“Everything is awesome” was the cry of all the workers in the Lego movie.
And that is what we are all programmed to think, from the day we leave school, college, university, get a job, hire purchase a car, borrow to buy a house and then forever live just beyond our means to the point where we continue to need to work in order to maintain a lifestyle.
Then we get married, have children and try to push them towards a similar path thinking this is the correct way to live. Is this living or simply existing? Are we not born to explore, adventure, imagine, dream and actually live? I have struggled with this question my entire life, but not brave enough to do anything about it.
Growing up in a valley surrounded by farms, mountains and creeks with plenty of opportunities to explore, I played in creeks, fished for eels, explored and climbed every waking minute. I built dams in the creek and explored upstream until I couldn’t climb any higher. I even built a raft that my best friend and I were going to row down the river until his Dad pulled it apart! Once high school and work life became the ‘norm’, there was never time or money for the early explorer and he was pushed aside to make way for more ‘adult-like’ behaviour.
Fast forwarding 25 years, as luck and favourable property prices would have it, I own my beautiful boat “SY Curlew”, she is Australian registered and there is even a modest cruising fund. The plan was to work another year while planning the trip so as to coincide with favourable cruising times next year (2018). However on the last day of work 2016, I was made redundant (for which I am ultimately thankful) and the dilemma is “Do I stay or do I go?”
The answer is obvious, but the timing is not yet completely determined. Business interests and other mainstream life issues will dictate the ultimate schedule, but we are determined to make a circumnavigation, and there is nothing to stop the planning over the coming months. As the website mantra goes “We haven't been everywhere, but its on our list!”
The ultimate fear for this wannabe adventurer is to challenge a lifetime of mainstream ideas and trust God to provide. So now to challenge the anxiety and push ahead, ever determined to cast the lines one last time knowing that my crew and I are prepared physically and mentally to take on larger and longer trips until we are crossing oceans from continent to continent as seafarers.
Stay aboard as this blog documents the planning phase of the journey with some complementary footage on our YouTube channel “The Naughticals”, until of course I sail off into the sunset with my beautiful girl Bella.
