155. Looking Back on Year 3

This week it will have been three years since quitting my career and making a leap of faith into the unknown. Before writing this, I went back and reread my Year 2 in Review blog from last year. I was in Fiji, wrapping up the year on SV Sierra Wind in the South Pacific and wondering where the next year would take us. My plan, at the time, was to go home for the holidays, then fly to New Zealand for some solo traveling while Eitan worked, and then meet back at the boat in April 2023 to sail Fiji and Tonga for the year. If you have been reading any of my past blog posts, you’d know this was far from what happened! Just two weeks later, Eitan informed me he took a year-long work contract and all of my plans to return back to SV Sierra Wind in the spring were shattered.

It might sound a little woo-woo, but this year has turned into a series of manifestations and lessons in trusting the universe. Left with no plans for the year, I made a manifestation list that included a sailboat with multiple young people traveling to places I had never been, and an opportunity to grow my underwater photography and videography skills. Then, I saw a post to join Expedition Drenched on Facebook and it exactly matched my list! I would be joining a crew of 10 people and helping build a YouTube channel focused on underwater videography! After the holidays, I was on my way to join the new boat and crew of SV Millennium in Malaysia.

I joined SV Millennium in Langkawi, Malaysia, and quickly found out the boat would need a lot of work before hitting the water, so my underwater photography lessons would have to wait, but I met some amazing friends in the meantime. The struggle of working in a hot and humid shipyard drew the 10 of us closer and closer together, making deep and meaningful relationships. I also manifested the perfect forever home for the stray shipyard kitten that was living onboard with us.

After two months on SV Millennium, Candice (one of my shipmates) and I went on our Path of Least Resistance trip where we didn’t plan anything more than a day in advance and ended up in the most amazing place I could have imagined. It taught me to leave a little more room for spontaneity in my plans because that’s where the magic can happen. It also taught me to be more aware of where I am meeting resistance in my life and taking permission to leave a situation that wasn’t serving me or living up to what was advertised.

After working on the boat in the shipyard for three months with no solid date for splashing, I realized it was time to leave SV Millennium for good and find a different opportunity. Maybe I was meant to come to Southeast Asia but the universe had something else in store for me and SV Millennium was just a stepping stone along the way. So, I went back to the manifestation drawing board and made a new list. I wanted to find some kind of underwater photography mentor, get more scuba diving experience, and do some kind of conservation related work. A few days later, one of the girls from SV Millennium introduced me to an underwater photographer who was coming to Malaysia to document some marine conservation work and invited me to come along. Another manifestation came through!

At the Tropical Research and Conservation Center (TRACC) I grew a lot as a diver and got to help my new friend, Megan, with her photography projects. I also helped TRACC with their social media and realized how much I love the storytelling and education that I could do through Instagram. Documenting the conservation work felt really fun and I decided I wanted to do more of it. So, after a month at TRACC, when I went to the Malaysia International Dive Expo (MIDE) I made a list of all the conservation groups in Southeast Asia that were exhibiting there.

(This is where I am in my current blog posts so spoiler alert for what’s coming next!)

After TRACC and working with Megan, I wanted a chance to practice my underwater videography skills and had just purchased some underwater lights to add to my GoPro. I wasn’t really sure where to go next but was presented with an opportunity that felt really… well, kismet: Kevin on SV Kismet (who Eitan and I had sailed with from San Diego to Fiji) would be arriving in Indonesia soon and invited me to come sailing with him for a few months since he would be single handing during this time and could use a crew member with cruising experience. I couldn’t think of a better way to test out my new GoPro setup than diving and snorkeling the world’s best reefs!

For two months I sailed on SV Kismet throughout Raja Ampat, Indonesia and did my best to capture the underwater life in the heart of the coral triangle. It was great to be back cruising but I realized my sailing related anxiety was still present and hadn’t magically disappeared in my 7 months away from SV Sierra Wind. I was disheartened by this but it also made me question if I really wanted to go back to full time cruising once Eitan was done with his work commitment in December.

While on SV Kismet, I began searching for my next opportunity and made another manifestation list. I wanted to stay in Southeast Asia, do more marine conservation work, help conservation organizations with their social media, learn more about underwater photography, and be somewhere that I could work on my freediving skills, since I had been toting around my long freediving fins without much use. I reached out to an organization near Bali that does diving, freediving, and conservation but nothing seemed to be lining up and I felt a lot of resistance in trying to making it work. Then, I remembered an organization that I met at MIDE and reached out to them and, surprise, everything on my manifestation list!

As I write this I am currently in Sulawesi, Indonesia, helping with a coral restoration program and will share more details in an upcoming blog. It’s been a year full of new friends, amazing experiences, and successful manifestations. Once again I am planning to return back to the U.S. for the holidays in the coming weeks. On my way back home, I will be making a stop in Fiji to visit SV Sierra Wind one last time and say goodbye to the boat that kept me safe and provided countless memories for the first two years of this adventure. This year, I have learned to trust my instincts and let resistance and ease be my guides. Deep inside me, I know it’s time to close the chapter that was defined by sailing and exploring on SV Sierra Wind and continue my journey in the direction that my passions, opportunities, circumstance and destiny seem to guide me. The more I trust the universe, the more it seems to deliver!

Here are some of my key takeaways from this year:

1. Plan, but not too much. Leave more room for spontaneity and let the magic happen.
2. If a manifestation doesn’t turn out to be what you expected, maybe it was just meant to get you to the right location with the right people.
3. It’s ok to leave a commitment when it’s not working out.
4. You might not see it today or tomorrow, but eventually everything will add up, so trust that things will work out.
5. If you feel like you’re swimming upstream and being met with resistance, there is probably a reason for it.
6. Good things don’t always need to be hard work, what’s meant for you will come easily.
7. It’s ok to close a chapter in your life and embrace the next one, even if you have no idea what it is.
8. It’s ok to disappoint other people, just don’t disappoint yourself.
9. Get clear on what you want so that you can recognize it when it comes through.
10. Do little good things along the way that may go unnoticed by others. Like finding a sweet boatyard kitten a loving home. It will feed your soul.