I love to sail. It is a great feeling - the wind, the waves, the endless horizon, the windvane gleaming in the sun... there is nothing like being on water that is kilometers deep, you can just sense Neptune's Might.
I love sailing, but actually I don't have a sailboat of my own. Still, I believe that anyone should be able to travel without guzzling ghastly amounts of oil, ruining our planet and feeding the addiciton to speed that plagues our society. I cycle everywhere when I am on land, and when I hit water I need to cross, I try to sail.
But it isn't easy! Sometimes it seems like riding over mountain ranges under pedal-power is easier than finding a boat that needs or wants a competent crew member. The world is just not set up for sustainable transportation - sure there are ferry lines running every day, and no one thinks twice about it, but this is the problem - thinking. Awareness. (Ah, wait, I won't go into too much activist babble here.)
Despite the lack of evidence that it is possible to, say, join as crew and sail across the Adriatic sea, as a method of transportation as well as an enjoyable experience, I still believe it is possible. I have faith in cruisers and sailors around the world, and in humans in general.
I go into marinas to investigate all the masts that can be seen sticking up into the sky. Sometimes they kick me out - what reason do I have for being there? They just don't get it. Sometimes they just laugh at me, and very often I am told "What you are trying to do is impossible." I leave fliers if they let me, and I try not to forget that it's possible.
I get on the internet and send messages to everyone I can think of, yacht clubs and charter companies, marina offices and eco-tourism agencies. Crew network websites and sailing forums. Many people are positive and agree that it is possible, but still there are no boats.
I keep my mission and my principles in the front of my mind, and I don't give up.
In Florida I succeeded. After two months, the time was right, and the way opened itself to me, and I did sail as crew, all the way to England with my bike in pieces under the bunk. But it took two months.
Now I am in Croatia, trying to get to Italy by sail, and wondering - will it take me two months?
