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

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Drum roll...


Well, Akimbo and crew push off in four days.  And almost every berth (of nearly a thousand?!) has been signed-up for.  Magic!

I’ve worked hard to get Akimbo ready.  She's in the best shape i've ever had her.  But i've felt discouraged and lucky all at the same time to find some things literally "hanging by a thread."  Lucky to find and fix them now instead of later.  But luck cuts both ways.  Akimbo is 14 years and at least 30,000 nautical miles old.  I keep watching and listening for what i haven't found.

Now, how do i get me ready?  I'm both daunted and excited.  Flutterbies in my stomach.  They let me know…that i’m not holding back.  Like goosebumps, they tell me i’m alive.  It's time to leave doubts behind:  guardians of the gates.  They're there to make sure that this IS the path i intend.  They demand an answer...or a retreat.  They center me.

Maybe a little meditating will help.  I watch breath, tho'ts, feelings.  Invisible things but no less real for that.  Of course, this trip barges right in to these moments.  The future?  Invisible too.  "What is about to happen?" i wonder.  The next breath begins.  I come back to the chuckle of water alongside Akimbo's hull.  She rocks gently in her slip.  Sunlight, bounced off the water outside, dances all around her interior.

Exhale.  Hell, when have i ever known what was about to happen?  How different seven months in company will be from seven months alone.  Sure, i make plans, i prepare Akimbo, myself and crew.  But that feels like only a tiny part of the unknowns made blatant by a journey.  A life.  Sometimes an unknown becomes known and it “takes my breath away” …for an instant.  In beauty.  Or surprise.  Or in pain.  How many breaths have i taken and released in 60 years?  How many next things have come?  And gone?  So many that i didn’t pay attention to.  Yet how lucky i’ve been.

The gatekeepers let me pass.  Now to see what we find and what finds us.  Time now to inhale, to open, to pay attention.  To exhale and enjoy.   I am very grateful to have crew.  Thank you.
See you soon,
jon