Thoughts and reflections from the past week or so from my own financial independence campaign.

Progress on my goals

Boat life

Sails are on!

There’s bugger all wind this week, so no sailing for us.

At Lady SierraWhiskyMike’s orders, I stuck my head back into the wiring box and reconnected our fuel and battery sensors to the dials on the panel. While I was in there, I attacked all of the switched with a Dymo label printer and got everything sort-of organised.

Our automated bilge pump works by a flotation switch which had failed, so I also had deep fun messing around in the bilges to replace that with a spare.

So now – I think – our electronics are pretty much done. I could probably put the stereo back in I guess, and at some point we’ll need a new water sensor, but these are kind of vanity purchases. For now it’s enough to crack on with.

The engineer serviced our engine. That fault I reported in the pipes? Turns out it was fixed with a small dab of soapy water! A small valve had dried out over winter and just needed some cleaning and moisture to get back into operation. Phew!

During the heatwave we’ve put up a sunshade tent over the boom. That makes a massive difference to the temperature inside the boat and keeps our dog (and us!) cool when we’re below.

Lady SierraWhiskyMike fixed the saloon hatch seal. The gasket on the hatch had been sticking to the bottom frame, which had been a good enough bond to pull it out of its groove on the hatch lid and ruin it for waterproofing. She managed to wedge it back in place with a screwdriver, then moisturise the rubber surface with some silicone lube so it doesn’t stick anymore.

Start-up work

We’ve been given the go ahead by our regulator and now need to sprint to launch.

I’m actually pretty chill about it. Getting regulatory consent was lengthy, so we’ve built the minimum viable product already while we waited for that to come through. It’s not the most polished offering, but it is *an* offering!

We’ve also gotten some early leads on potential clients.

Oh, and we’re getting a summer intern, so that’s cool. I have to write them up an employment contract this week and get it out to them. Yes, we’re paying the intern, we’re not monsters. If things work out we want to hire them next year when they graduate.

I realised at an event this week that I’m a little scruffy for my industry and I had to buy work clothes again. That was sad. I was hoping that I could keep dressing casually with the new business because this would make admin easier on the boat, but alas as a regulated business I have a lot of meetings where I need to err on the side of smart casual. B2B customers expect it and it turns out we’re all client-facing in this venture.

I’m the plus side, we’re a tech startup, so conservative but casual shirts and polos are appropriate with chinos in summer. I can keep rocking jeans and a blazer/jacket in winter, but shorts and t-shirts are a bold call when I could be facing a client at any time.

Distractions and detours

Writer’s club

Club got cancelled this week after the library shut down for electrical testing. The gang kind of lost enthusiasm and we decided to postpone it a week.

I’d already written my homework so that’s ready for next month’s meet-up.

My ambition of earning some money through writing might not happen with the way things are going. We’ll see what business is like when we have clients on the books but for now it’s a not looking good for that project and I don’t think I can mentally take another project right now. Need to chill out a bit!

I’m still writing for fun anyway.

Bitcoin Pizza Day

On Friday a group of us in the local crypto nerd club celebrated the day that Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC to buy two Papa John’s pizzas.

People today think about this event and say “Imagine all that money for just two pizzas?”, but without this first real-world purchase Bitcoin would be essentially worthless, so Bitcoiners around the world mark the occasion by buying their own pizzas.

A group of us went up to the local Italian-style pizzeria and lived it up for the night. Sadly, they didn’t accept BTC. Maybe one day?

Non-FIRE goals

My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)

This week we started Walk This Way by Aerosmith and Run DMC. It’s hard, dude. The main riff and the chorus are fairly achievable but the verses and the solos are nails.

I still suck at guitar but I’m getting better each week. That’s nice.

Fitness

Have kind of neglected calisthenics this week in favour of running because the weather has been so awesome. That’s not really good for fitness – well, I guess it’s not bad either – but my running pace has been improving gradually and I don’t want to miss out on the good weather.

Law and coding keep me indoors a lot. Need some Vitamin D.

Went out three times last week, up to 4 miles. With the startup stuff I’m not in the right headspace to push fitness so I’m really just ticking over. It’ll do for now.

Final thoughts

Boats always need more and more work, but for now I’m happy to declare us as being ready to sail.

Hooray!

We’re not sure what this year’s sailing plan is, but even if we get out and about around the islands that’s something.

Startup work is making good progress, even if it’s still pre-revenue.

Summer makes a massive difference to doing cardio. I’m way more motivated to go running/jogging when it’s nice outside. Sure, I’ve neglected calisthenics a bit, but I’m getting outside more and it’s probably good for my heart, too.

My financial independence campaign continues!