The Story...so far...

The Story…so far…

It’s interesting working in education and the emphasis we put on following dreams.  From a young age we tell kids to follow their dreams, and that they can be anything that they want to be. There’s not a graduation speech that doesn’t talk about the importance of following your dreams, and to pursue what makes them happiest, not richest, or most comfortable, but what makes them happy.  So it’s interesting that as we get older, even though growing up we are told to seek out what ignites our passions, at some point we are told to repress those passions and “be more responsible”.   There are too many people in this world not pursuing their dreams, so this is the story of how sailing became a dream, and then a reality…

So back in 2005, I got the opportunity to come work at a school in South Korea working in the boarding program.  It was November of that year that I moved out to Korea.  Some time in the next couple of months, my good friend Stauffer called a meeting of awesome people.  He invited a number of friends that had a sense of adventure to a wings restaurant with an exciting proposal. Due to the fact that I was in Korea at the time, I was unable attend the meeting, although he did fill me in on what it was all about.  He was trying to get some guys together to sail around the world with him.  At the time I was living in Korea, and already doing a lot of traveling and it didn’t seem practical so I turned him down.  It wasn’t until a few months later that I was trying to figure out what my 5 year plan should be, and what my goals in life were, that I realized that sailing would be the ultimate adventure.  By the time I had contacted Stauffer the other guys interested had pretty much dropped out, and so it was down to him and me.  He started sending me more info about sailing, and boat purchases and possible routes, which just got me even more excited. 

Over the following year, we were in regular contact, with Stauffer doing most of the leg work, but I was doing a lot of the saving of funds.  We even got pre-approval on a joint loan in order to purchase a boat.  After a year of planning, we hit a road block, and by Fall of 2007, Stauffer was beginning to have second thoughts, and when he told me that he was no longer interested in pursuing the dream, it was a hit, but it meant that I had to make some tough decisions as far as whether I wanted to quit or keeping going.  I decided at the time that I had already decided this was something I was going to do, and that I would continue to pursue this dream.  I realized that it meant that I would need to save up even more money than originally planned, and that it would take longer to accomplish, but I still planned on doing it.   I started telling as many people about my plans as possible, so that I would have accountability, and wouldn’t quit my pursuits.

Then I started dating Christine, in the Spring of 2008 and things got a little bit more complicated.  Sailing was a passion that I was very upfront with her about from the beginning of our relationship, and for awhile we just didn’t talk about it, but then as we got more serious it was an elephant in the room, and we were trying to figure out where my dreams and direction in life fitted in with her dreams.  It got to the point where we even broke up for a few months while we processed through it, but we got to the point where we agreed that if our relationship was to work we would sail together and then start a family afterwards.  So at Christmas of 2009 we headed to Phuket, Thailand with rumors of a proposal in the air.  We decided to take a level 1 sailing course with American Sailing Association for a week.  It was during that time that Christine and I got our first real sailing experience, and we also got engaged.  That summer (2010), we were married, and we had to figure out where sailing fit into our new life.  We had already agreed to do it before kids, but Christine was becoming more and more nervous about sailing, and didn’t want to leave her carrier as a teacher behind.  So through a lot of discussion we decided that it would be best if I did the trip while she stayed back.  She would still meet up on different breaks with me, but would work as a teacher during that time.  We even discussed the possibility of her having a child before I left, but I was pretty opposed to leaving her as a single mother.  This was always on our minds though, and I even got a tattoo I had been thinking about for awhile in 2011, on Christine’s suggestion.  It’s a nautical scene with an unfinished anchor, and once I have “earned” the anchor I will get the tattoo filled in.

So jump forward a few years, and I have been a resident assistant for 8 years in Korea, I had been married for almost 3 years, and I am 32 years old.  I was in a stage in life where I needed to move forward professionally or needed to do something different, and when a promotion opened up at my school, I thought that this was a possibility for advancement, but then it didn’t work out, so I inquired about working in a different division, and all options didn’t work.  So I regretfully decided to quit my job, and pursue education full time, in order to be more qualified for a different line of work.  Through all of the process I felt my sailing slipping further and further away, and I began to get pretty depressed.  As I was talking about my struggles with friends over this past summer, people would ask me what I wanted to do with my life, and I couldn’t give a solid answer.  I would usually chuckle and say sail around the world, but I didn’t take it seriously. 

So on one particularly depressing day, where I spent about 12 hours in the library at the university I was attending summer classes at, I decided to search some “crew finder” websites.  On one of them I saw a guy looking to do this upcoming World ARC and needed a 3rd party for the whole trip.  There was a button to click on to “contact the captain”, so I clicked on it thinking it would just give me more info about the captain, and maybe an email address, and then a thing pops up says that my personal information has been sent to him.  I realized at that point it was out of my hands, and that if this was something I was suppose to do the captain would contact me back.  I knew that my profile mentions my very little amount of experience, and so I thought there was no chance of hearing back from the guy, but that very night I heard from him.  From there we emailed a bit, and talked on the phone, and a couple of weeks later I flew out to San Diego to meet him and his family.  The rest is history….

So now I am currently working on getting my ducks all in a row for a November 1st departure, and get packed up and all the gear I might need.  I am also reading up on sailing and studying sailing terms.  Sorry this post is so long, the others shouldn’t be so long, and I am going to try and incorporate more video in the future as well.  Also, I want to point out that if for some reason you find these posts narcissistic or self-indulgent, I am sorry, that’s not my intention.  I am just really excited about this, and want to share the experience with others.