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Wednesday, 18 November 2009 |
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Wind NE 8knots, Course SE, Speed 0.1, Position 9° 24' N by 21° 05' W A Snowy White Egret landed on the deck yesterday. He arrived after a very heavy rain storm. That seems to be when shore birds get lost. The wind here is generally from the NE and for some reason they fly way out to sea with the wind. On another day a group of three white egrets circled the schooner and flew off. So did a flock of smaller sized herons. There have been a variety of moths and butterflies that get blown out here too. The white egret stalked around the deck looking for food. He walked on the deck sculpture and looked down into the eyes and mouth, then resumed his perch right in front of the pilot house windows. He spends most of his time arranging his feathers and sleeping. In the photo you can see that his eyelids close from the bottom up and are so transparent that you can see his pupil through them. Most days there is not much exciting nature action happening now. The trigger fish and cobia are still with us. I was notified by the birds that a rare school of tuna was passing the schooner. I threw my fishing line out and first try I landed a tuna. I am still eating everyday the big Mahi that I caught what seems like months ago, but I knew it was time to replenish my stock of fish. Now and then I see more manta rays and whale sharks, but they are mostly just passing by and not too curious. I am still amazed at how the winds and currents move us around and we stay in the same location. Yesterday there was a strong blow from the NE and yet the current moved us NE at 1.5 knots dead against the wind. I am just taking it as it comes. Reid |
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Day 938 New Phase of the Expedition |
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Monday, 16 November 2009 |
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Wind E 5 knots, Course S, Speed 0.3 knots, Position 9° 12' N by 21° 00' W
At some point a few weeks ago I stopped working as much and began creating more art. Now that I have the schooner taken care of and in a safe location, I have stopped work and I spend the better part of my days painting and at night after dinner, I have visions under the stars and prepare for the next day. This is a big change for me and very welcome. My fatigue and soreness is healing and I am able to focus on the magic that art has given me through out my life to voyage beyond. I have a very conservative sailing strategy for the next months. Those of you that like to read about the action of sailing, please skim back through my 100's of days where I went into great detail and sent many photos. Now I want to explore deeper realms that I have not yet fully discovered. What compels me to want to sail the high seas for so long? There are many answers I want to find and share. How do I do what I do to thrive on the open ocean far longer than any man in history? There are many levels to this and there is no one back on land who understands completely. What are the more subtle aspects of this mission? How do they relate to mankind's modern needs, how do they thread their way to our ancient past, how will this help us in the future and how can I share it in the most effective way, both now and after I return? I am finding my balance in a deeper way. I am entering into a new phase of the expedition. The physical act of sailing and staying alive no longer takes up all my time and energy. Premonitions, vague notions and intimations of higher knowledge have been swirling around me and now I have one hand free. I always remain attached to the schooner, but now I am stretching out even more beyond my imagined security, driven to discover and share what I don't know. Reid |
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Day 936 Balancing the Left and Right Sides of the Brain |
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Sunday, 15 November 2009 |
Day 936 - November 14, 2009
Wind NE 5 knots, course NW, Speed 0.7 knots, Position 9*10 by 21*03w
Balancing the Left and Right Sides of the Brain
Being at sea for a long period of time requires balancing on many levels. Scientists have studied the brain and attributed different qualities to each half. The left brain associates with masculinity, rational, intellectual and analytical thinking. The right side of the brain is related to femininity, emotional, creative and mystical feelings.
The linear left side of the brain often over-intellectualizes its perception of the world and though a person could be very smart, they fail to recognize the depths of multiple meanings in other realms. The literal nature of the left side cannot understand more symbolism for one thing and so is unable to think metaphorically and fly into a sense of awe.
In creative people the two halves cooperate in free communication. I have been intrigued by this and to synchronize my two halves, I have visualized the brain flashing back and forth until I saw electrical sparks flying. By meditating on myself in feminine ways I have come into contact with the feminine side of myself.
I know that by balancing the two halves of my brain I can combine my lofty unrealistic expectations and the reality of seamanship for better possibilities of success. It is a complex balance of polar extremes integrating rebellion and tradition, aggression and cooperation, realism and idealism and the masculine and the feminine. As I balance the two I feel transcendent perception and become empowered and more aware.
I often feel it as a sacred intensified vision that is demanding, requiring the most of me and bordering on danger as if I were walking the razors edge, dancing on the sword blade, riding the dragon or connecting to my powerful Goddess opposite. I have used this imagery in my art most of my life, placing myself in archetypal graphic symbolism. I will talk more about this as I explain my art.
I feel that the sea has been my helpful sanctuary where time and eternity, matter and spirit, isolation and communion involve me in their universal exchange. |
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Sunday, 15 November 2009 |
Day 934 - November 12, 2009
Wind Becalmed, No course or speed, Position 9*05n by 20*38w
Enduring Smiles
As I shifted the elements of my art collage around I found a newspaper story about our departure across the Atlantic on the little catamaran Tantra. My Mom took the photos and got the story. She was sharing how she cried and prayed, but wanted me to follow my dreams of the spirit, art and adventure. In bold black letters my Dad just said, "I'd like to be out there with him".
This story remains my favorite piece of press. In the photo of me the crescent I painted on the round self-steering gear vane wraps incredibly symmetrically around my head. For it to be captured like that while I am moving and it is moving is a cosmic coincidence. That photo wound up placed next to a photo of me taken shortly before leaving on this voyage. I looked at the two of them and could not believe the similarity.
On my boats before going to sea there is wide open joyous smiling. The two smiles match and there is 35 years between them. When I counted up the years it reminded me to my surprise that I was growing older, but I was more amazed at how my smile had not changed.
In those years I have lived my life fully with lots of ups and downs. Through it all I managed to keep creating and being grateful for the gift of life. And I kept a positive attitude and a smile on my face. Still, a smile must age as we grow older? But you know, my parents are in their 80's and their warm loving smiles and eyes have not changed to me. Every time I think of that tears of joy run down my smiling face and they are the same smiles and tears my parents cried.
They are eternal smiles and tears of love and wonder, growth and aging, parting and returning. We are all so lucky to be given the gift of life. |
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Day 930 Journey into Death and Back |
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Monday, 09 November 2009 |
Day 930 - November 8, 2009
Wind E, 10 knots, Course NW, Speed 1 knot, Position 8*42n by 20*40w
Journey into Death and Back
During the years that I prepared for this mission I saw it as many things; one was it was kind of a journey into death and back. My interest in "what is death?" began in earnest when I was a teenager and read "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" and the modern scientific descriptions of the death experience by E.K. Ross.
I identified with the White Light and out of body experiences. Over the years I incorporated this into my spiritual experiences. I felt like this would be a voyage over the river and into the nothingness/everything of the sea and heavens.
I feel that living our lives preparing for death helps us live our lives more fully. We approach death more consciously, acceptingly and even joyfully because this is our last act in life. The sea is full of life, but it is death for humans. It is good having this reminder of death always around because it reminds me of the impermanence of life on earth and it impresses on me that the world of God is real. I release my attachments to the world and approach the oneness with everything, moving to an unknown destination or perhaps no destination at all.
I live the universally proscribed death experiences; feeling Divine love, seeing heavenly realms, hearing spiritual sounds, having out of body experiences and a sense of peace and fulfillment. I feel "self" aware, but my self is the archetypal self spread though time. This gives me a heightened sense of omnipotence, a feeling of invincibility or acceptance of whatever may happen. I will survive because I am part of continuing existence.
This journey has made me more religious, understanding better the truth in all religions with a stronger belief in God. I am less materialistic and more concerned with compassion for others and I work on trying to improve their welfare. This journey into a death-like experience has increased my zest for living and it is hard to describe, but I keep trying because I feel I have a positive mission to share.
This attitude comforts and sustains me and makes me feel I will return to share life with everybody. |
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Day 928 Surrender in all Directions |
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Friday, 06 November 2009 |
Day 928 - November 6, 2009
Wind Becalmed, Drifting NE 1.3, Position 8*50n by 20*14w
Surrender in all Directions
When I finished drawing the heart, many people asked me what I was going to do next. If I answered at all, I said, "I don't know, but it will be what no man has done before." I had some options, but I wanted to try not to impress my will upon the sea. I also did not want to hope or have expectations.
My first efforts to adapt to the sea I called Zen sailing, but I still was not able to surrender. My plan was to catch the winds and currents, but I still had to raise my mainsail to maneuver where I wanted. Somehow, at some time and I don't know when, I let that concept go. I stopped trying to do anything and I put my position on the chart less and less and then I stopped all together. I stopped looking at the compass. It was harder not to look at the GPS.
I started to realize I had found the place where the winds and currents play back and forth. Then whatever direction I was going, I didn't know if I wanted to go that direction or not, but I didn't know which direction to go to make things better. Often the wind comes from one direction and the current from another and we go one way for awhile and then another way for awhile. Then it makes no difference to me.
If it is slightly overcast, I look around and have no idea which way I am looking. A few clouds in the sky at night, a breeze and even when the moon is up I have no idea which way I am going or where the wind is coming from. The days and time mean nothing. "Does anybody really know what time it is?" I hear that near the equator the earth is rotating over 1000 miles an hour. That is fast enough for me now. I do remember to stay attentive and present to the situation while I surrender in all directions to God.
The computer is acting up on me, so I am sorry I can't answer everybody's supportive letters, though I do appreciate them. The computer cuts off and won't cut back on. It just froze up and a sign popped up on the screen, "The driver got stuck in the infinite loop". Isn't that crazy, here I am trying to get stuck in an infinite loop and the computer does it too?? |
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Day 926 The Transformation of Sailing |
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Wednesday, 04 November 2009 |
Day 926 - November 4, 2009
Wind NE 12 knots, Course S, Speed 1 knot, Position 9*19n by 20*34w
The Transformation of Sailing
Anyone with an open mind who looks at what I am doing and reads even part of what I am writing will see I am in the process of transforming sailing. Mans' sojourn on the sea will soon be seen and understood by a larger public in a way people have never imagined before.
The reality of the physical act verifies the unprecedented strategies, observations and illuminations. This altering of what we can do on the sea takes place on many more levels now and expresses qualities different that just the physical act of sailing. This voyage does not look like pre-transformative sailing and I make very little attempt to present it that way.
Something was missing that connected sailing to the general public. I have abstracted sailing by changing its traditional concept and presenting it apart from its material embodiment and circumstances. Close attention to this voyage will reveal multiple layers of meaning and speak to everyone more clearly as we grow more spiritually aware and closer to God.
On this voyage I live in the flux of the search for oneness with all and dissolving in oneness with the euphoric oceanic majesty, but I am not apart from all things and everyone. I remain acutely aware of my situation and duties. This sailing state is supported by an unbounded eternal connectedness with my fellow beings. This takes away fear, heals me and gives limitless energy to the compassionate love I feel for all of creation. I am not the only one who lives this.
As I try to transform sailing I realize its potential to serve as a positive force in the world. I try to enliven and reanimate the world with spiritual qualities and express the divine nature of the universe. Because I am blessed to be able to sail on the wide open free seas of the world, I feel it is my responsibility and place to be at the cutting edge of consciousness growth, living the role as the sharer: the sailor as seer. |
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Tuesday, 03 November 2009 |
Day 924 - November 2, 2009
Wind, Becalmed, Drifting NE, Position 9*36n by 20*29w
Yellow Healing
I have been feeling a lot of yellow healing lately because it has been hot and I have heavy duty yellow tarps pulled over the pilothouse and sail temple skylights. I also have a smaller transparent yellow vinyl that goes over the pilothouse cupola.
Sometimes in my mind's eye I see myself moving around and the yellow is following me. I meditate on the yellow most strongly in the stomach region. When I lay down I always invigorate the colors and let them flow through each other and my body. Once a voice in my mind said, "Will I always have to do this?" I quickly answered, "Yes! Yes!"
Meditation, healing, any kind of visualization, prayer practice is work. It requires a special kind of human and divine energy combined to transcend our lower human attachments and lift our spirits. It takes work, commitment, belief and strength to activate our forces and guide them up to our higher calling, to awaken our latent energies and get glimpse of our divine potential and then keep going. It is our life's calling to rise above sloth, ignorance and all the negative traits we humans have.
"Yes!" I answer, I will always keep rising to the situation. That is one of the aspects of the mission that I want to make clear and spread worldwide. It takes work and we must work to heal ourselves and the world and all creation. These nights as the moon gets big I lay spread eagle naked and soak in the healing rainbow colors. "Yes!"
The clouds that make the rainbow are not always there, but when the moon rainbow halo happens I am ready and take full advantage. Great desire and concentration become meditation and I soak each color in again and again. I see vitality globules swirl around me. |
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Day 922 Shangri-La of the Sea |
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Saturday, 31 October 2009 |
Day 922 - October 31, 2009
Wind ENE 10 knots, Course W, Speed 0.8, Position 9*14n by 20*28w
Shangri-La of the Sea
I think I have found the Shangri-La of the Sea, but how can I know after only 100 days or so? An experience so new needs at least a few 100 days to try to figure out, bring into focus, study and contemplate. It is like a dream or fantasy setting where life approaches perfection and I am just on the schooner passing through.
Later I'll have to snap to and look back to better understand and describe a place so intense because my experience here and now is one of ecstasy and awe rather than reasonable observation. Other explorers and sailors have missed the subtle gate and hidden passes into these utopias of splendid wonders.
This eternal sublime paradise of the sea, tinged with terror and exaltation is often bypassed for more worldly pursuits. All this grandeur has its physical aspects. Many moon rainbow haloes, giant schools of tuna exciting the sea into effervescent phosphorescent spectacles. The water is crystal clear and the sea life abounds; funny triggerfish, giant whale sharks, mantas, whales and marlin.
There are sea spiders that run on glassy water and fish that slide on the surface like snakes while bigger fish chase them. In the sky there are frigate birds, terns, birds I can't name, sparrow-like birds, herons and a dove. Moths and butterflies flutter around. Pink-bellied porpoises play ritual games. Then come the rains. Then the sounds of many waters.
When I come back to tell the tale, this will be the Shangri-La of the Sea. |
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