What you don’t know you don’t know.

John and I talk about owning a live aboard boat and exploring the world. It sounds great and daunting at the same time.

I realize that owning a house has its limitations, it isn’t going anywhere.
But there are problems with the sailing dream!

The boats that I knew were not very appealing. They stank of diesel, the upholstery always felt a bit clammy as did the bedding.
The kitchens were usually tiny with bench space that housed the lid to the fridge so you were in trouble when stuff was on the lid and you needed to open the fridge!?
On the few sailing trips I had, the seating in the cockpits and saloons proved to be good money earners for health professionals. I usually got up crippled because of lack of space for my long legs. And the lack of interior beauty was astounding; an empty cave had more aesthetic appeal than some of those dark dungeons called saloons.

On top of ugly boats, as soon as I told somebody we were thinking of sailing around the world bad weather stories surfaced. People who never set foot on a boat seemed to have book cases full of books with frightening shipwreck stories. Maybe that is why they never went sailing; they had scared themselves witless with their own books.
But in the meantime I had become a bit weary too.

So although exploring the world sounded great; living aboard those smelly, damp and uncomfortable things on a dangerous sea did not.
So while John thought he had a future sailing woman on his hands I started to have serious doubts.

What I didn’t know was that these boats were just like some holiday batches, not particularly well designed for permanent living but okay for a holiday.
I also didn’t know that boats are built to withstand storms and that bad storms are not the norm.

My ‘don’t know what I don’t know’ about boats and the ocean could have imprisoned me.
Our great adventure to manifest a fantastic woman friendly live aboard sailing yacht could have never got off the ground. However John gently took me on tours of better and better boats and he gently educated me about the oceans and about how fear can distort things.

By experience I accessed the ‘I don’t know’ part and became wisened up.
I experienced the sea in our sea kayaks and got to slowly but surely appreciate the surf, the currents and yes the scary steep bad weather waves in our tiny but trustworthy boats.
I started to respect the sea, to conquer the fear and trust the kayaks.
I saw well laid-out, dry and light boats that would make life aboard comfortable and I started to see that I could have a hand in designing my own.

A world has opened up since I accessed ‘I don’t know what I don’t know’ with my experiences.

I now know that there are good boats.
I now know that you have to respect the ocean and that accidents happen usually at the hands of the sailors themselves rather than the ocean.

I also know that I can manifest big dreams without being daunted.