Hobbies - Moving to a sailboat

Serena's hobbies are portable. A television, a pen, some paper, a puzzle book and a calculator will keep her occupied for the rest of her life. Don't believe me, eh; but the remote to the TV belongs to her, I have to ask permission to use it, unless she is in bed. I on the other hand have so many hobbies that I couldn't possible explain them all here, and to honest, I probably couldn't remember them all in the time that it takes to make a blog entry. I was thinking this morning that I should make a list of all the things that I need to get finished up, or complete before the summer hits, or before we move onto the boat. Hell, I have 6 books on the go right now, 2 from the same author, and its starting to get confusing. However, the point is that there is no way that all of my hobbies are going to fit onto a 29 foot boat, at least not and have room to sleep, or remain married.

One of my hobbies is to make my own fishing lures. Usually just jigs tied with some type of feathers or animal hair, but I have made crank baits, top water poppers, spooks, bait rigs, flies, and just about any other type of artificial bait that will lure a fish into strike. As mentioned though, I can't take all of my hobbies with me, and I have decided, no matter how useful, this one needs to go too. The problem is that we plan to do lots of fishing, and to fish, we need bait. So in order to use up some of my materials, and fill my tackle boxes with fish catching saltwater lures, I've started making a few for the trip. When these run out, I have to start buying everything or quit fishing, but hopefully by the time these are used up, I'll know what I really need to catch the fish we really want.

So today I sat down in the shop and tied up 61 bucktail jigs. 30 in 1/8 oz and 31 in 1/4 oz. I had to order the jigs from the US, because our shops don't carry a lot of saltwater, anything. I've never tied this much in one sitting before, but Dad was here for the day tying some for himself, so I had no where to go. Nice to get it done though, and nice to shoot the shit with the ol' man too.

 Quite the stringer. It takes about a day for the head cement to really set up. I'll box them up tomorrow. I guess the trick will be to only keep out and use a small portion of them so that they last as long as possible.

I've also started to make some crank baits. Carved them out of cedar. Dad turned some on the lathe, out of maple, butternut, and some in birch. These take a little more work, but they will be the last ones. From now on I buy lures. Maybe....

So lure making is one hobby I had to give up. Or at least after this last foray. I finished up my last quilt for Xmas. I like to make denim quilts, one about every four years, it takes that long to save up enough jeans. Way back I made regular quilts, but never seemed to have the time to finish them the way I really wanted, by hand. Gave up crocheting, and knitting as soon as I finish these last two afghans.

I haven't decided whether or not to give up carving. My carving knives don't take up much space, but my chisels do. Where is the line to be drawn?

Then there are the new hobbies. I read a lot now, but I have been saving dozens of books, novels mostly, until I move onto the boat. Then there is fishing, the few trips I make a year now will pale in comparison to the opportunities while living on the boat. Not to mention watching sunsets with a glass of wine, and watching sunrises with a hot cup of coffee.

Living now takes a very small portion of the day. The weather means very little, food comes from a drive to the supermarket, water from the tap. But on the boat the very act of living takes more time everyday. Entertaining and socializing picks up. The weather becomes a religion. So we've been led to believe. Theoretically this should cut into hobby time too, but I guess we will have to see.

I couldn't fit my 30 bicycles on the boat either, so they had to go along with the tools to fix them, the welder, and the books. I guess if I give up too many hobbies, I'll just have to pick some up along the way.