Part 10, Sailing Las Palmas, Spain – Santa Maria, Cape Verde.

Nov. 12^th - 21^th 2010

Evaluation – why and what learned

After 9 days and 6 hours of sailing from Las Palmas with Santa Maria as destination we reached it. King Neptune submerged by surprise and challenged the capability of the vessel, our physics and our minds. It was far beyond our worst expectations which frightened us all at some point. Only strong commitment, team spirit and no sleep helped us through.

At some point reading about this journey you probably wondered why I would go through this - why voluntarily expose yourself to such a rough time, simple life, simple food, no shower, little space, surrounded by the sea and 24 hours rolling making the limited portions of sleeping a matter of trying not to roll over?

The short answer to why is I never did challenge myself sailing on the big Ocean. And why wait until tomorrow, some day in the future? You don’t know about tomorrow – make it today! Let go of all the taught boundaries and limitations – follow the instincts and try not to worry too far ahead. It will all solve in front of you along the way. The future will be so much different than anticipated anyway. It’s magic. Go all in on hunting and collecting preserved priceless memories.

Living with limited resources as water and electricity is becoming aware how precious these everyday commodities are. It has been an important school in learning to appreciate small things and the almighty nature from tough troubled waters to beautiful breathtaking sunsets that made you feel thankful. It is the story of our lives.
Take all the small daily elements which for instance light, drinkable tap water, hot showers represents. It all can be summed up and connected to happiness. We are having a spoiled life on this planet with a lot of luxury commodities. Why complain about everyday stuff – is the bus late? – is your neighbor a pain in a certain place? Is the weather not behaving? With all the good stuff already inhouse, surrounded by or stuff that just needs to be grabbed it makes a huge positive sum that we should be aware of before focusing on a few negative things which in the end will not do the mind any good. Especially if not changeable. Accept it or take action...

Moreover adventure is the main reason – the fundamental motivation key – however on the shifts in the dark night when shadows of enormous waves sneaked in and attacked the mind from behind it made a powerful damaging entre; the imagination of a cozy and calm adventurous voyage suffered. A new key was desperately employed – the key of challenge. It is always a handy key to have around the neck walking down the path of life. A life that will perform enlightening confrontations - the gift of destiny.  The challenging trick is to keep focus on the positive elements. Target the light and keep strong and determined. It is easy said than done. Pessimism, panic and complaints want to invade. So above all maintain constructive and optimistic cause you will get through it so you might as well go through best way possible.
When I was a kid and got hurt my mother always used to tell me that I would get over it before I would get married. At that time I didn’t always agree but now I must admit it and it probably formed the foundation of a forced positive mind cause how often does something really crucial affect you just looking months, weeks or even days ahead?  In case you don’t get through it you might have “left the building” and then I believe it was not meant to be. It somehow brings me comfort to think like that and also underlines the importance of living today.
I often feel with the destiny of a guy I read about in the paper. Driving down a road in a thunder, it strikes down in a tree that exactly with a tenth of a second’s accuracy falls down when he is passing by and kills him. That is bad luck in extremes and demonstrates that we cannot predict when it’s over. We have the gift of live and obligation to make it as joyful, giving, positive and memorable as possible with the unknown time available.  If it’s over tomorrow I guess it’s all about looking back being able to say I did my best, lived life in full and had a great tour!

Now the question is – do you do this?

Focus on the light even if it’s just one pixel out of a million and please do go out and enjoy that life!!!
I guess that’s what I wanted to say all from the start of this voyage to myself… and to you.

Good luck - make the best of it!

And this is not

…the end

It’s the reflecting conclusion of a challenging trip and a mark of a new beginning. So stay tuned for more shallow as well as deep thoughts coming up.