Looking Back Fifty Years - Launch of Dursmirg

 

Looking Back Fifty Years

It is fifty years since we launched our self-designed and home-built 46-foot sailboat Dursmirg. Building and sailing Dursmirg was a life changing experience. Our reward was fifteen of the very best years of our lives. Now we can look back at where the world has come to in the past half century.

Our adventuresome life aboard Dursmirg became even better with every unrelenting passing escapade.

This was in the era before the internet. There was no email, only snail mail. Self-sufficiency was the key. I made a rain catcher and never went to the dock for drinking water. We had solar hot water, a wind powered generator, refrigeration achieved by converting an absorption refrigerator to run on lamp oil.

Fresh seafood prepared exquisitely by my culinary dream girl with her secret ingredient: creativity.

We became extraordinary sailors because of the Arab oil embargo. Silently going where the wind blew us, when the spirit moved us, and the price was right.

We lived out of the sea and off the land. With no motor vehicles we used bicycles, and we sailing and rowing dinghy. Sailing up the anchors and getting under way was quick, easy and enjoyable no engine used. We also had the ability to fabricate necessities. The sewing machine had a hand crank. We went snorkel diving for salvage, plus lobster and conch hunting. We combed the beaches for fun and collected usable items like bottles for our home-made beer and wine production, lumber for crafts and carving, wood for our fireplace-smoke oven, and the list goes on and on.

We were asked what kind of fruit we used to make our wine, my response “free fruit.”

Life is an adventure, and we are always looking for a new frontier.

Since the launch of Dursmirg fifty years ago technology with its innovations has rapidly changed the world.

For a look into the sailing life of self-sufficiency today, take a look at this video: Living on a Self-sufficent Sailboat for 10 Years.

The basic thoughts of self-sufficiency, and freedom this lifestyle yields are still there.

My conclusion upon looking back is that now I could design and build the perfect yacht for living off the grid with a minimalist lifestyle incorporating many new Cyber age innovations.

Remember that youth only comes to you once. Spent it wisely, and with someone you love and trust.