7 Secrets I Learned Sailing Around the World

Alone on the vast sea

The solo, ocean sailing voyage that ultimately became my memoir, Once Upon A Gypsy Moon, was my effort to escape that negative world and my own sense of invisibility. I wanted to use my time at sea to reflect upon and write about what I had been through, but I also was seeking a grand adventure to expand my horizons just as my career, my friendships, and my finances were shrinking. And so I set sail in a small boat in what at the time seemed to be the most reckless decision I had ever made, and which in hindsight turned out to be the smartest thing I ever did. Along the way, I encountered and came to understand seven truths that helped me set a new heading for my life.

Alone on the vast sea

Be Patient in Waiting In our fast-food, drive through, on-demand culture, waiting for anything is very much out of style. But put to sea in a vessel driven only by the wind and waves, and you will soon find patience to be the most essential of virtues. The wind does not always blow, nor does it always blow in precisely the direction a sailor would wish to go. The wind is like that “still small voice” that we must wait patiently to hear, in our faith, and at times there is nothing to do but to rest quietly until it arrives. These moments of peace and stillness are as necessary and inevitable in the journey of our lives, and a sailing voyage, as those thrilling leaps of speed over a frothy sea.

Alone on the vast sea

Be Attentive to Things Unseen The wind is a perfect metaphor for the Holy Spirit. Unseen, yet enormously powerful, we recognize its presence by the effect is has on the things around us. The sails of a ship respond to its invisible call. But the wind cannot steer the ship on its own. The will of a captain is required to make use of this power to achieve the desired goal. I spent hours making the smallest of adjustments to the sails and the wind vane self-steering gear on my boat, trying to harness the wind to its best advantage. So it is in our spiritual lives. The power of the Holy Spirit is ever available to transform our lives, but we must choose to use and steer that power to answer God’s call.

Alone on the vast sea

Embrace Failure The failures I experienced at sea were some of my greatest victories, in disguise. Were it not for the failure of an autopilot off the coast of South Carolina in a wind-driven, rain-soaked night, I never would have put into the port of Charleston for repairs, where I met my future wife. Were it not for the reefs that surround the island of Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos, where my ship ran aground, I might never have met the young child on that island whose story of the loss of her father became the epiphany of Christmas to me. Rather than mourning our losses, we should recognize and use the gifts that lie hidden in them.

Alone on the vast sea

God is Near to the Wanderer In the busy din of life ashore, interrupted constantly by the “noise” of the media and the pressing demands of work and family, we can scarcely feel God’s presence, much less hear his voice. But “put out into the deep,” as Christ commanded his disciples, and there the presence and voice of God are inescapable. I often felt, at sea, that if I were not praying I was somehow rudely ignoring a God who seemed to be almost looking over my shoulder on the vast expanse of a silent ocean. I was inspired by this experience to write, in my memoir, that “away from the neon and the rush, far from Wal-Mart, out of earshot of the chattering of pundits and politicians, eventually there is only God. When God is your only companion, either there is an awkward silence or there is prayer.”