“All through my life I’ve found little places to live,” says adventure traveller David Welsford. “And when I was a kid I always built like treehouses and climbed trees and built forts…and um…when I first walked into the Lizzy Belle [name of his boat] and looked her over, I was like this is the perfect fort!”
“For me I think what’s more important than having a big house is having a space that makes me feel good. I’ve just been able to make it my own…and she has so much character and so much history and I couldn’t ask for anything else!”
Pretty thought provoking words from David Welsford. He seems to have life figured out for now—living alone on his 28 foot sailboat (Lizzy Belle) in the Caribbean.
“Being alone is being in the middle of the ocean and there’s nobody for 40 miles in each direction, and if there’s a problem you are on your own!”
While he admits that it can get lonely at times, his life of sailing around is much simpler than today’s modern western rush and that inherently exposes him to many joys that are otherwise massively unappreciated, plus he’s never truly alone with the gorgeous Lizze Belle steadfast in storms and ever floating in calm Caribbean ports.
Instead of paying rent, Welsford puts his time and money into the upkeep of his boat, groceries, diesel and a few beers, making money where he can.
“I think I understand money, or my way of understanding money…once you figure out how to make enough, then go do the things that make you happy.”
Living by gas and candle light means becoming one with the Earth’s day and night cycle—watching the sun rise and set every day. Seems about as perfect as it can get.
“There’s lots more things to do on land at night, than go to the club and meet people and stuff like that. And that’s the way it was in the first couple weeks and then you’d kinda get burn’t out, and you’d start to realize that it’s really more about watching the sun rise.”
“I think that being part of the ocean and living down here..it’s like camping—you go to bed when the sun goes down and when you get up is when the sun comes up. No where else in my life have I ever lived by those parameters; sun goes down everyday at home, I don’t know—I never sat there and watched it.”
Spare time is spend socialising with the Caribbean community and taking pictures of the landscapes and people.
Welsford seems uncertain about his future and when and how he will sail home. Sailing directly North would mean to travel straight home, which he isn’t ready for yet. Going via Brazil would take forever and to sail through the Panama Canal into the Pacific would mean following the trade winds to Australia (imagine months at sea with only 2 weeks supply of ice). So for now, he’s still floating around, until he’s ready to complete what he’s started.
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