Purpose or Passing Time? A Private Boat Charter Perspective

Another sail around the sun—celebrated properly.

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”

— Michael Altshuler

It’s a strange thing to say when you hear it or say it.  Time never waits on us. It’s already moving whether we notice it or not.

I believe we could be a little unconscious when we say we’re passing time. Are we avoiding the effort of choosing what to do with it? Maybe it’s easier to drift than decide? Is it easier to let time slide by than purposefully step into it?

I’m lucky enough to have never really felt boredom the way people describe it. I’ve wanted moments to move faster, for sure. But even that feels different now. The older I get, the less sense it makes to wish time away. It’s already doing that on its own and faster than it used to.  And at this point in my life, if something or some time is off, there HAS to be a lesson somewhere!

I wrote something a while back that keeps coming back to me: the more you live outside your routine, the longer time feels. Not because it actually slows down, but because you notice it more. New places, new experiences, even small changes stretch a moment. They give us something to hold onto. Our minds are processing the newness around us, whether it’s a day trip somewhere or a jaunt to a new country.

Routine does the opposite. Days blur. Weeks compress. You look back and wonder where it all went.  When I first retired from Yale, I remember loving Mondays.  The whole “work” week was in front of me to focus on what ever I wanted to do and working at Joyride Charters.  I almost didn’t like the weekends as much…weird.  All the while every time Friday came around it felt like last Friday was just here. 

Maybe that’s why people say they’re passing time. Because it already feels like it’s slipping by.  I don’t know but I’ve always stopped in my tracks when someone says an activity they might do “passes time”.

It makes me think of Joni Mitchell’s The Circle Game, “Take your time, it won't be long now Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down” The child moves through the seasons of life, carried along like a carousel. No fluff there. Just an honest look at the circle we’re all in, whether we pay attention to it or not.

And maybe that’s the real shift. Not turning every moment into something meaningful or productive. Just choosing, now and then, to step out of the routine that makes time disappear.

Travel does that. Exploration does that. Even a few hours somewhere different can stretch a day in a way that sitting still never will. It doesn’t have to be far. It just has to be enough to wake you up.

A long time ago, I was part of an organization that talked a lot about living with purpose and being of service. The idea was simple. When you live that way, your life expands. It feels fuller. More meaningful. I never forgot that. I don’t always live that way. Most people don’t. But I try to come back to it when I notice I’ve drifted.

When you step outside your routine, when you go somewhere, even briefly, you’re making a choice. Not to let time pass, but to meet it differently. To use it. To be in it.

Out on the water, time has a way of changing shape. You can’t help but notice things you’d normally miss. You slow down without trying. You’re there, in it, instead of moving through it. Not passing time. Just experiencing it. For all the passengers I’ve taken along, this is also the same for them.  I know they are loving every moment on the water because they know it will come to an end whether it’s a day charter in Connecticut or a week somewhere in the world.

Because it always comes to an end. Every trip. Every season. Every stretch of time we thought we had more of.So maybe it’s about noticing it while it’s here.And choosing, when we can, to live it with purpose instead of letting it slip by.

Wishing you all a wonderful summer. Use it well.

Joy