Adventure is more than miles and places, storms and calms. Adventure is a state of mind that finds excitement and purpose in living moment by moment on this beautiful planet that is so accommodating to life. Everywhere I’ve looked there was life busy living. For the past four months, I’ve been very busy living and sharing what I’ve seen and felt by being the central character in my own dream. You have given me a part of your life by taking time to come along. You’ve offered me encouragement when I needed it most. When loneliness overtook me or the going got tough, I would reread your e-mails and comments and resolve to make one more mile. You ask questions that made me think deeply about the reality of making a dream come true. Everyone who visited the site contributed whether leaving a comment or not. Your encouragement has sharpened my desire to move through my doubts and fears to take the adventure farther next year.
Because you were there, I have always felt a sense of obligation to not take risk, or be fool hearty or caviler about the dangers of solo sailing. I weighed the risk against the reward and moved forward. I’ve never tried to do the impossible but rather show by example that fun things can be done safely and has this ever been fun! (Even in spite of the one or two times it wasn’t “fun”.)
My hope is to somehow encourage you to step out and make a dream come true. If you can think to yourself something like “If that old guy can go that far, at his age, in that boat, then I can…” (You fill in the blank). That’s what Captain Lem and others have done for me.
I can see clearly it’s going to be a wonderful winter collecting my lessons learned and planning ahead. There are yet great things to see and do. I will keep you posted. In the end our time will be well spent on this Arctic Solo Sail.
Your sailor pal,
Tommy
One more storm picture
