2000 years ago, Marcus Aurelius wrote: Every instrument, tool, vessel, if it does that for which it is made, is well … In the things which are held together by nature there is within and there abides in them the power which made them … wherefore if thou dost live and act according to its will, everything in thee is in conformity to intelligence.
Whatever label one might choose for Webb Chiles, steadfast comes readily to mind . His life could be used as a case history of that virtue. Upon reflection, however, the more fitting adjective seems to be intelligent. To conceive, at a young age, the course of one’s life and embark resolutely on that course is the mark of an uncommon mind.
Chiles has made six circumnavigations, single handed for the most part, and written seven books about his exploits. These bald facts, though, don’t tell the story. Of his written works—all good reads—The Open Boat: Across The Pacific, and that book’s sequel, The Ocean Waits are the most compelling. To paraphrase William James, the books expose Chiles as a man intent upon ‘… tearing his conceptions from the continuum of felt experience.’
The books recount his attempt to sail around the world alone in an open boat. The boat chosen was an 18 foot Drascombe Lugger, named Chidiock Tichborne. A stout craft, she was pitch poled in the South Pacific after colliding with some object just below the surface, and was awash and a shambles when righted. He wrote: I just lay there, thinking, as do all wounded, how much had changed and how quickly, in the passing of a single wave. The sequel offers more of the same: from gales in the Indian Ocean to a jail cell in Saudi Arabia.
Intelligence guided by experience and a simple ability to endure earned his survival.
By his own reckoning, Webb Chiles has spent eight years of his life alone at sea. His preference, obviously, is for the open ocean. He resides on Skull Creek near the Atlantic, but it is a vexing business to reach the open sea from Skull Creek. Flukey river winds, miles of shoal water, and the torrent that is the Gulf Stream make leaving the land a tiresome business. Which is not to mention the frequent passage of large, notoriously indifferent vessels bound elsewhere.
Chiles is amazed to find himself 83 years old. He continues to sail. He continues to write. He continues to do his age in pushups. He continues to be the man he has become.
Countless magazine articles have featured Chiles, countless interviews. Three films have been made about his singular life. The Story Tellers, produced by Safe Harbor, may be the best of the three.
A link to the video is posted below. Watch the video; the man is a compelling story teller. His web log is ‘Self-Portrait In The Present Sea.’
The books of Webb Chiles are available at many vendors. Most are offered as either print books or ebooks. Some have become collectors items.
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