x360 Journal

Coming in from such complete wilderness can perhaps be likened to being re-born into a heaven that has always been under one's nose but has become 'normalized' from the familiarity of one's previous life on land. Its amazing how traveling can tell you as much about where you've come from as where you are right now. Being out at sea for two months has taken Steve and I to an extreme in this case. Like the 'control' in a lab experiment we've spent the last 53 days withdrawn from the norm, remembering and quietly longing for the things we are now surrounded by in plenty; fresh fruit, vegetables, coffee, the sound of laughter, the smell of dry earth mingled with the first smatterings of rain, the reassuring feel of a stranger's welcoming handshake. All these things and so many more we are now discovering as if for the first time, and I can't tell you how good normality really is!

The clarity and resolution of the experiences are already fading though - just like they did after the Atlantic Crossing; the smell of traffic fumes seem less offensive as they did a week ago, the bottles of washing detergent on the supermarket shelves aren't quite as blinding, and beer is starting to taste like beer should do as opposed to how it tasted when I was 9 yrs old - disgustingly bitter! The question now is how to retain some of this wonderful freshness in experiencing the world and not to revert entirely back to the usual choas and mayhem that our expedition seems to generate on dry land. For now I have no answers to this - save for meditating for an hour every morning and savouring this strange state of grace to the last drop. I'm content to enjoy walking around in a glass bubble where nothing is that important to get stressed about - for as long as it lasts.

So we're gradually starting to shift back up through the gears; making lists, catching up on phone calls, e-mail etc. We are now based on the west side of the island in Kona in anticipation of a proposed late April departure to the Gilbert islands. This last week we visited the first of a number of schools we have planned to go to in Kona over the next fortnight. Over 100 3rd through 5th graders spent the morning clambered over and inside Moksha, listened to tales of our crossing and volunteered to connect with kids in other countries via the various exchange programs available through the Global Learning Exchange. We have 178 penpal letters we brought in the Moksha's dreaded rear compartment to give out to 8-13yr olds and various still cameras and a video camera to hand out to teenagers to make a film for the video program and photo albums to exchange with albums from schools in the US, Central America and Europe.

This wednesday we host the first of a mini expedition on water involving some local kids, a sail-boat going around the world and the good ship Moksha. Click back on for the next update before the weekend to find out what that's all about and what went on!

Captions for Photos:
1 The Hawaiin welcome we dreamed of for so many days.
2 Moksha heaves herself over one more wave in the final approach to Hilo
3 The smell of the Lea's (spelling?) was almost too much for us at first.
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5 Our first contact with 'civilized' folk was met with the need to exchange the 'it-se-bit-se's' for more orthodox attire.
6 HULA HULA HAWAII HERE WE COME!!!(actually imported from FL - Nancy Sanford, an expedition volunteer had us fooled for a while)
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8 Expedition HQ Kona. We sleep outside in hammocks and tree houses. Our office is the big round table in the centre. As I write this I'm sitting at the table in the centre of the photo; its so wonderful to be writing on a computer that's fixed to a solid surface rather than a pair of knees that are rolling from side to side in time with the ocean swell.
9 Front page of the local paper
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