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November 30, 1998
San Francisco to Hawaii, Second Attempt. Update #62
62. Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998
KONA HAWAII
MOKSHA'S PHOTOS
New Photos added 12/4/98
Aloha from the big island! Well, what can I say - having been deprived of all human contact and basic material comforts for so long and then to re-enter civilization in a paradise like Hawaii has almost been too much for the senses. There's a danger of indulging too much - hedonistically gorging oneself to the point of overload. Arriving in the Turks and Caicos islands from the Atlantic crossing three years ago was like this for me; I remember going to the store with a $50 bill to get some bread and coming out 1hr later with bags and bags of banana bread, chocolate cookies and zero change to show for it. For the next four days I sat in a hotel room not being able to deal with the outside world, I'd adapted to life on the boat so well. I was like a caged bunny suddenly set free into the wild. This time I'm better prepared and the transition hasn't been so bad. Still - it takes will-power to convince my stomach that it doesn't really need a packet of M&M's every hour on the hour 24 hrs a day...
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 Like the 'control' in a lab experiment we've spent the last 53 days withdrawn from the norm, remembering and quietly longing for the things we are now surrounded by in plenty; fresh fruit, vegetables, coffee, the sound of laughter, the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 years 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 chaos 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 savoring 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!
Lewis & Smith,
The Moksha crew
Posted on November 30, 1998 8:04 PM