Our big blue world
The headline describes what we feel when we leave the protecting harbor and sail in to the sea and soon the land will drop behind the horizon. As soon as the land disappears behind the horizons this outside world with all its troubles is constantly fading away and becomes more and more meaningless. Our vessel becomes the center of our big blue world. Now it is only us who make the decisions and it is only us who has to accept the consequences, no matter whether the results are good or bad. There is only one power left we obey unconditionally – The Nature. Wind and weather are dictating our actions. Perhaps this is the definition of absolute freedom.
The experiences during our first journey all the way from Turkey to Australia brought us even closer together then 30 years of marriage. We became a well functioning, experienced team and trust each other blindly. We became more and more confident that we are capable also to master critical situations and our love to each other became stronger than ever before.
When we left Kusadasi in Turkey in August 28, 2009 we ware planning to sail around the world within fore years. This is the reason that we named it "Project Circumnavigation". Meanwhile we changed our point of view. After we arrived in Australia after almost three years of sailing, we are not keen to sail home now.
We decided to take a brake and put our vessel on land in Australia and rejoined the business world for two years. We are curios how well we manage to blend in to the world we left three years ago behind the horizon – It was easier than we thought.
But there is something else: The longer we are away from our vessel the more grows our desire to start to sail again and rejoin our own big blue world. Perhaps we got a bug or we are addicted – we do not care. We do not see a doctor – Beginning with April 2014 we will be back on board of SuAn and we continue our journey.
During our spare time we use almost every minute to prepare for our new destinations. This seems to be absolutely necessary since we intend to exit the "Coconut Run" and plan to explore the Northern Pacific.
Our journey will take us in a big loop around the Northern Pacific and eventually back in to the South See and the final destination of New Zealand. The highlights on this way are most probably Japan and Alaska. Both are not exactly easy cruising grounds and there are not may cruising yachts who accept those challenges.
We prepare our vessel and our self for this route in doing what ever seems necessary using the motto: "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst". So fare, on our journeys over two oceans, around half of the world, we never experienced Gail winds. This will probably change in the Northern Pacific. Also the leg from Guam to Japan can not be taken too easily. Here the whole year Tropical Cyclones may appear. We reduce our risk in choosing the season with the minimum probability for Typhoons – End of February or March.
All in all we expect a great adventure with interesting people, alien cultures, bureaucratic authorities, gail force winds, fog, ice and snow, breathtaking sceneries, exiting animals, worn out sails, technical problems and lots of other things we not even dream about. Sometimes we will be frustrated, sometimes we will experience the most wonderful time in our life which more than reward us for any previous trouble.
We do not expect an easy journey, but we expect a very interesting one and lots of time in our own big blue world.
Gabi und Lutz Pestel
Foshan, China, 05.August 2013
