Email from Tom

14.februar 2011

Ahoy Simon,

Sorry for not answering sooner, I preferred to take time to think about it all. Pretty heavy stuff.
Also we are just about to take the boat out of the water so I had quite a few things to organize.

Anyway, about the film.
The ideological aspect of the project strikes a chord as you rightly guessed. I don't know if you have read the thing I wrote called “a critic of systems”, but if you want to understand my thought you might want to give it a shot. There is a link at the bottom of the page about me on the website http://karaka.voila.net/. The other essay about worldview is a lot longer and is more about beliefs and worldviews, but I guess it shows a lot what is my thought as well, especially how I think as opposed to what I think. By the way I would be delighted to exchange ideas about such things, not only to get to know each other but also because I like to talk about this kind of stuff.

What you say sound good. I think I see what attracts you to us for your project. We are conscious of what we are doing and we try very hard to avoid the meaningless cruising that seems to be the norm amongst most of the yachties.

The whole thing about change is a big thing for me, and I guess for Kim as well. Not only on a personal level, but also on a bigger, whole world kind of level. We see ourselves as an example actively trying to spread the word to the avid crowds, who have the drive but don't dare, or don't know how to. I guess you'll see what I mean in my writings. We are very aware that what we do with the boat is aimed at effecting this change. To affect people from all background and lifestyle is the main reason we take such a variety of crew.
We can see the change happening, crew member by crew member years after years. And we work hard to make it happen. So all that to say what you want to do with the film is but the same thing via another medium, and I can totally relate and appreciate. I would be honored to be part of it.

On the same matter of inspiration, you might have noticed we have a pretty interesting library on board, and that a fair amount of the books are references books. A lot of them have been a source of inspiration for us, and they are well worth reading. We keep them onboard so that crewmembers can read them and get inspired as well as we were. Off the top of my head, the most influential were books from daniel quinn such as “ishmael”and “beyond civilization” , jared diamond's “collapse”, colin ward “anarchy in action” the crimethinc. Books, the bioneer compilation called”original instructions”, writings by fidel castro and che, thoreau's “walden”, howard zinn, raoul vaneigheim, derek jensen, etc etc.

Enough for now, tomorrow morning we take the boat out of the water at 0800 and it is going to be a big day...

stay well

Tom

My first email to Tom

Dear Tom & Karaka crew,

one could say that I found you by chance, going through CNN pages, being forwarded to one of the crew seeking webpages... but I don´t believe in coincidences.
Why I am writing you? Your story would make a wonderful documentary film and I would like to do it.
First of all I want to congratulate you - having a vision and making it real is a wonderful creative process and not many believe in their dream enough to make it true.
Most of people just believe they have no choice but to live miserable way every day.

I am a filmmaker - Slovene by nationality but I live in Berlin Germany since 2005.
To me working for a slovene national TV was like going into factory, working behind the assembly line. So, I was encouraged by my girlfriend who was at the time marred in Madrid, but left everything behind for me, to take life in my hands and do something that I value, something meaningful - live life consciously. That is how we moved to Berlin. To do that is not always easy especially without money and knowledge of the language of the country that you are moving into. But we persisted, doing every possible job there was available, so that now five almost six years after, we can say we can survive without a stress how we will  pay our rent.
I see “the suffering” as life, that is providing me with is a chance to grow and develop and I did. But to be really creative I need non stressful environment. I am no zen master, but I want to learn to live more conciously  and I believe that we can all learn from your example.
I don´t know how easy or hard was it for you to achieve the life style you are leading, but I believe it doesn´t come along just sitting and doing nothing. Already making the decision: “this is my way” takes courage. From your writings on a web page everything seems so easy and maybe it is and people just don’t get it how easy it is.
What defines us best as humans if not empathy and freedom? I felt a big chunk of both in what you are doing.
From the first moment I have discovered you webpage I immediately felt that this is a great story to tell. Story about a possible reality, about courage, about loosing fear, about the decision, about the conscious way of life, story that would make people think: so this is possible, why can´t I be free as they are?
It is a story that I would like to tell and questions I would like to ask very much.
Maybe a film like that could help you to live your dream even more independently?

I am crazy about sea and sailing. My whole body changes when I am at sea from outside to inside - it just feels a right place to be. 20 years ago I made a sailing license but I haven´t sailed much, I did some wind surfing and traveling with my motorbike through deserts - mostly Sahara. I always thought; when I can´t ride my bike any more I will get me a sailing boat and spend my life on the sea. I still can ride my bike, although I had to sell it to realize my dream to be independent filmmaker, but a wish to spend more and more time on a boat and near the sea is growing.
I believe that I need to be surrounded by creative people to continue to grow. That is why Berlin is very good place to be right now, because creativity is here the air that you breathe. My goal is to find balance between sea life and urban life, slowly going completely towards sea life and be able to live an abundant creative life.
You seem like a bunch of creatives also. 3 moths of Karaka could be a great start to find this balance for me.
Why I want to do it?
I see it as a personal learning process - a chance to grow -than share the knowledge with other people - keeping the balance. I am also very interested in “living off the grid” and I plan to do a series of documentaries about it. Show the choices and possibilities we have not to poison ourselves with stupid way of life but to loose fear, understand who we are and take the abundance of nature as an example, live in harmony with it and not against it. As Eckhart Tolle said; we must evolve or die.
Why me?
During my 17 years of filmmaking I found out that I can connect well with people and am able to transfer their stories into award winning films. I am a cameraman, cutter, director and producer in one person, so the shooting would make a low impact on the Karaka crew (no big film crew - just me).  I already have some ideas on how to do it, but we can leave that for discussion further on if you want.
When I do a documentary, there is one very important ethical task for me; to make both parties happy; I as a storyteller gain something - I get to know a person, learn from him/her, be able to express myself creatively, having fun with what I love to do and last but not least sell the story. Protagonist has a chance to learn something from the process too, get to tell his/hers story and profit from media exposure. I do all there is in my power to create a win-win situation.
Thank you for your attention and I am looking forward to your answer.

Lots of good wind wishes you

Simon Oblescak

INTRO

INTRODUCTION
We know that our food is poisoned, that our environment is going crazy, that diversity of species is quickly reducing because each day human population increases by hundreds of thousands. People work in jobs they don´t like, doing things they don´t like, living the lives they don´t like simply because they believe there is no alternative to it. Looks like that something is going terribly wrong with our civilization.
What can we do about it?
Tom figured out a solution that makes sense for him.
He want to pursue things that he values and do them now.
What can I do about it? This documentary.

Tom lives permanently on 17m long sailing boat Karaka. Sailing where the wind and his heart takes him.
This is his best choice. He came very close to his imagination of ideal life - living it. And he does believe any person on the planet can, must find it; their best choice.
Tom knows that there is not one way one should live his life. The beauty of natural system we humans are part of is in the diversity. So he is not preaching that his is the only way to live. Quite the opposite - each one of us must find his right way to live. For most of the people it is very hard to believe that life outside of the self eating established system is even possible. Tom is one of the individuals showing it is. Not everybody wants to sail around the world “for life”, but the principle of living your life as you like it. Enriching your life and through it the life of others can be applied to any aspect of life. Living on the sea, on land in the cities.
There must be a change. But this change is not a revolution - so many revolutions came and fail. Evolution never fails - evolution is always the best choice.
For many people every change is very frightening voyage to unknown. When we see working examples, fear reduces and we see the way. Tom is one of many people today that is clearly showing: we should not be afraid to take the first step towards the best choice.
It is almost too “simple” to be true; the Change can only be a personal change.
It doesn't matter what we do, we just have to do it. Something will work out. Change is contagious because it is the more attractive option.
Tom believes: when each of us changes our civilization will change. The only frontier is our mind.