Marin - you confuse me. You always want to be somewhere else, yet you claim to enjoy the voyage?
Fair question and I'm sorry I haven't made it more understandable in the past than I have.
Where I want to be is running the boat, be it in Washington, British Columbia, or on a canal in England.
It's the going and the driving that I enjoy most. The destination is irrelevant. Destinations are just places to stop and take a break until we start going again.
It's why I don't mind going to the same places in the islands all the time. The place itself I don't care much about. It's the opportunity to be on the move and driving the boat in this environment--- by which I mean the waters between here and Glacier Bay--- that I live for. The water is always changing, the weather is always changing, the wildlife is always doing new things when we're underway. Being underway and running the boat is exciting and challenging. Being stopped at some destination is not.
I much prefer to run a fast boat because I find that a lot more interesting and challenging than running a slow boat. Fortunately one of our boats
is fast so if I really want a speed fix I can take that out. But even in the plodding old GB, I still enjoy being underway (or maneuvering).
I love getting back into the scenery. It's the main reason I took up float flying after getting all my ratings in landplanes in Hawaii. Being on the move in the air or on the water (or on the road) is what it's all about for me.
However I only want to drive the boat, fly the plane, whatever, in an environment that interests me. So I have zero interest in boating the ICW or the Gulf or the rivers. Maine and the Canadian Maritimes would be neat, though, as would northern Scotland.
So yes, I always want to be "somewhere else." But not because it's that "somewhere else" that I actually want to be at. I could give a hoot in hell where that "somewhere else" is or what it is as long as it's in the area I want to boat in. What I want is to drive the boat there. Once we're there life stops-- so to speak--- until we leave the next day to drive "somewhere else" again and I can be underway again.
It's why I love twin engines and will never go back to just one. More to do underway and maneuvering, more of a challenge to master. Three would be even better. Four would be even better than that.
I love running the machine, be it in the air, on the water, or on the road. It's all about the driving. The destination is irrelevent as long as there is one so we can drive something to it.
Don't get me wrong--- I enjoy most of the places we go in the boat, plane, etc. Particulary if there isn't anyone else there except us. So we don't have much use for marinas and harbors even though we do use them.
But the whole deal for me, and to a large degree my wife, is being on the move and going through this amazing environment that we like to call the northwest raincoast.