Hello everyone!
I've been lurking around for about a month now, but today I have decided to come out of the woodwork and start communicating.
This seems like a wonderful community, and I hope to learn a lot from you all and hopefully make a few friends as well.
My name is
Alex (my handle is the Japanese translation of that), and I am a 28 year old English Teacher / Traveler living in Morocco (at the moment and only until this October or so). I have been
traveling around the world since last May, though my current travel only covers parts of Western Europe on a bicycle before coming to Morocco. I am teaching English in the city of Meknes under a one year contract. When that ends, I will take what money I will have saved and continue my travels.
Why am I here? I have no sailing experience, and my on-the-ocean boating experience is extremely limited, but I do have a deep love for the sea. I studied Marine Biology in University at Florida Institute of Technology, but I was young and stupid and didn't take the opportunities I had to learn to sail when I had the chance. Just before getting my degree, I realized that I loved teaching, and a year after I graduated I went to Japan to teach English. I lived there for 4 1/2 years before setting out on this journey. Feel free to read all about it in the link above, if you are interested.
So, why am I here? Well, I am a traveler at heart. I always have been. I get antsy if I stay in one place for long. However, I am not a big fan of "easy" modes of travel. Trains, buses, and especially airplanes are extremely boring (though, if I had to choose, train is probably the best of those). When I travel on land, I travel by bicycle. I have done 3 long(ish) bicycle trips in my life (up and down the east coast of the USA in 1998, all over Japan in 2003, and Western Europe in 2006). Cycling is the best way to travel on land because you get to see a lot of the country you are in and you get to meet a lot of cool people. Besides, traveling is about the journey, not the destination. Or, as I saw someone say in another thread, "The journey IS the destination." I get the feeling you all can appreciate this.
However, bicycling doesn't really work when one wants to cross a body of water. Though I have no experience sailing, I am hoping to learn. I want to do this because I love the sea, I respect the sea, and I want to learn what I can from the sea. I want to sail because sitting on a cruiseship or getting a cabin on a cargo ship is akin to flying in an airplane. I want to control my journey. I want to take it in both hands and make it happen. I want to be on a journey with people of a similar mind. I don't really care what the destinations may be; I just want to get there by contributing my own efforts. I want to learn how to do things, to do them right, and to do them well.
I hope I've come to the right place.
I have posted about becoming crew in the Free Crewfinder Forum. If anyone is looking for crew, please feel free to check it out:
http://www.cruiserlog.com/forums/ind...showtopic=3650
Any advice is greatly appreciated. I will continue to read and learn as much as I can from all of you, and hopefully contribute whatever I can as well. Cheers.
Linear Mode
