My friend Webb Chiles just completed his sixth circumnavigation of the planet earth. Yes, he has sailed around the world six times. This sixth voyage was completed on April 29, 2019. He sailed 30,000 miles all by himself on a Moore 24...a 24 foot sailboat. He started in San Diego in 2014 and finished there last week. Webb is 77 years old and blind in one eye. He has read more books, listened to more music, traveled more miles, and lived more life than many of us combined in all of our lives. He is a special person in so many ways, and I feel lucky to call him a friend. I don't know much about sailing, but Webb knows a lot about classical music, and thus our friendship is rooted in that shared passion. Webb listens to a lot of music at home and out at sea. Much of it is classical, though, like me, he has a wide appreciation of many types of music. Bach is his favorite composer. He says of Bach, "he's the man." I can't disagree with that. On the last leg of this sixth journey, he also listened to The Creation Oratorio by Haydn. I revisited this piece again this week thanks to his mention of it in his passage log. As I listened to it, I thought about what it must be like all alone on a small boat in the vast ocean. The thought overwhelms me, just as the thought of this tiny planet we live on "spinning in infinity" (thanks Paul Simon) in the vastness of space.
Congratulations Webb. You are truly an amazing man.
Here is a link to Webb's online journal.
http://self-portraitinthepresentseajournal.blogspot.com/
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