One fateful weekend in September of 2009, I met up with three of my best friends from high school in San Francisco. We went out, got drunk, and started talking crazy. "You know what we should do? We should quit our jobs and sail around the world." Classic drunk nonsense, more or less forgotten by the next morning.
But somehow the idea worked its way into my subconscious, where it gestated quietly for three months. Just before New Year's, waiting for a flight in an airport (I still remember it clearly), the idea suddenly inserted itself front and center in my mind and said, "Hey! Look at me!" I sent my friend Ted a text message: "So are you still down for quitting and sailing around the world?" The reply came back right away, and within a few days we had ordered some books and started researching.
The ensuing trip lasted a year and a half, and took us as far west as Sri Lanka. Rather than describing the details, I'll just point you to this Map of Kallisti's Journey. (Note: there are two pages, so make sure you scroll to the bottom and click "next" to see the whole thing.) Or, if you're really curious, you can download this fancy Google Earth version.
One of these days I'll get around to converting all the journal entries into web pages, and adding some of the pictures (we took thousands) and video (we took hours). Gentle encouragement welcome, if you'd like to see it happen.