Seeking new horizons by sail
Words by Lydia Paleschi
Written pre-departure, October 2021.
With the imminent arrival of winter and the relaxing of travel restrictions, I’ve decided to depart for warmer climes for the foreseeable. I am now embarking on a new adventure, hitchhiking onboard sailing vessels despite having next to no sailing experience – all whilst continuing to work as a freelance writer.
As much as I can’t imagine calling anywhere other than Cornwall home, I’ve decided I would quite like to for the darker and colder parts of the year. I had planned on doing so last winter, but like all of us, the pandemic scuppered my plans. Instead, I tried to adopt a challenge-oriented mindset, focusing on cold water swimming through the entirety of the season and on publishing my first book. This and the surf made the winter more tolerable (even enjoyable!) regardless of the lockdown and the numb toes. However, my wanderlust has not been quenched, nor has my desire to embark upon an adventure greater than any other I have been on so far.
As much as I love Cornwall, it’s time to embark on a new adventure and to satiate my wanderlust.
The perks of being clueless
At this point, I have managed to secure passage on board a 50 ft catamaran from Southampton to the Caribbean, crewing across the Atlantic Ocean and hopefully beyond. It should take us two months to get there, stopping off via the arid and volcanic Canary Islands, where we will provision and prepare to sail the remainder of the way. Once we complete the 2,700 mile journey across the Atlantic to reach the Caribbean, I plan to keep going as far west as possible, hopefully reaching the Pacific towards the start of next year. It’s impossible to tell what will happen yet and I won’t meet the boat, the crew or the captain until a week before I leave.
With limited experience onboard boats, it’s hard to say what my expectations are for this trip. Instead, I can only hope to expand my horizons (both literally and metaphorically), learn as much as possible, and come back a significantly more competent sailor than when I left. In light of the fact I don’t have a clue on what half of the things on a boat are called, let alone what to do with them, the latter shouldn’t be difficult. As far as I am aware, there is one key rule on any sailing vessel which is ‘don’t fall off’ and I figure that as long as I stick to this, the outcome can only be good!
One of the perks of being clueless is that you don’t know what to be afraid of. It’s fair to say that I’m heading aimlessly into what awaits, equipped with little more than blind determination and firmly seated in ignorant bliss.
Heaven’s Door – a 50 ft Voyage 500 catamaran – which will become my new home
Embracing the ocean
For many, the thought of being at sea for long periods of time makes them feel claustrophobic. For me, it’s the opposite. The thought of being away from the sea tends to make me feel more uncomfortable than the prospect of being surrounded by it and I quite like the idea of spending weeks at a time detoxing from everyday life. Stripping away the luxuries and replacing them instead with a seascape of oceanic blue is one of the draws of sailing for me. This, and that the only available technology is navigational instruments upon which your life depends – no internet, no social media, no emails, no bullshit. You are forced to slow down, to observe, to be present, to stay alive. I find this idea liberating rather than smothering.
Additionally, as a person who is drawn to and inspired by the ocean, the communities that surround it, the ecosystems that reside within it and the sense of mystery, awe and wonder that encapsulate it, it makes sense that sailing appeals to me. Exploring our relationship with water, the ocean and its ecosystems is something I find fascinating and what better way to learn more than to live at sea for a while. Traveling by sail requires us to embrace the ocean in its entirety – paying it with a constant respect in the knowledge that anything from the amazing to the terrible can happen at any time.
I’m looking forward to being surrounded by the ocean and learning as much as possible whilst I travel.
Credit: Tom Young Photography
Tomorrow never comes
Of course, as much as I am excited for this trip, I do have some apprehensions. It’s a one way ticket on this boat and I have no idea when I’ll be coming home, whose boat I’ll be on next or where in the world I’ll be at any time past Christmas in the Caribbean. That being said, Christmas in the Caribbean has a nice ring to it and the thought of exploring the oceans and forests on the other side of the Atlantic quashes all of my concerns pretty quickly. In reality I can think of no way I’d rather spend the remainder of 2021 than heading into the unknown with a bunch of people I haven’t met yet and hoping for the best. I know that the best things come from pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, and as someone who struggles to take half measures and has recently discovered the joys of sailing, this seems like the logical next step. Not only this, but my fear of looking back at some point in the future and thinking ‘what if’ is much greater than my fear of anything else. I haven’t felt this excited about something for a while now and I know that waiting for tomorrow to do the things you want to do is never a good plan.
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