Sharing the adventures and horizons of the good sloop Akimbo and her crew going sailing... You might want to start at the "beginning" (October 3, 2009)? Thank you for visiting. It means a lot to me, so please leave comments or e-mail me @ jonthowe@gmail.com, and encourage others to visit too. It's a way for me to feel your company even from afar. Good luck to us all. Love and hope, jon

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Time to get "back on the horse."


       Have you ever asked for help?  That's what i am doing here.  There are many ways to do it, big and little.  Maybe you’ve asked someone for a ride.  Or you’ve sent out a prayer, on your knees or in a sweat lodge.  I recently scoured a Big Sur beach looking for a rock shaped like a heart.  After some time i chose an egg-rock as another symbolic shape but i was there for two rocks.  And i can be stubborn.  I stumbled around, talking to myself (“how do you call a rock?”) and finally i spoke aloud to the sky, “…i could use a little help here.”  I looked down…and there at my feet was a heart-rock.  I asked. 
         I’ve been lucky.  I haven’t had to ask for much help, but i’ve received more than i could have ever requested.  Actually, in one way, that may not be as lucky as it sounds.  It may be in the asking that helping and receiving become profound. 
         My time in Big Sur reinforced a consistent lesson for me:  i kept finding that when i help…i am helped.  After all, the best relationships really are mutual.  We all have lessons to share.  Emerson said, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”  Whatever our exploration, my experience is that if we pay attention (a high price to pay at times) it will be worthwhile.
         It is in this spirit that i am asking you to help me sail back to the NW in 2013.  Maybe you and i met in a workshop or class.  Maybe we’ve been friends for a long time, or we are family by birth (or maybe one of these people has chosen you to receive my asking).  Bring your spouse, your kid/s, your friend/s.  By virtue of whatever our connection is or was or can be, i am asking for your help.  And inviting you to my own.
         I’ve sailed offshore alone enuf. I’ve even placed an ad for a crewmate.  Without help, this trip won’t happen…i’ll have to look for a way to ship Akimbo back or i’ll take ‘no crew’ as my cue to sell her.  That latter tho’t hurts a bit, but life goes on and i’m up for other ways to live if this comes to that.  The response this letter gets by Feb…should help guide my decisions. 
         A rough itinerary looks like:  March and April for the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and Jamaica; May for the Caribbean islands;  June for Venezuela (south of hurricane season); July for Panama; August+ out to Hawaii; September back to the NW.  That leaves a month for wherever extra days are needed, before “the door closes” on the NW coast in November.  All sheer conjecture for now. I need to start studying charts and guidebooks. 
         As my plans firm up, i will post them to an on-line calendar tool.  This isn't quite the use Lotsa Helping Hands had in mind for their tool.  But i don't know another tool like it and help is help.  Besides, it won't hurt for more people to become familiar with LHH...and possibly donate or for their own future need if it arises.  Click on https://www.lotsahelpinghands.com/c/665358/ if you’re interested in crewing.  Then click on “join this community.”  Fill out that form and click send.  I’ll receive the form, approve your membership and you’ll have access to the calendar when you want it.  When i post updates you’ll receive an e-mail informing you of a new posting to check.  You’ll see what dates we are where and what’s changed, along with what dates are filled and which you can sign up for.  I am looking for a minimum of one person and a max of five at a time to join me.  If you see two spots filled on the dates and location you want, you can fill three more. 
         Out of respect for the weather, plans have to be flexible to be safe.  If i’m a few days late for a rendezvous, please understand, and enjoy your accommodations and the locals until i get there.  And due to weather delays, return tickets can turn out to be expensive when reservations change.
         Money:  I’m not planning to make money at this nor to spend more than i would on my own.  Please budget some amount for your food ($10-20/day) and airfare.  If you can help with some port fees and moorage, thank you and if not, no worries.
         Sailing experience:  No, you don’t need any.  Your first and foremost duty is to take care of yourself and not get hurt.  The chain reaction of decisions following a serious injury can threaten the boat and everyone aboard.  If i ask too much of you, say so!  Beyond that, you need to be willing to learn and to weather what comes.  That can be really intense on longer passages (standing watch so i can sleep, and waking me if ANYthing confuses you) and not so much when we anchor every night.  Risking seasickness (for which i use scopolamine transderms) and sleep deprivation for what?  Sorry to sugar coat it (ha!), still some of us find sailing worth what it demands (and some of us find adventure enuf without it).  
         There may be no older metaphor for life than a journey, and there may be no journey more dynamic than a sea voyage.  Beyond the wonder and spectacle, perhaps what sailing has gifted me most are metaphors for living. The nature of adventure is that we don’t know what we will look back upon until we get to the end.  One thing i guarantee is that nothing will affect our journey so much as the weather, and that the weather will be both external and internal, both good and bad.  We won’t tell the winds where to blow from nor how hard to blow.  What we will do is trim to the winds we get.  I hope you will come sail with me for a week or two or for more. 
Thank you,
jon