We just wrapped up our first week in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The plan is for us to stay on our mooring this summer and use it to get significant projects done. Everything from work on the windlass to an ambitious build-out to hold batteries for our electric motor conversion.

Also, the project plan includes a significant redesign to the Hospitality Management degree program that I’m responsible for, and this year I’ve decided to add learning how to relax as an “official summer project”.

It is interesting to hear what many folks imagine our lives are like on a daily basis. Many assume that living on a sailboat is mostly a vacation. Martini’s on the foredeck and endless days in the hammock that sort of thing. The reality is that there is always something broken and always work to be done.

It becomes important to be intentional with adding rest and time to soak up the places we visit.

This is our sixth consecutive summer in Provincetown, and the third full summer on our own mooring ball. We initially washed up here because of the boys, and after finding a place where I didn’t need to worry about their safety, we realized it was an excellent place for them to get summer jobs and save up money. It’s also become a place to get projects that can be done while on the mooring. This can have us forgetting where we are and how unique this place is.

I realized after our first week that I’ve done nothing but work. At first, I told myself that I was just catching up from our few days offshore. The university catch-up work was done in just a day, and so I started to fill those hours up by pushing ahead. Then boat-wise, I started to do some of the repairs for the things that broke on the passage, but that quickly grew into trying to get everything done, and to try and figure out how I can do even more over the summer.

But that’s not why we come to Provincetown. Not why we go anywhere, really. Work is there to enable our life, but if all I wanted to do was to work as much as possible, we could just stay in one spot and work. But no, the purpose of the boat for me was the exploration, the hope of learning to relax.

I often hang up the hammock when we end up in a spot for a little bit. And more often than not, I don’t ever get a turn. Not because the boys hog it, but because I’m working too much and not taking any breaks.

Well, the hammock is up, the kayak is in the water, and I’m going to make sure I use them both this summer.