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I was kidnapped by gypsy’s yesterday, taken into the woods and when I emerged I had a new gypsy name, Stormy.
I feel the wind tugging at my soul, there is a storm a brewing.
Gypsy Soul
28 Wednesday Mar 2012
Posted in Sailing
Monthly Archives: March 2012
Simple Freedom
26 Monday Mar 2012
Posted in Sailing
I had just finished writing a manuscript on simple freedom when my e-mail dinged. I clicked on the link and was suprised to see an almost identical piece. http://sailingaroundtheglobe.blogspot.com/2012/03/its-all-about-freedom.html
At the end of the day we all seek pure simple freedom, be it the perfect wave, sailing round the world, our just paddling around the bay.
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
~Winston Churchill
Almost Famous
26 Monday Mar 2012
I remember the old story of the farmer and the cow. The farmer says to the cow, “give me milk and I’ll feed you”. The cow responds to the farmer, “feed me and I’ll give you milk”.
I have been doing the same dance with a book deal I have/had pending. I want an advance but the publisher does not want to give me one. My most recent email was
“I’m sorry but it’s our company’s policy not to give advances to unknown writers”.
Unknown writer I laughed to myself. I responded,
“Apparently you don’t realize how fucking famous I am 
“.
I felt kinda funny writing that but the truth is an all time best selling nautical book sells about 10,000 copies. My film The New Homeless had nearly a million views when I took it out of circulation. In the last six years well over a million people have read my silly blogs, and I cant even imagine how many eyes have seen my printed articles. So yes it may seem to be an arrogant response but its the simple truth. I have no intention of giving the milk away so I have decided to hold tight on the book for now.
Its has been a frustrating day but then something magical happened. I was cleaning the boat when I found this old magazine, Thumbing through it I read the masthead and there it was…, Lin & Larry Pardey, Alan Oberlander, Tania Aebi, My name listed with some of the most inflential writers and sailors of my life.
In reality it doesn’t matter to me how many people read my writing. What matters in the end is how many people are willing to pay for it.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
~Benjamin Franklin
That Damn Donate Button!
23 Friday Mar 2012
Posted in Sailing
What to do? To tell he truth I have always been offended by bloggers putting up a donate button. ”Really? you want my hard earned dollars so you don’t have to work?” 
On the flip side established bloggers work their ass off publishing a one man/woman magazine. Until you have consistently published a blog week in and week out for years on end you cant imagine how time consuming it is, or how expensive it can be.
The world is a changing place and it is harder and harder every year to make a buck while voyaging. Sure I could publish magazine articles but magazines are dying a bitter death everywhere you look. I’m not sure what to do. I could add a donate button, not for upgrading the boat or living expenses but for past posts. I could sell photos for a small fee, or even offer a subscription newsletter, or e-books. The truth is I’m in a lower income bracket and wont make it without some small form of income, so I am asking your opinion What should I do? Beg for it? sell my average images?, crappy videos?, Any ideas will be helpful. I’m not going to make anymore posts till I have 100 replies to this pressing question. Please help
Its all downwind from here
23 Friday Mar 2012
Posted in Sailing
What is that bright light in the sky? We all stared squinting into the strange bright light. ” Its the sun” she cried. ”the what? the sun , its the sun!”.
And so it is, spring is here. Today its sunny and warm, no jacket, no rain jacket, its is as beautiful day as I have ever seen. Today is a day for sailing, I still have no engine but I do have a good crew.
I had the funniest thing happen the other night, out of nowhere there was a beautiful girl standing beside my boat smiling back at me. I don’t know why but the ratio at the marina is like this, boys 99% girls1% under 30, 1% over 50, 98% So it was pretty interesting that the one girl in the marina had come looking for me.
She asked if She could borrow a socket wrench. Sure I replied what can I help you fix, she rolled her eyes at me. ”I don’t need help fixing my boat I can do that myself, I just dropped my socket overboard and would like to borrow yours “. I invited her in for a beer, our conversation turned to sailing and her most recent passage to Cabo. I was highly impressed by this young girl and not only invited her to crew but also challenged her to a race.
I don’t chase girls and didnt bother asking for her number but I have a feeling I will be racing her and her all male crew across the bay today. As for me since I still have no source of propulsion it will be push it out and pray.
Autumn arrives in early morning, but spring at the close of a winter day.
~Elizabeth Bowen
Sailing on a shoestring
21 Wednesday Mar 2012
Posted in Sailing
Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.
Mark Twain
I’ve thrown my budget out the port hole. It seems silly to try and make a budget when I don’t have any money to budget. I’m still living in the same pattern of spending every cent I make on the boat, some food here or dog food there. I’m trying to put less and less money into boat parts with hopes that I might soon be ready to cut the dock lines and sail out of here regardless of what my circumstances are.
I have always found that having a partner makes everything safer, easier, and more fun. Sailing solo, I don’t have a life raft so to speak, if there is a disaster I will be treading water. I can take the random hardship but wouldn’t know how to explain to my dog why she is hungry. It seems lately that I am getting allot of criticism about still being at the dock.
“Why dont you just leave today”.
ME”um, I dont know, I dont have any food, or charts, or nav equimpent…”
“you’re just making excuses, you will never leave”…
ME “um ok 
“
In the meantime I have been studying many different techniques and hoping to put together quiver of skills to support the trip. It doesn’t hurt that the first leg will be on one of the most wild coasts on the planet with thousands of miles of un touched beaches teaming with wildlife and wild edibles. In the meantime we are all doing the ritual spring sundance, the party has begun, come say hi.
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
Mark Twain
My First True Love
16 Friday Mar 2012
Posted in Sailing
I borrowed this from http://boatinglocal.com/news/dropping-in-on-seraffyn.html Take a peek. This is the boat that changed me forever.
Blog Stalking
13 Tuesday Mar 2012
Posted in Sailing
A blog (a portmanteau of the term web log) is a personal journal published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete entries (“posts”) typically displayed in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first.
Who are those peering eyes peeking into my little world. Today I have had readers in the Republic of Korea, Israel, All over Western Europe, Japan. Mexico, Cape Verde, Brazil, Kenya, The Czech Republic, The Russian Federation… I wonder who all these unknown friends are. How I would love to meet each and every person and know a bit about them.
I have my own dirty little secret, yep I’m a blog stalker. I read blogs every day, It hones my writing skills and opens me to some of the funniest writers out there. Today I have read…
http://justbeingthoughtful.wordpress.com/
http://thebloggess.com/2011/06/and-thats-why-you-should-learn-to-pick-your-battles/
http://www.fearfuladventurer.com/
http://pathlesspedaled.com/about/
http://myotherbackyard.wordpress.com/
These are just a few of the dozens of blogs I read every week. I have little blogger friends all over the world and love all the little letters they send from here and there.
I’ve said this before but putting yourself out there, under the microscope of scrutiny is like standing naked in front of a thousand strangers.
Message in a bottle
10 Saturday Mar 2012
Posted in Sailing
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Its amazing how just one little incident can change your life forever. I’ve spent the better part of the last 8 months waiting in vane that painful little twinge in my heart that never goes away. Hopeful and patient but lost and alone.
I thought about this girl 24 hours a day, I dreamed of her. She was the first thing I thought about when I woke up, and the last thing I thought about before I fell asleep.
Last night was the tipping point, one simple little incident and just like that I knew it was over. I couldn’t believe it, like switching off a light I had no more feelings. No loss, no pain, nothing, it all just drained out of my body and along with it all the pain was released.
I neatly packaged her up in a little mental bottle, filled it with love and threw her out, back to the universal sea from which she came.
I woke early today and I felt completely at peace. I have been wasting so much mental energy exhaustion has ruled my life for far too long. I went for a long slow jog in the early morning drizzle and it dawned on me, I’m finally free.
Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing.
~Anais Nin
