add in a chance to get back into SCUBA diving in a big way, no lack of Internet access, the occasional dolphin in the wild, plenty of wine and plenty of time to enjoy it with Sara, and I think I could get used to being away from land pretty quick. 😉

I’ve always liked the idea of traveling, even though we haven’t done a ton of it just yet … but the gigantic, month-long road trip that Sara and I took a few years ago was absolutely a blast, and even though it was kind of expensive, it really wasn’t too bad when you consider how long we were gone and how many different places that we visited. There are places all over the world that I know the both of us would like to see – Europe, the Bahamas, Australia, even more of the western US – and it seems like owning a boat like that would be a pretty swell way to travel if you could afford it! Plus, living here in Tampa gives us prime access to the water anyways, so I’d like to think that it would give more opportunities even just for shorter adventures out around the local area, popping down to Miami and the Keys for a few days here or there, or whatever.

I guess I probably need to look at a map or something, but it even makes me wonder if it’s possible to get from Florida to Michigan via boat … there’s got to be larger rivers or something that connect the Great Lakes to the ocean, aren’t there??? That would be fun – pack up down here for the summer and then head down around the coast of Florida, up the east coast, dock in New York City for a while to take in the sights and visit Sara’s family, and then work our way west until we end up around Mackinaw / Petoskey there at the tip of Northern Michigan where my own hometown is!

Not for nothing, but I’d much rather stay on a yacht than in a tent, and I’m pretty sure that opinion won’t be one to change in the next couple of decades… 😛

Sure, I know – the price is ridiculous and maybe it’s way out of league of where I’ll ever end up financially, but what’s the fun of dreaming if you can’t DREAM BIG?! That just means I’ve got to sell lots and lots … and lots of books in the next 20-30 years to help pay for it all, and I’ve always been one for a challenge!

The open water beckons me. This is going to happen, and when it does, it’s going to be sweet.

Prospective name for my new boat: The Best Seller