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DREAMS DO COME TRUE
Dreams are dangerous things.
Sometimes they take over your life.
I spent the past thirty
years sailing on the ocean of my dreams. For most of those
years, my feet were on dry land, but in my mind, I was sailing the
seven seas. I've sailed around the world dozens of times in
my mind with Joshua Slocum, Harry Pidgeon, and Bernard Moitessier
at my side. I've survived the savage seas of the high
southern latitudes with the crew of Tzu Hang as they were
pitchpoled in the waters off Cape Horn. I've been with the
Pardeys and the Hiscocks as they sailed on their voyages of
discovery.
I've deployed parachute sea anchors and trailed drogues hundreds
of times in the storms of my mind. I've dropped my anchor in
Paradise and snorkeled in enchanted atolls. I've even escaped from pirates - buccaneers of the mind who
tried to steal my dreams.
In my mind, I
practiced sailing around the world for more than twenty years
before I actually cast off my dock lines and set sail on my eleven
year circumnavigation.
So how did it feel to make my dreams come true?
First, I would have to admit it was a bit scary to drop the
dock lines and set sail. This was a voyage of exploration
into our unknowns, and unknowns were in abundance. During
the trip around the world, we often ran out of wind, sometimes we ran
low on diesel fuel, but we never ran out of unknowns.
I didn't know how much the
trip was going to cost. Working for eleven years
in Saudi Arabia paid for my boat and supplied me with enough
freedom chips to weather any financial storms that came our
way. I knew that the trip was going to cost a lot of money,
especially with college coming up for my kids. Some days, I
wondered if I could really afford to make the trip, but on most
days, I KNEW THAT I COULDN'T AFFORD TO NOT MAKE THE TRIP.
The currency of my youth was in short supply, and having an
awesome adventure with my family was worth any price. And
how do you count the richness of your life anyway? Dreams or
dollars? Which will it be. I'll take my dreams any
day.
Second, I had never
made an ocean passage before I started the voyage. I had only sailed my catamaran six times before I started out on
the trip. I was unproven and my yacht was unproven.
The biggest things I had going for me were that I had a positive
attitude, a positive family, and I had already sailed around the
world dozens of time in my mind. I quickly learned that
sailing a catamaran isn't rocket science, and if we can
do it, anyone can. A conservative amount of sail and a
positive attitude will take a sailboat just about anywhere you
want to go.
Third, in my mind, I was
afraid of pirates, tsunamis, and hurricanes. As it turned
out, we never met a pirate, we survived one global tsunami
in Thailand totally
unscathed, and there was nary a hurricane that threatened our
eleven year voyage. The worst thing that happened on the
entire circumnavigation was a car accident in New Zealand that
broke two legs, fractured five ribs, and punctured one lung.
It took me out of commission for nearly a year, but it didn't stop
the voyage of Exit Only. After the fractures healed and I
learned to walk again, we set sail for Fiji and continued sailing
for nine more years before we completed our trip around the world.
Dreams do come true, and
making them happen is within the capability of ordinary folks who
have extraordinary dreams. A positive attitude and
unstoppable persistence allows anyone to sail on the ocean of
their dreams. All they have to do is do it. All you
can do, is all you can do, but all you can do is enough.
It's a lot of work to live
your dreams, but that doesn't matter, because when you live your
dreams, your life is worth living. Your life keeps getting
better, and before long you realize that there is no limit to how
good your life can become.
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