In 2011, the Another World Adventure founders met on a transatlantic journey on board a historic Dutch tall ship. Below is part two of our series sharing blog posts written by co-founder Larissa before, during and after her journey. These pre-date AWA and give an honest flavour of what the experience of sailing across an ocean is like. If you’d like to join a transatlantic journey, we are opening bookings for our next voyages here.

Day 20: 28th October 2011 – 2,438 miles

Do you know a camel hitch from a monkey fist? Or that dolphins have belly buttons?

No, neither did I before I joined this voyage.

Apparently a group of jellyfish is called a smack, and down in the galley, where all the dinner time gastro-magic happens, the crew are the proud owners of 33 pairs of sunglasses. 

As of last week, Red Watch was running an impressive bar tab of nearly 800 euros from Las Palmas and in a covert operation Tori and I counted 52 bruises between the knee and ankle across the whole crew.

These are arguably not the most useful snippets of information to recall from the hundreds that have been rammed into my brain in the past few weeks since we became immersed in the watery world of the Atlantic, but it’s the random ones that are quite fun.

The ‘Idiot’s Guide to Learning Portuguese’ is safely stashed in one of the draws under my bed / bunk / berth (/delete as appropriate/) having realised that being able to order a beer is not going to be useful if we don’t make it to Brazil, and it’s a group effort. It’s shoved in there with all the other unused stuff I panic bought in Las Palmas, in case staring wistfully at the horizon got “a bit boring after three weeks”* so I can get focused on the task at hand.

We’ve been busy (give or take the occasional power-tan sessions on sloopy deck) putting into action the newly-learnt language needed to sail an ocean so we don’t strike / take away / get rid of (/delete as appropriate) /the wrong sail while asking to borrow the ‘pokey stick thing’ to untie a knot**.

To my complete surprise I’m verging on being able to string together a complete sailing sentence without sounding like a total fraud. I now know that ‘baggy wrinkle’ is not the name of a class action suit against Oil of Olay or L’Oreal.

I’ve probably added hundreds of words to my vocabulary, a small achievement considering my brilliant fellow training crew learning everything in a second language, which is why it’s so frustrating to be struggling for words that can, with some eloquence, paint a picture of quite how incredible this journey has been so far.

Every day brings a new experience, a new bit of learning, a new star constellation, a new soup, a new rung on the ladder to the sky sail. It challenges and rewards us. It makes us laugh. A lot. Sometimes too much and we have to climb up to higher yards in breathless hysterics so people don’t think the inner-child that has come back to life inside us has been given a shot of corn-wyne.

The ocean gets more beautiful with each gust of wind and whenever I think it is not possible to feel any happier in life, something happens, and I do. And it is very special. If all goes to plan later today I will climb the main mast as high as I can and send a kiss to my darling dad on his anniversary who is watching us on our journey from higher clouds.

In the deck house window of our happy ship hangs a dream catcher.

It’s working.

Larissa

* I should have known the horizon would never get boring, but I quote the warning words of a friend in London who this morning is probably waiting in the rain at a bus stop en route to work while I type away in the warming rays of a spectacular sunrise after a 6am ‘Silent Disco’ on the fore deck (front of the boat / bit that’s not the helm / bow – /delete as appropriate). /Who’s the insane one now??

** I know, I know, it’s a marline spike

Larissa completed her journey across the Atlantic on a tall ship in 2011 after 27 days at sea. On board, one of the strangers she met who became a great friend was Tori Howse. During one particular conversation, they mused about how they could help other people have the same amazing experience as they were having – and how they could tie it to local providers and experiences. A year later, back on dry land, Another World Adventures was born. 

You can find out more about our transatlantic voyages and other ocean sailing opportunities here. We also organise bespoke, private crossings, email us on info@anotherworldadventures.com for more information.