Inspirations

Two important pieces of writing

Well, they say the darkest hour is before dawn – and I guess this is it. The weather has been unseasonably good for the time of year – more like July than April – and here I am boatless, kicking my heels on the shore, with no prospect of getting afloat until I have found a very inexpensive boat and brought her back into commission. The original idea is to trade money for time and achieve a sea going cruiser through an investment of my time rather than shedloads of cash. The dream is still there but it can seem like a distant dream at times. This time next year, hell or high water I want to be afloat and cruising.
In the meantime, I found two sources of encouragement / inspiration.

Number 1

Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931)an English novelist, author of ‘How to Live on 24 Hours a Day’. He says:

‘That proverb (Time is Money) understates the case. Time is a great deal more than money. If you have time you can obtain money—usually. But though you have the wealth of a cloak-room attendant at the Carlton Hotel, you cannot buy yourself a minute more time than I have, or the cat by the fire has.
Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time. It is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. A highly singular commodity, showered upon you in a manner as singular as the commodity itself!
For remark! No one can take it from you. It is unstealable. And no one receives either more or less than you receive.
Talk about an ideal democracy! In the realm of time there is no aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is never rewarded by even an extra hour a day. And there is no punishment. Waste your infinitely precious commodity as much as you will, and the supply will never be withheld from you. No mysterious power will say:—"This man is a fool, if not a knave. He does not deserve time; he shall be cut off at the meter." It is more certain than consols, and payment of income is not affected by Sundays. Moreover, you cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt!
You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste to-morrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you.’ 

You can download the entire text on

Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.net

Number 2

The other piece I found is a very short novel by Joseph Weston Martyr, (1885 – 27 March 1966). In his day he was a pioneer British ocean yachtsman, writer and broadcaster, The piece I read was ‘The £200 Pound Millionaire’ (1931). In it he explains how to live cheaply, comfortably and in some kind of luxury  on a small sailing boat.

Apparently he also wrote a follow-up essay, ‘Five Hundred Pound Millionaires’ (1957)  which describes how to do the same on canals and inland waterways.

I found the full text of the £200 millionaire at:

http://www.bluemoment.com/200pm.html

Seaward