Radar blurps and Ipod music

By Zac W. on sailing with us from Galapogas to Marquesas 3400 nautical miles.

Half of it, is the feeling when you're off the boat. It's not ego. When people ask how the trip was, when they are in awe of the distance traveled; it does feed the id, but that's not what what this is about. This is about knowing in yourself that you've done something beyond what you thought you'd ever get to.

Maybe it's that old tale of Achilles. He was given a choice between living a long, happy life; raising a son, being married to a beautiful woman, living with a small fortune; or he could live a short life, fighting and killing princes and kings, bedding their wives the queens and princesses, and be remembered forever.

It's not the glamour we seek, it's the sense of going beyond what is expected. Reaching for what, at some point in our lives, we believed to be impossible. Every time I step aboard a sailboat, there's the idea that this is something unexpected. I never thought I'd be here, it never occurred to me that in my lifetime I would cross the Pacific ocean. It wears off of course, the monotony of meals and sleep and radar blurps and Ipod music, but then without really thinking you find yourself behind the wheel, directing a spinnaker like a chorus, and you are aware of every dream you've ever had. You can feel the balance of wave and wind and boat, and as you work to keep those aligned, in yourself you feel the alignment of dreams and spirit and mind.
Of course it's complicated, and I wish I could give you more detail than these abstract words provide...

I ship out on the "Anderson" on Friday. A seven hundred foot boat that's been around over fifty years. It's the boat that turned back to look for the Edmund Fitzgerald the night it sank. A strange history, but I'm excited to be aboard.