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July 15, 1999
Hawaii to Tarawa Voyage, Update #78
Day 73. Thursday, 15 July 1999 0328 GMT
Wind E-3. Heading - home
Latitude: 01deg 23.471N
Longitude: 172deg 55.814E
Tarawa can be seen in the background as
Jason & Moksha approach...
Well, this is nearly the end of the line folks. We're dead on target for our rendezvous point after a tough night keeping the legs moving. This is the beginning of my third day without water and food. No sleep for the last 2 nights has me pretty beat too. Stepping onto the terra firma of Tarawa - this tiny wisp of coral sand lost way out in the south Pacific that I now see just 2 miles ahead of Moksha's bow - will feel sooooo good! For the first month of the voyage when we were being swept west by the NorthEast trades, I thought we'd never make Tarawa. At best I reckoned we'd hit somewhere in the Marshall Islands 400 miles to the north of here like Mick Bird did. But here we are. I can see trees, houses and cars moving on a road in the distance. They all look so alien. I have indeed arrived on a different planet.
Time has effectively stood still for me since May 3rd when we departed Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. I hear of change "out there" in the other world - the real world - via snippets I pick up on the BBC World Service. But there's been no change on this little world on the boat. I will step out of a time warp onto a moving escalator in a few hours time. It will be overwhelming and wonderful all at once.
I mentioned in an earlier update a month or so into the voyage about becoming a ghost to the people I know on land - the more I entered into the void of deep ocean: in a sense becoming a ghost to myself - the 'normal' land self that is. I talked of surrendering to the ocean completely in order to be 'reborn' into the world of mankind. I've sometimes wondered on this trip what it is that makes folks go the sea. And the best answer I can come up with is that it's one of the best ways of fully appreciating how absolutely fabulous 'normal' life on land is. I am now at that return threshold: returning from wandering a strange nether-nether spirit world to a reality that has substance and rational meaning. The moment I step off Moksha (actually the process has started already), flesh will start to re-form on bones that have been only memories for so long. The world will seem fresh and new and exciting - xperienced as if for the first time. I will be like a newborn child discovering the delights of my brave new world through conscious adult eyes.
It leaves me now to thanks. I am not going to mention everyone by name, as there are so many of you it'd take _ an hour of satellite time to send back this update. Also I am afraid - with a brain that is nearing the end of its tether with exhaustion - to miss someone out. You all know who you are and what you have done to make this voyage possible: the Hawaii crew who took care of all our needs on the Big Island and gave us such a great send off. The support crew for the voyage who monitored our progress, supplied me with daily weather reports (essential for the last week's final approach), constructed and maintained the website, worked on the Classroom Expedition school's program and kept me sane by calling me on the sat phone and forwarding on messages of good will. Also I'd like to thank the Tarawa forward support crew - including the people of Tarawa who have already become involved in some way or another - who have worked on the island to prepare for Moksha's arrival.
I'd like to thank our equipment sponsors for this voyage, and especially our Title Sponsor MicroMarine whose pedal unit is still powering Moksha the last few miles to the finish and whose financial support made the voyage possible.
And finally there is you - the reader. Some people have asked why I use the word 'we' instead of just 'I' or 'me' when referring to life aboard in the updates. The reason is that as well as myself, the Good Ship and the fish, there have been quite a few other people pedaling this boat to Tarawa. As I have been a ghost to those on land reading the updates, so you have been a ghost help pedal me 2200 miles to where we are now. I've never felt for a minute that I was alone. The messages on the 1800#, the emails via the registry and even my knowing you are out there has kept the Good Ship moving forward. It's been a long, hard voyage. Much harder in places than I thought it was going to be (I thought we'd never get out of that ******* counter-current!). Congratulations on making it everyone. "We" made it! I reckon we've earn't ourselves a cool one tonight.
But - there's a little further to go. The support craft is heading this way to guide us though the reef as I write. So back to the grind - one more time...
Jason Lewis,
The Moksha motor
Posted on July 15, 1999 6:02 AM