At the beginning of each year and sometimes mid year as well, I make a vision board. These 15 minute collages are subconscious connectors to ourselves at that particular time in our lives. They often express what we are thinking at the time, as well as our deep desires and dreams.

Way back in April 2021 I made a vision board which totally surprised me. It was all about sailing and adventure, more to the point a sailing adventure. Obviously it had been deep in the recesses of my imagination for quite awhile since moving north to a place of rivers and inlets near the sea. But I had never taken action, although I had once looked up a local sailing club and thought it might be nice to try it out again.

It’s funny because I absolutely love boats and ferries. In all my travels I have opted for ferry transport when I could. The first time was taking the big Greek ferries to the Agean islands when I was 21. Then the ferry from Sweden to Finland (only for a day). My most recent travels have been to islands in Scotland and Iceland with the most memorable being the ferry from Nuuk to Ilulissat in Greenland.

This fascination with sailboats started when I was a kid living in bayside Melbourne. My brother had a sailfish boat and he and my father would go off to the yacht club on weekends sailing. I never got that opportunity so I crewed for a neighbour at a nearby yacht club. I loved the salt spray in my face but didn’t like it when the mast broke and we turned turtle.

So now I have decided the time is right to enact my vision board and I have booked to go on a sailing afternoon with the local sailing club. It’s an adventure in itself just hoping that my body memory will serve me well and I’ll be able to do all the things – come around, duck the boom, cleat off the ropes and tack into the wind.

I’ve started getting prepared by creating my daily artworks with a nautical theme in mind. I realise I have been creating collage images of sailing boats for years on and off. Now it’s time to put this all into practice and clamber aboard. I must make a new vision board after this adventure and see what it reveals for 2023.