I am seriously considering an idea I have been toying with for many years, more or less as a mental escape valve. I used to be a sailing maniac, in my youth I've skippered just about every type of traditional Dutch ship (or 'brown vessels' as the genre is called here) and sailed regattas in wood and tupperware like the 420, 470, Laser and Finn. I have just come back from a yachting trip with some friends and twenty bottles of a heady traditional booze called Beerenburg, and it was one great party because we all felt a sense of freedom we had been missing for years. Lately I've been looking up (or mailing with) some old fellow-instructors and sailing camp staffers, some of whom run their own charter ships in The Netherlands, Denmark or the Mediterranean these days. I don't envy them their lazy, incompetent, ever-yelling and permanently boozed-out teenage crews. It's the in-between periods that I envy them for: their lazy trips across the Med, sailing from harbour to harbour, or their long stints around the North Sea or down the French or British coast, the Norwegian fjords...

This got me thinking along similar lines. I could sell my home, buy myself a sturdy sailing ketch and make off with the missus and kids for a couple of years, trying to earn some money as a roving correspondent in between. In fact, I wouldn't have to work for several years if I took it easy, though I would have a hell of a hard time fitting in again afterwards. It's the sense of freedom that lures me, not a sense of belonging, a particular notion of destiny or the need to 'get away from it all'. I haven't worked it all out yet. But I will.

Soo, has anyone on this board ever done this, either by themselves or with their parents or friends? Any tips? Any suggestions? Heave to and I'll pour you a Beerenburg in gratitude.