22 Mar Hello sailor – I wanna be a sailor

‘Wild Rover VI’ an Alan Pape designed Ebbtide 39 Ocean Going Cutter

I always wanted to be a sailor, as a kid, watching Thor Heyerdahl’s documentary on the Kon-Tiki voyage – Spencer Tracy in Captains Courageous, reading Hemingways The Old Man and the sea and later on HW Tillman’s books as he explored the colder regions of the north and south Atlantic.

Last year I took a giant leap of faith, and I spent all of the money I had and brought myself half a boat (I still have to pay for the other half so I’m lucky it’s not a cat!). This was a moment of pure genius on my part.

You see ever since paddling around Japan, which was such a Karmic adventure, I’ve held to the theory that you have to follow your dreams, and that if you do, the energy of the universe will help you along and grease the hinges on sticky doors, which may for some be reluctant to open. Money or the pursuit of it, has never interested me, I recognise that we need it, as a means of exchange, but in reality it’s worthless, it only has value if we buy into it, and what life should really be about is the experience, the experience your having right now, if it’s not the right experience for you (your job, your relationship, your life) then change it.

I had to follow my own advice, Pursue my dreams, they were given to me for a reason, long before the trappings of society were laid upon me……

Besides, I’m now 57, how many more years have I got to say ‘one day’ or ‘when I’. I’m not afraid to take chances, I’m not really afraid of death, I know this because I’ve been close a few times and I can remember how at that time, I had never felt so alive, although I have to say, I am afraid of dying, not just dying, more dying in a way that I knew I had never really lived, that scares the shit out of me.

Let’s face it, the worst thing that can happen is that we totally screw things up and we snuff it, well the snuffing bit doesn’t bother me, but the road leading up and the few moments before, leaves me a little curious to say the least, as to how I will handle those last goodbyes, what will be my last thought, my last words be, will it be painful? Funny? tragic?

Who really gives a shit? Do you worry about this stuff? I don’t, it’s now that counts and I’m alive and I’m kicking and I’m going to take risks and I’m Going to take gambles and when I can’t do that, I’m going to be a real pain In the arse for someone ????

So Ive taken a gamble, to see where the energy flows, to get this beautiful steel, ocean going yacht and to follow my dreams. I think my dreams, are not that far removed from other people’s, and it might just be that other sea paddlers will want to share this same dream of a truly remote adventure exploring the areas of the North Atlantic by sail and sea kayak and possibly even venturing inland, strapping on ski’s or snow shoes or maybe standing on the rails of a dog sled, exploring some mountain pass, or something like?

May look cold and un-inviting, but I was as happy as a pig in poo, sun swept beaches and pina colada’s is (to me) an absolute nightmare. CHALLENGE Yourself there’s reward in adversity

We don’t have long, life is short, the world is changing, what ever it is that you want to do, go and do it, go to sleep tonight, let your last thought be the gateway to your dreams and when you wake up in the morning, take a gamble, and step through that gate.

Jeff Allen

PS. You may lose a few people on the way, but that is only because they have different dreams, different paths to follow, support their dream where you can but your dream was your gift from heaven, it’s your road map through life, so follow.