To the Land of Beyond

Have you ever heard of the Land of Beyond,

That dream at the gates of the day?

Alluring it lies at the skirts of the skies,

And ever so far away;

Alluring it calls: O ye yoke of galls,

And ye of the trails overfond,

With saddle and pack, by paddle and track,

Let’s go to the Land of Beyond!

Have ever you stood where the silences brood,

And vast the horizons begin,

At the dawn of the day to behold far away

The goal you would strive for and win?

Yet ah! in the night when you gain to the height,

With the vast pool of heaven star-spawned,

Afar and agleam, like a valley of dream,

Still mocks you the Land of Beyond.

Thank God! there is always the Land of Beyond

For us who are true to the trail;

A vision to seek, a beckoning peak,

A fairness that never will fail;

A proud in our soul that mocks at a goal,

A manhood that irks at a bond,

And try how we will, unattainable still,

Behold it, our Land of Beyond!

Robert Service

I had to steal this from our friends Mike and Hyo on OI. It's just such a fitting poem for this post—the one where we wish safe passage, fair winds and following seas to all our dear friends who are out there on the ocean, making their way to the South Pacific.

The cool thing is they will all be blogging from sea--so if you've ever wanted to know what it's like to cross an ocean in a small boat, follow these guys!

 

 Mike and Hyo on IO--out of Victoria. We first met them in Coos Bay. They are headed to the South Pacific on a Baba 30.

S/V Mulan is a 39' Gran Soliel out of Vancouver with Susan, Andrew, Jack , Sam and Max (and crew). Maia and Sam are in the same homeschool group out of Vancouver.

S/V Capaz  a 48' Bob Perry Designed Pilothouse Ketchwith Brad, Pj, Bryce and Austin (and Tim their crew) aboard.

S/V Totem is a  Stevens 47 with Jamie, Behan, Nile, Mairen and Siobhan (and crew Ty) aboard. Behan and I started emailing a while back (she's been following our blog since the chain saw days--you need to scroll back to the very beginning for that...)

We can hardly wait until this is us! It will be next year. Between now and then we have the Sea of Cortez and Central America to explore and, as yet, unmet friends to make...