December, 2005
In my incessant pursuit of experiencing the world as it is and not as it appears on the screen, I have embarked on my next installment of travel. This one has abandoned the elements that tend to plug us into one spot for the benefit of a particular society, and embrace the flux and whim of nature, vector and rhythm. What else but sailing? I've clipped the necessary puppetstrings that attach me to the US
(rent, employment, and car, not to mention debt, the greatest hindrance to human movement and the prison warden of society), and am now free to move about as the world wants me to. I've long been drawn to the
seafaring community, some of the world's few remaining nomadic souls, which we never see or hear about precisely because we are so deeply rooted in our own land-locked cities and communities, finely-tuned cogs in the mechanism of society. Believe you me, they are out there and there are many of them. For some reason, CNN doesn't seem interested. Suits me fine.

As you might expect, such a journey cannot be charted out too precisely in advance. We simply must embrace the vicissitudes of the ocean that await us. What I can say is that under the aegis of an experienced
Norwegian, I will be one of four crewmembers on a 44ft sailboat departing from Ft Lauderdale in mid-December and traveling through the Bahamas southward. Around April, we hope to arrive in the Grenadines, after numerous stopovers on the islands in
between. If the prospects of wind and crewmember comity are good, I'll join him on a trans-Atlantic voyage in May to the shores of Europe ("à l'ancienne" as the French say.)

I suppose it's natural to be wary of the ambiguity inherent in this periple. It's that very fear that keeps me where I am. Somehow, societies inculcate us with that fear and a complementary love of comfort and gadgets that, as Baudrillard would say, help us attain
a "simulation" of reality. Sure, you could also say virtual. It's the nature of the world we live in. I'm just trying to reconcile what the real world is, sifting through the bullshit for some sign of the human experience. I guess my travels, as well as my meanderings in the US, have on many occasions revealed gems of life. I simply can't resist the urge to search for more, which typically happens "on the road."

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