The Goddess stood silently at the edge of the garden pointing to a part of my inner landscape that I hadn’t discovered before: a jetty in a body of water that ran out into the sea. Moored to the end of a jetty was a white yacht. I looked as closely as I could but there were no distinguishing details at all. If there was anything that I felt for sure about this yacht from the vision, it was that this boat had nothing on it. I asked the Goddess for more information, but she smiled at me blithely, all the while pointing at the boat.
I’d had this vision during a meditation in a group that I facilitated in Australia in October. During our time reflecting on our meditations, I struggled to remember the details of the yacht more closely, as it was important to me. In a few months, once we had sold our house, Baz and I would be moving, possibly to somewhere in Europe, to purchase a yacht to live aboard and travel in our retirement.
“Wow”, I finished sharing the imagery with my meditation group. “I didn’t expect that!”
“Well the meditation was about discovering something of importance,” my friend Sandy replied. “And you do want to know where you’re going to live after you sell your house.”
“True,” I muttered, still mystified. That morning, I hadn’t been asking any questions that I’d wanted answering myself, as I was concentrating on leading the group visualisation. So the yacht vision had come as a complete surprise to me.
A surprise, not because I’d had a clear vision of a garden, a sea and goddess in my head, showing me a boat. All of my life I’ve had dreams and visions that I’ve learned to pay attention to, and I’ve often been guided to make some extraordinary life choices as a result. Once of those choices was to make a phone call (after 12 years of no contact) to my ex, Barry, who at the time was on the other side of the world from me, after I’d had an unexpected dream that he was very unhappy. I was so concerned about him after waking from that dream that I got his Canary Island phone number from his mum and rang him (after a couple of drinks) from my home in Australia. A few months later, Barry had sold all of his belongings and had come to Australia to start a new chapter of life with me. But I digress, this blog is about our boat, not how Baz and I got back together. If you like, you can read that story in full here.
So there I was, weeks before selling our Australian home to jump off the edge of a proverbial cliff into the unknown, and being shown that there was a yacht that was moored somewhere that I felt strongly that we would be led to. I didn’t have a lot to go on, so I figured the best thing I could do was continue to get the house ready for sale, and if Baz and I took one logical step after the other, eventually we’d get to a time and place in which we’d discover our floating home.
Now I know this may sound kooky, but bear with me and you’ll see how it pans out. I’m a firm believer from experience that if you ask sincere questions (of ‘the universe’, ‘God’, ‘your wise inner being’, ‘angels’ or ‘spirit guides’ or whatever you may choose to call that intuitive aspect of yourself), and stay open (which means getting out of your controlling, logical mind long enough to allow insight to slip through), you will receive a sincere answer (which may come as a dream, insight, aha moment, song, book falling off a shelf or some other random event).
So even though I hadn’t asked a question that particular morning, I had been mentally putting it out there for weeks, that I’d really appreciate finding our new home with ease. I’d read horror stories about dodgy brokers, sinking boats and yacht purchase disasters and I didn’t want us to be telling one of those stories in a future blog. So as well as doing the necessary research, and planning as best as I could with Baz and putting in the appropriate hard work - considering we were going into unfamiliar territory - I was going to accept all the assistance I could get, including inner guidance.
A few weeks later, gut instincts and good sense had us come to Spain as our first stop, as Barry’s brother Phil kindly let us use his holiday apartment in Javea as a base until we found our yacht. Once Christmas and New Year were out of the way, we began our search. Do check out our previous blogs Barry's Blog # 13 and Aannsha's Blog # 11 as they outline our first viewing, in January 2018, of ‘Corajero’, the gorgeous Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 45.1 that we have just had surveyed.
The moment we stepped foot on her the first time, Baz and I loved what we saw and I immediately felt I could live on her. We even placed an offer on her, flying in the face of all the advice we’ve ever read which says to look at lots of boats first, yet this was the first yacht we’d stepped onto in Spain. But it felt right. However, as we’ve already blogged, the sale didn’t go through because the owner quibbled over the price, accepted one offer, then took off most of the contents leaving only the essentials, and then, despite agreeing on a price of 75,000 Euros, stated he then wouldn’t accept any less than 80,000 Euros. At that point, the whole negotiations felt wrong and we backed out of the purchase and went off to Gibraltar to learn to sail. But I wondered why it hadn’t panned out; that yacht had felt so right.
On our return and after viewing a few other yachts that weren’t right for us, the broker contacted us to say he now owned ‘Corajero’ and would be happy to offer it to us at our original purchase price. We agreed subject to haul out, survey and test sail, which we recently completed and we were happy to learn from the surveyor that it was in very good condition for a boat of its age. The sale is now going ahead even as I write and we are scheduled to move onto her on the 19th of April!
So what about the vision?
It occurred to me that the vision I’d had was actually pretty clear in what it had been showing me. The thing about visions is that they can sometimes be literal and sometimes symbolic.I’ve even had a mix of the two. So how would I look at the vision in hindsight?
When we first went to see the yacht, she was moored at the end of a jetty, which was in a harbour that opened onto the Mediterranean Sea. Not an ocean, as it would have been if we’d purchased the boat in Australia. It was a white boat. Yes, most yachts are white, but this one, which does have blue covers for everything including bimini, dodger and cushions, was presented to us without these covers, which were stored below. The original owner also cleared pretty much everything off the boat during the original negotiations, leaving a boat with ‘nothing on it’. And what about the Goddess showing her blithely to me? Well, the yacht wasn’t on the market when we viewed her. We’d asked about one boat, and were taken to look at this one as a comparison of size. And even after all the kerfuffle of the first unsatisfactory negotiations, she was still there when we came back from Gibraltar and re-presented to us. So in a way, she was just waiting for us.
Of course, it’s all subjective and you’re free to make up your own mind. Personally, I’ve had enough instances of clear inner guidance over the years, that I can see a correlation.
At a risk of being seen as a total fool, flaky or crazy lady (and I can accept all of those in part), the reason I’m sharing this is because I do believe it is worth listening to our inner guidance when we’ve asked for it. Of course, discernment is due in large amounts, as is practical, consolidated effort in the real world. We’re in a body for a reason, and despite the promises of books like ‘The Secret’, it is a rare occurrence for someone to ‘manifest’ something just by thinking it; they have to put in the hard yards too. In a way, it is following our desires that strengthens us, makes us grow, tests our resolve and can lead to fulfillment and often, healing. Along the way we can make friends, learn skills and make discoveries we never would if we hadn’t stepped out towards our dreams. We often need to research, learn and ask for assistance. That is a given. All I’m saying is remember that guidance comes from inside, as well as from the outer world, and that this assistance can come as a helpful pointer as we journey along life’s map.
So, stepping off my soap box for a while at least, let’s briefly take stock of where we are.
The survey was sound and we’ve just bought a boat! Four months after leaving our home, family, jobs and friends in Australia, Barry and I are soon to embark on the major part of this venture; sailing the seas on our yacht! I still have to pinch myself when I think about it! Every day when I walk down to the harbour or shops in Javea, I look at the ancient windmills on the hill overlooking the town and smile at the fact that I’m here. Now I can’t wait for the next step.
“You’ve mentioned one dream and the survey. What about the other dream you mentioned in the blog title Aannsha?”
Good question.
When we went to Gibraltar, Baz decided to hide our Australian passports in the Javea apartment as we’d only be using our British passports to cross the border between Spain and Gibraltar. Unfortunately when we returned to Javea, we couldn’t remember where we’d put them. We looked everywhere, but couldn’t find them. I was quite loud about how important it was to locate them.
“I’m not going to move anywhere from here until we’ve found them!”
Baz later admitted that he was a bit anxious about not finding them too. He even strained his back lifting one of the heavy suitcases onto a bed, to rummage through again in the hope of unearthing them. But they were still nowhere to be found.
A few nights ago when I went to bed, I asked my inner guidance for a dream to show me where the passports were. That’s not a totally crazy idea, because that memory was somewhere in my unconscious, and I hoped a little jog from my conscious mind before sleep would be enough to recall their whereabouts.
I was looking at my thick grey woollen jumper in my grey suitcase and there, tucked inside of the jumper, were the passports.
Wow, that was a pretty clear dream! So what did I do when I remembered it? Did I go straight to the grey case and search through it? No. My conscious mind decided to get in the way and I said to myself: “Well, that can’t be right because I wore that jumper in Gibraltar. They can’t be there”.
So I sat on the information, not even bothering to tell Baz. I think at that moment, my inner guidance rolled its eyes and went out shopping, muttering “She who teaches meditation and reads tarot for others, mistrusts the information when she gets it for herself.” Well done Aannsha.
By yesterday, I couldn’t stand not having those damn passports. I said as much to Baz, as I went into the spare room and hauled out the first of four cases. I started with his cases first, taking everything out, piece by piece.
Barry’s navy cabin bag: Nothing.
Barry’s first navy case: Nothing.
Barry’s second grey case: Nothing.
Gawd, thirty minutes of searching and I only had one case left. The grey one with my grey jumper in it.
I hauled it over to me and unzipped the lid hoping against hope the passports were there, but still not believing I’d find them. There was the grey jumper, sitting on top just as in my dream.I swallowed and shuffled my hands inside of it. Nothing.
“Oh come on!” I was getting frustrated now.
I’d already checked this case before. But it was the last one, and what if the dream I’d had actually showing me where the passports were?
I dipped my hands down the inside the case, just in front of where the jumper had been. My fingers hit two flat, firm objects. I couldn’t believe what I was feeling! The passports! I pulled them out.
“Baz! I’ve found them!”
Baz shuffled in as fast as his bad back would carry him. “Where?”
“Just under the grey jumper! I had a dream the other night ...” I recounted the dream and realised that while it wasn’t entirely accurate, it had certainly been pointing to the correct case.“ If only I’d looked in there first, I could have saved myself half an hour of unpacking and packing!” This time it wasn’t my inner guidance that rolled its eyes, but Barry.
So, soap box message #2:
If you get a dream answer on the same night you ask a specific question, even if it doesn’t make sense to you, follow it up!
And there you have it, how two dreams and a survey have brought us to the point of being just about to move onto our yacht.
At least now we have our missing passports, I can leave the apartment.
