Take to the Seas – The Weird Side of the Internet – by Liam Sweeny.
What you are about to read isn’t the pinnacle of newsworthy. In fact, what happened here could be the ardent pursuit of anyone with wanderlust and a penchant for tying knots. Ask Oliver Widger. A managerial employee at a tire company, Widger found out he has a rare genetic condition that could end in paralysis, and he, in fact, took his job and shoved it. What he did after that is the stuff of legends. He endeavored to hit the open seas on a boat, with his cat, and sail ‘round the world, starting with the first leg, from Portland, Oregon to Hawaii. He liquidated everything he owned and plunked down fifty-thousand dollars on a boat, and learned to sail from Youtube. Then he set sail.
He was alone in this trip, cat notwithstanding, or was he? Depends on how you look at it. Granted, he didn’t have anyone to tuck him in each starry night, but he did have 1.7 million friends he could get through his satellite link. And when he got to Hawaii, it was a massive thing. Governor came, made a proclamation, good stuff.
There is something eminently redeeming about seeing someone just throw it all aside and live life on their terms. He talked about what it was like to have the Pacific Ocean largely to himself.
“I think a lot of people are, you know, you’re grinding at your job all day long and it doesn’t really matter how much money you make at this point, everybody’s just trying to do enough to get by and that just wears you out,” he said. “It’s just the world’s in a weird place, and I think people have seen that it’s possible to break out.”
Oliver is planning on going to French Polynesia next. And since this might just be old news, he’s probably been there, and is in the breeze and the waves. We celebrate his independent spirit, and that of his cat.