Why?
December 26, 2005
Not so long ago, adventure, glory and riches were either singly or in combination justification to embark on an epic journey. In our "modern" world the desire for adventure is more commonly satisfied through extreme sports or, for the less physically inclined, video games. Little glory is perceived in the actual exploration of our planet, which has been largely touched from pole to pole and from Greenwich to the Dateline and back again. People have circled the globe in almost every conceivable conveyance (even by balloon), along almost every conceivable route and at break neck speed or a snails pace. Thus the modern cruiser intent on a circumnavigation must necessarily ask the question “why?”. Most certainly it isn't for riches!
Building a vessel, moving aboard and cruising qualifies as an epic undertaking by any definition, and in the absence of adventure, glory or riches, one that must be carefully examined to understand the motives behind such an enterprise, lest it end in failure. We have often given our motivations careful thought and each time we find that the desire is still there, so we keep moving forward. It is not that we expect a different answer; we just need to hear it periodically as a way of making sure we haven’t gone totally insane. You see, there are some people that might think we are just that!
We are, by any measure, truly blessed individuals (one of the translations of Makara is “blessed”). We had been lucky enough to find each other, we have been very fortunate in our careers and in some of the financial choices we have made. We have done some incredible things only a handful of people have attempted and had the pleasure to know many talented and inspiring individuals.
From outward appearances we live the so called “American Dream”; we have a lovely house in the country, luxury cars, good jobs in the High Tech/IT industry and are in our peak earning years. So why do we want to sell everything we own, quit our careers and our incumbent status, all to live in a space not much bigger than the bath in our master suite? Good question.
About 20 years ago in San Francisco Bay there was a yacht harbor which rented sailboats, and in particular a little Pearson 28 called Oriana. I taught Nancy to sail on this boat and her love of the sea was turned into a passion when she discovered sailing. When we started out we spent many happy weekends gunkholing the Bay in Oriana. Later we graduated to larger vessels, falling in love with a C&C 41 called Pickoff, on which we had the privilege of sailing from time to time. Then came Perigail our beloved C&C 35 that we raced and cruised. One of our pacts was to do the double-handed Farallons race each year, our special race. But we couldn’t stop there and spent much time outside the Golden Gate in the Pacific. We clearly heard the siren song of the sea and in our hearts and knew we must push onward. We started talking and planning about how we would depart the terra firma of most mortal beings and cruise the world. This was not taken lightly, Poseidon had on many occasions tried to discourage us through wind and wave, fog and gear failure. We knew what we would be getting into. We also knew why. We wanted to be with the wind and wave far from shore where the stars were the only lights visible at night and there was no land to mar the perfect horizon. We were compelled to act out an epic journey, an adventure of our own making forcing us to rely on our own resourcefulness and strength to get through it.
At the time a circumnavigation was just a distant dream, but in our hearts we made a promise that we would eventually make the dream come true. We just didn’t know when. Many things needed to be resolved before the journey could begin. There were kids to grow up and put through college, jobs to nurture so as to put away the cruising kitty and obtain a suitable long range cruiser (the C&C was a fun boat but not a prime long range cruiser…). We moved, and moved and moved again. Much time was spent well away from the sea but each time we would talk and reaffirm the commitment to a promise made some time ago. And each time the “why?” was the same. We never wavered from our goal.
In many ways we have spent the intervening years in adventurous fashion, diving in far off lands, keeping up with our sailing skills on well placed charters, learning to fly to keep ourselves sharp and challenge our limits, but we had still not realized our dream of so long ago.
After almost 20 years of hard work, necessary sacrifices and long periods away from the oceans we love, like Ishmael, we are finally going back down to the sea. Soon Makara will no longer be a dream and we will be able to spend our time where the stars are the only lights you can see at night and land only occasionally interferes with the horizon.
Why do we want to do this- because it is where we have always truly belonged.