Sailing without a sailboat

[Charles Brigham]

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?

[Suky Cannon]

Wow... Croatia is such a beautiful place, I'm told. I guess it's getting harder and harder but I'm a bit surprised. Find the pubs the crews and owners hang out and make friends.... good luck... sounds like you're not in a big rush.
fairwinds

[Liv]

Where in Croatia are you?
I've been there a few times.
If you want to go to Italy and can't find someone to take you on as crew, just bike to Italy. It's a beautiful ride along the coast of Croatia , north , then cut across Austria into Italy..
Yes, using wind power is the way to go for me too.

[Paul Cheney]

Well first off, well done for crossing an ocean that most people in the stuck up marinas you visited will never see - never mind cross. I do not believe they have made shore power cords in excess of 2 thousand miles yet. I am working to outfit my boat at the moment, sometimes it seems never ending but I doubt I could find anything as satisfying. Most people at the marina I am tied up at the moment own tenders worth double my boat. I would be hard pressed to find a boat there other than my own without a microwave. My boat is old, does not sleep 24 people in decadence but it is mine, paid for and very seaworthy ( 1968 Islander 29 ). I wish you had stopped by my marina ( scaled the security fence ) and we had a chance to talk. The thing I find the most difficult about all of this is not saving for a new self steering system, rather the lack of people on an adventure, I am at home now scouring the internet looking to read inspiration of others adventures about 20 miles from the marina and my boat. The marina which is without doubt sitting at the foot of lawn chair laden docks pumping 100s of gallons of water across the bows of 100 thousand dollar boats that will travel no further than the boat launch crane at the end of the season. Where to look you ask... definitely not the marina. Way to go on doing what is hard enough even with a boat!