Tall ship ocean crossing Las Palmas to Salvador, day 23….

I’ve noticed a change in the last week or so. Everything feels a little easier. I realise that just as we are about to arrive into Salvador things are starting to make a bit of sense…

I don’t think I was alone in feeling a little out of my depth when I joined the ship almost a month ago. Thrown into the world of a tall ship with its strange language of sails, shift patterns and a maze of ropes and pins, I knew immediately that I loved it but also that I was clueless as to how it all worked. A week in and fingers used to touch-typing were torn to shreds hauling on ropes, legs used to running for the bus were battered and bruised from climbing in the rigging. I went from staring at a flat computer screen to staring at a rope trying to remember the knot I’d been shown 6 times already (why doesn’t my brain get it? Why? Why?) my body’s 7 hours sleep minimum slashed to 3 or 4 topped up with naps in between watches.

I got frustrated at times with asking the same question again and again, with constantly feeling like I was doing it wrong. BUT then how wonderful when those little successes finally came! – half an hour on the helm without the Mate dashing over to ask “errmmmm what is our heading now?”, conquering the climb all the way up to the Royal Yard! tying that knot, finally understanding who and what Desmond was!

So thanks to Europa and her crew for all the blissful joy-filled moments, of which there have been so so many. Those beautiful sunrises after the 4-8am watch, swimming with 3,000 metres of Atlantic Ocean below me, a delicious dinner on the sloop deck watching the sunset over the water, the thrill of being out on the bow sprit at night when the moon is out and shining on Europa’s full sails, the magical star-filled sky and the incredible inspiring conversations I’ve had with newly made friends.

But thank you also for taking my out of my comfort zone, for reminding me of the joy of learning something totally new, that I am not defined by what I already know but can change and adapt and come to love things that I at first found hard.

Tori