ANECDOTE NO. TWO: ON ESCAPING
While sailing I experienced quite a paradoxical sensation. I had chosen to isolate myself on a 40 foot stainless steel floating device in order to gain unlimited mobility. The meaning of sailing felt caught in the grey space between what defines seclusion and what defines liberation. My decision to sail in the first place was long and drawn-out primarily because I couldn´t sort out my feelings about whether sailing would make me feel free or trapped. Feeling hemmed in or tied down causes a difficult time for me more than anything else. I eventually decided the only way to figure it out was to go sailing. Besides, I figured it would at least be productive to confront my issues with feeling tied down if the sensation arose. When the wind at last filled Northern Light´s sails blowing us further and further away from land my only real thought was nothing profound, just a, ¨well hell, here goes nothing,¨. But then all of a sudden there you are, left to sit alone only in the company of your thoughts which can cause quite a deal of claustrophobia. Ultimately I think I felt set free. But it wasn´t the sense of freedom I think is classically associated with sailing; freedom from responsibility, reality, hard work, etc. I instead felt set free from daily distractions that keep me from being alone with my thoughts, myself, and thinking about the world I´ve created around me. At even the thought of being alone with my thoughts made me nervous but with each passing moment the apprehension decreased and my desire to confront my own thoughts grew. That kind of isolation from distraction could eventually cause even masters of ignoring or excusing their own thoughts and feelings, masters of self-deceit, to confront their thoughts and reality.
Sailing isn’t all breeze and booze. Rolph captured that reality (and his feelings on freedom) when he said, ¨if you´re looking for freedom, you won´t find any more freedom in sailing than you would anywhere else in the world,¨. It is easy to fantasize about sailing, or even travel for that matter, as a carefree escape for wanderers and the irresponsible. Several times before I have left to travel many people have said, “I wish I could just go travel too,”. Of course sometimes there are legitimate restrictions that keep one from traveling but when I have pressed to know what keeps people from just going and traveling, it comes down to attachment to work, routine, and predictability. Blame it on the rain. Sailing takes a lot of hard work (especially the further north or south you travel from the equator) and is also quite a regulated affair.
Saving up to buy a sailboat from scratch commands as much diligence as communicating clearly while sailing. Deborah shared that winches (the specially designed columns around which the sheets, or ropes, are secured) often cost up tp $2,000. There were at least a dozen winches on Northern Light. Rolf shared that he paid for most of Northern Light by abstaining from purchasing cigarettes, and paying money for transportation (even public) and extraneous clothing items. In exchange for 30some years of visiting all seven continents on your floating mobile home I am confident Rolf would say the nine years of abstainment were worth it. If any big life lesson were learned or reinforced on our trip I learned from Deborah and Rolf. We are all responsible to diligently and adamantly demand the life that you deserve.
Regulations were as common in sea travel as in land travel. Signatures, passports, a detailed itinerary, and a flag of the nation in whose water’s your sailing are all part of the regulations of sailing. The formalities of beuracracy. Sailors in Chilean waters are required to radio in to the nearest port each day to relay their exact position. It’s a little like being in middle school or high school. Each night you are out you have to call your parent’s to tell them where you are, how many people are there, where you’re headed next, and when you’ll be back home. Home in this case is a port. Of course there are boat traffic rules too, both written and unwritten. I would be curious to find out how much regulations in international waters are as similar to being on parole than regulations in national waters.
Sailing was a new experience for me. Not all experiences within my sailing experience were new, however. Being chased by a pig while ashore running one day was not. If I have ever fantasized about sailing disasters, I am confident my mind was fixated upon capsizing boats or hammerhead attacks. But not fleeing terrified from a pig. My first solution was to clumsily scale a steep dirt hill that was all slip and no gain. I got some grip on a vine and hung out for a few moments until I thought the pig had forgotten me. No sooner did I hop back down to ground did the pig lift it’s rooting snout and boldly blaze towards me. Eventually I turned around to face the pig. I then preceded slowly uphill backwards with my hands in surrender position and verbally informed the pig I meant no harm. Probably 200 yards later I was finally free from the territorily adamant swine.
The most precious opportunity sailing provided was an escape from light pollution. Scientific realizations, innovative philosophies, vibrant literature, and first loves often are a by-product of star-gazing. Most cultures and most known histories include a myth explaining stars, planets, etc. The stars seduce human curiosity by being so visually brilliant yet so physically intangible. It is thus my instinct that the superficial disappearance of stars behind light pollution of cities contributes to a narrow perspective. If the inspiration of thousand-fold philosophies (and religions. think of the names of the Greek and Roman gods.), scientific discoveries, and stories is based in an ability to see the stars, the moon, the sun, won’t thousand-fold sources of human creation be lost with the apparent disappearance of the sky? This is the reason I personally found night sailing to be the most precious opportunity sailing with Northern Light presented. Seeing the stars for me always fascinated not so much because they seem above and far and distant, but because somehow, my existence is related to theirs.
While sailing I experienced quite a paradoxical sensation. I had chosen to isolate myself on a 40 foot stainless steel floating device in order to gain unlimited mobility. The meaning of sailing felt caught in the grey space between what defines seclusion and what defines liberation. My decision to sail in the first place was long and drawn-out primarily because I couldn´t sort out my feelings about whether sailing would make me feel free or trapped. Feeling hemmed in or tied down causes a difficult time for me more than anything else. I eventually decided the only way to figure it out was to go sailing. Besides, I figured it would at least be productive to confront my issues with feeling tied down if the sensation arose. When the wind at last filled Northern Light´s sails blowing us further and further away from land my only real thought was nothing profound, just a, ¨well hell, here goes nothing,¨. But then all of a sudden there you are, left to sit alone only in the company of your thoughts which can cause quite a deal of claustrophobia. Ultimately I think I felt set free. But it wasn´t the sense of freedom I think is classically associated with sailing; freedom from responsibility, reality, hard work, etc. I instead felt set free from daily distractions that keep me from being alone with my thoughts, myself, and thinking about the world I´ve created around me. At even the thought of being alone with my thoughts made me nervous but with each passing moment the apprehension decreased and my desire to confront my own thoughts grew. That kind of isolation from distraction could eventually cause even masters of ignoring or excusing their own thoughts and feelings, masters of self-deceit, to confront their thoughts and reality.
Sailing isn’t all breeze and booze. Rolph captured that reality (and his feelings on freedom) when he said, ¨if you´re looking for freedom, you won´t find any more freedom in sailing than you would anywhere else in the world,¨. It is easy to fantasize about sailing, or even travel for that matter, as a carefree escape for wanderers and the irresponsible. Several times before I have left to travel many people have said, “I wish I could just go travel too,”. Of course sometimes there are legitimate restrictions that keep one from traveling but when I have pressed to know what keeps people from just going and traveling, it comes down to attachment to work, routine, and predictability. Blame it on the rain. Sailing takes a lot of hard work (especially the further north or south you travel from the equator) and is also quite a regulated affair.
Saving up to buy a sailboat from scratch commands as much diligence as communicating clearly while sailing. Deborah shared that winches (the specially designed columns around which the sheets, or ropes, are secured) often cost up tp $2,000. There were at least a dozen winches on Northern Light. Rolf shared that he paid for most of Northern Light by abstaining from purchasing cigarettes, and paying money for transportation (even public) and extraneous clothing items. In exchange for 30some years of visiting all seven continents on your floating mobile home I am confident Rolf would say the nine years of abstainment were worth it. If any big life lesson were learned or reinforced on our trip I learned from Deborah and Rolf. We are all responsible to diligently and adamantly demand the life that you deserve.
Regulations were as common in sea travel as in land travel. Signatures, passports, a detailed itinerary, and a flag of the nation in whose water’s your sailing are all part of the regulations of sailing. The formalities of beuracracy. Sailors in Chilean waters are required to radio in to the nearest port each day to relay their exact position. It’s a little like being in middle school or high school. Each night you are out you have to call your parent’s to tell them where you are, how many people are there, where you’re headed next, and when you’ll be back home. Home in this case is a port. Of course there are boat traffic rules too, both written and unwritten. I would be curious to find out how much regulations in international waters are as similar to being on parole than regulations in national waters.
Sailing was a new experience for me. Not all experiences within my sailing experience were new, however. Being chased by a pig while ashore running one day was not. If I have ever fantasized about sailing disasters, I am confident my mind was fixated upon capsizing boats or hammerhead attacks. But not fleeing terrified from a pig. My first solution was to clumsily scale a steep dirt hill that was all slip and no gain. I got some grip on a vine and hung out for a few moments until I thought the pig had forgotten me. No sooner did I hop back down to ground did the pig lift it’s rooting snout and boldly blaze towards me. Eventually I turned around to face the pig. I then preceded slowly uphill backwards with my hands in surrender position and verbally informed the pig I meant no harm. Probably 200 yards later I was finally free from the territorily adamant swine.
The most precious opportunity sailing provided was an escape from light pollution. Scientific realizations, innovative philosophies, vibrant literature, and first loves often are a by-product of star-gazing. Most cultures and most known histories include a myth explaining stars, planets, etc. The stars seduce human curiosity by being so visually brilliant yet so physically intangible. It is thus my instinct that the superficial disappearance of stars behind light pollution of cities contributes to a narrow perspective. If the inspiration of thousand-fold philosophies (and religions. think of the names of the Greek and Roman gods.), scientific discoveries, and stories is based in an ability to see the stars, the moon, the sun, won’t thousand-fold sources of human creation be lost with the apparent disappearance of the sky? This is the reason I personally found night sailing to be the most precious opportunity sailing with Northern Light presented. Seeing the stars for me always fascinated not so much because they seem above and far and distant, but because somehow, my existence is related to theirs.
posted by Jojo at 1:28 PM
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