I got to thinking about what motivates a person to sail around the world.  So I asked myself, Ray, why do you want to sail around the world?

Interesting question, Ray, and thank you for asking.  First of all, I'm not totally sure I want to sail around the world.  I mean sure it sounds exciting to me, but there are elements that concern me.  The Cape of Good Hope and the Panama Canal being only two.  What I want to do for certain, again stars aligning synergistic matter forming etc. etc., is to sail to and around the South Pacific.  I would love to see places like the Tuamotus, Cook Islands, The Marquesas, Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga, Roratonga, Australia, perhaps even New Zealand.

Sure I can fly to these places a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a boat and sailing there.  So maybe the visiting of these places isn't necessarily it.  The folks at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon have a saying - The journey is the reward.  I think that really hits closer to the heart of the matter.  There is something for me in the visualizing, some would say day-dreaming, of this journey.  I can picture the open ocean extending to the oh so slightly curved horizon, which can hardly be seen due to our minimal distance from the water itself.

Some days I can picture the deep deep blue water with wind whipped white caps spread across it's surface.  White caps which top swells that give the boat a shove and a toss.  I can see the big billowy clouds that are perpetually in the sky in the tropics.  I can see the darker clouds on the horizon that will soon bring the rain and powerful gusts of a temporary squall.  I can picture myself rushing to shower in that squall hoping to get the shampoo rinsed before the rain stops.  I can hear Mandi yelling at me from below because I got my shower stuff instead of closing the ports before the squall hit.  I can see the smile on my face...

Other days I can see the same ocean only more calmed.  Trade winds blowing from the east at 15 knots as they have been doing for the last three days.  I can feel the wind on my face and sense it blowing past the wind-vane that hasn't been adjusted in days as it keeps us on our westerly course.  I can see myself in the cockpit with a cup of coffee on the 03 to 06 watch with my family below sleeping peacefully. My eyes locked to the east as the sun slowly rises through the clouds effortlessly casting nearly all the colors of the rainbow five at a time.  I can hear the water gurgling past the hull as we glide along at six knots.  I can feel the deck slowly pitching up and down in time with the swell.  I can hear the porpoises, who've accompanied us since two days out, splashing and whistling along side.

Hmmm, I wonder if I just want to cross oceans...

When I'm in the mountains the high I get from topping out or finishing a tough section of trail or completing a trip often gives me a feeling of invincible aliveness.  I'm not sure how else to explain it.  I can hardly remember another time when I felt more alive then after I completed my first long solo when I was flying.  Lucky for me I was alone because after I landed at my home airport I let loose a hell of whoop!  I picture making land-fall after a long passage being similar.

So I think the getting there appeals to me too.  The knowledge that I've crossed millions of square miles of open ocean and managed to find a relatively tiny speck of land in that ocean.  Man, just the thought of it gives me a rush right now.

Well, I still don't know what the motivation is but I sure do like to day-dream.