Tag: writing

The coming back!

Hey there all of you! It has been month I haven’t posted anything in my blog… These past years have been crazy with a lot of life hanging factors. Hard lessons but wonderful outcomes. A lot has changed in my life and I am very grateful for it as I have discovered a whole new side of life.

Some of the major lessons are the following:

⭐️ The people who love you will always be there for you to support you no matte what.

⭐️ When you have reached the bottom, the bright days are coming soon after and you rebounce better and higher every time.

⭐️ All new opportunities beyond your safety zone are new experiences that are life changing. In a positive way.

⭐️ Never stop hoping and fighting for the people you love. Never stop believing.

Of course, in these 18 month I have earned way more than these 4 truths. Every day countless simple lessons, small steps and little joys, letting go slowly of what was holding me back. People being there at the right moment to say the right words… I cannot be more blessed.

It is more important to make the right decision than a fast decision.

You refuse to panic and by getting all the facts and your ideas back in place you need more time. You ask for more time. I the middle of a crisis you tend to be impulsive and not thinking rationally. You want to make quick decisions and you do not see the overview anymore.

A wrong decision is wrong no matter if it was a fast decision or not. I have been so glad to be surrounded my my parents when I needed more time for my self. Years of giving myself 200% to my work and sailing 10 month a year got me totally lost and I needed time to find myself again: who am I? Why on earth am I doing this? What is it that I like so much on being the ship’s slave , running a vessel that is not mine and accepting that other people’s mistakes end up on my plate and keeping on sweeping the broken glasses, again and again. And making me believe I was the problem and not doing my job correctly. Being a slave to a school you do not believe in anymore: showing a pretty cover but not treating their wounds, covering their mistakes with bad make up and showing the kind of leadership I didn’t believe in anymore.

I realised it was a few month probably that I was pushing away the thought of leaving what I thought was confort and the “best job ever”… but I couldn’t face it anymore. I needed time. Time for myself, my thoughts, my life. Recentering on who I was, wanted to become and not on who I had become. I needed rest. Physical rest and mental rest.

From one day to another, I quit my job. And it was so far one of the best decision I made in 2019.

And you know what? A huge weight and burden suddenly disappeared from my shoulders, feeling lighter, and from that moment I knew it would all be fine.

I knew it was the right decision.

Of course, like I said it didn’t all happen that suddenly. This was a process that was longer than what I was admitting to myself. Offers on other positions, reactions from my employers about those offers, not encouraging me but reminding me I was “theirs” as a possession they would keep for themselves and not encourage me to go further in my own path; not wanting to let me go.

A trip to Amsterdam, an appointment with the crew manager of the well known dream vessel; a position offered on a silver plate….. and a paper missing. As we were ticking all the boxes, we suddenly realised I needed a merchant certificate of competency even though it was a sailing vessel. I needed that paper. I wanted that paper. I wanted that job and I was going to get it.

A couple of days later I had contact with a school. I could go to school again for 2 years with home schooling and exams to pass in The Netherlands, a few weeks per year with an internship to do on a cargo vessel.

It was set. I was going to start that school to get that bigger all ships ticket.

A couple of days later I was handing in my resignation letter.

And you know what? I didn’t have to move my pinky finger that within a week I had literally got involved in a new study, another vessel called my for a three month sail from Cape Town to Danemark – yes returning on my mighty Bark Europa was a dream come true! And in two emails I got contact with a big dutch shipping company for an intern ship….

I was sorted for the rest of the year and it all came naturally to me as if people were waiting for me to quit my job. I was available again and open for new adventures. I didn’t “belong to anyone” and was mastering my own decisions.

Was I afraid? yes. Was I uncomfortable? More than once, yes. Was I frustrated? Yes. Did it take me month to recover and gain my self confidence back? Yes. Was I happier? yes. I made myself happier. I tried to focus on all the new challenges and to take them positively. I tried to take the good things, good memories, good moments and I started saying yes to adventures and opportunities rather than declining them. I became more open.

I started a weekly update on my social media when back on Bark Europa as I wanted to share my challenges and thoughts through my voyage. People loved reading them as messages were coming in asking for more and taking me.

I realised people actually liked reading me and made me realise that the way I was seing myself was the opposite of how they saw me.

I must admit I am still in a constant process or battle against myself about my worth. I am slowly daring more and having a better opinion about my work, my looks, my friendships. It took me month to realise that quitting gave me my wings and my freedom back. I am happier, smilier, and the Sophie I was a few years ago is 200% back …. But in better! 🙂

I like that.

I had my first summer home in years. I realised it was so good to enjoy being home with your family. Enjoying small things: waking up late, being lazy in the garden or near the swimming pool, working out, picking raspberries, baking cakes, reading useless women magazines… and getting back into “school mode” and trying to learn dutch “for real” this time…. Indeed, I am crazy enough to start a school knowing that this time, not only it is also in dutch like the Enkhuizen Zeevaart school is, but that I also need to pass the national dutch exam which required a little more than “just a shy comprehension of the language”…. And that my friends… well. No need to say. I am just crazy. A happy smily crazy. But still crazy.

But so far this was the right decision.

The new adventure.

I was a bit anxious about the three month internship I had to do for my new school. It is funny how, even if I knew, I had to ask all the “stupid no so stupid” questions to my friends in the cargo industry: are people nice? Will I have my cabin? Will I have night watches? Will I have time to study? Will I have time to workout and take care of myself? Do I know enough? Will I be good enough? Will I like it?

yes…. I was definitely back to the rank of trainee with all this anxiety haha! I had no idea what I was stepping into and how It would be onboard but it happened that the crew was amazing and that the chief officer was also a woman! I like the woman power even if I can handle men around, it is nice to not be the only one. Even though it actually doesn’t change anything.

Those three month were a bit tough in the beginning as I needed to find my place again. My place as trainee with quite some experience in having responsibilities. I had decided before joining that I would take the experience as good as I could and I would try to be interested in everything I was doing or offered/ asked to do. I had even planned in my head that if the crew wasn’t so nice I would try to focus on the cargo we had onboard and get to know what it was for, how we could use it etc or the harbours where we would sail into…. I had also challenged myself to be or say happy, to take a smily selfie of my self every single day with something that was nice. It could be work related, nature relates, retime relate… anything as long as it was a sincere smile. I though I would need to be reminded of being happy every day. This was my challenge for the 3 month onboard. But it wasn’t hard to do. I liked doing it and it gave me so many pictures to share on my weekly social media reports. I loved it.

It reminded me that you are as happy as you want to be and it is often a mind set.

If you get interested in the world and if you smile, a lot of doors will open to you.

And this is absolutely true. Looking back there was not one day I didn’t have fun! And it showed. I got offered a position onboard.

L I F E. C H A N G I N G. E X P E R I E N C E.

No need to say I accepted. Sails could wait. I was happy to experience something new. Here I am.

I once found this quote on the net, and think it fits pretty well here:

“ I am attracting better because I have discovered that it all starts with me. I am going to change myself first so that everything can align for me. I am not going to blame anyone. I am going to take responsibility for my life. The better I become, the better I attract.”

Cheers to the Old. Cheers to the New.

New job, new ship, new responsibilities, new colleagues, new harbours, new horizons and….

More holidays, more time home, more internet, more connection with my friends and family….

The list could go on and on.

This is my come back with weekly updates on my social media with what I learn and live onboard. Hopefully I can share my World through Sophie’s eyes with you and my not so boring adventures. And mainly give it a fresh start to this blog with my deeper thoughts on life and what I live and learn personally.

I do not regret a single day of my Tall ship life, and I am not closing the door to it. I am really looking forward to be the new version of myself back on these beauties. Sailing for a few weeks, replacing my friends for them to get some rest from the oh so known hard and intense work these cathedrals of the seas offer you.

I am happy where I am and I am looking forward for more rest and more stability. More trust and more knowledge. New projects at home, more time for myself.

Without my past experience I would have not been where I am now.

I am not starting from scratch. I am starting with a background. A solid and reliable one. And I am proud of it. I had fun. Lots. I have sailing vessels and area’s people will dream of their entire life. I am lucky. Extremely lucky, and I know that. I am grateful for the people I have met and for my family.

If you feel like you aren’t growing, think about where you were a year ago… it will put yourself into perspective!

I love new starts. Fresh starts.

Captain H. Says he is blessed to have me onboard. I return the compliment.

I am extremely thankful.

Cheers to the Old. And Cheers to the new.

Do not be afraid to start over again. Do not stop believing. Do not stop moving forward with every little step you take. You are not alone: family, friends, colleagues, God too are there for you.

Sophs ♥️⚓️✌🏻

Posted at Sea. ⚓

Posted at Sea. ⚓

I used to write a lot of letters when I was younger. Like a lot. Every three to four years we would move to another country and the only way to keep in touch with my friends was through letters. Every three weeks I could expect letters from some of my friends because we were getting good at replying almost straight away to one another which kept the flow going. That was awesome. At that time, there was no internet yet. ( Like Whaaaaaat??!  Almost unbelievable when you think of it!) We didn’t have cell phones and an international call was still pretty expensive so you would only do it once in a while to organize a week on holiday back at their place or something. Yes a phone call to organize something « big ».

Nowadays. No ways. smartphones, messages, social media. It’s all over the place. Where has gone the piece of paper you will keep your whole life in a box that your grandchildren will find one day in the attic? 

Indeed, the digital and paperless generation is here. Why send a letter if you can call over roaming? (lets be honest, wifi is now  sooo has been ….). Why send a postcard of where you are when you can post a picture of you anywhere in the world to anyone and everyone all over the world?

I must be old fashioned in a way… or simply old (not!) ( by the way, for those who do not know yet… my age is stuck at 27).

In my early twenties, I went backpacking in Italy with four other of my girlfriends. At that time, some of our parents wanted to know every move we were taking so I « prebooked » hostels (booooring -we thought- where has the adventure gone?) and trains on my bank account until the girls would pay me back. My parents were not pleased at all with the idea and to get them to forgive me a bit faster ( you can imagine… ) I started sending a post card from every city we visited within those three weeks to say sorry and to thank them because without the advance of cash I wouldn’t have been able to travel. (longer story short). In three weeks I ended up sending 16 postcards. They were very happy of it of course and I was also so happy to send them because I was honestly thinking of them everyday and so grateful I was being able to travel and visit the world.

This is how my « postcard adventure » started…

Since then every time I can and that I find good enough postcards I send one home. For my parents. I miss them so much. Every day. They are the best parents I would have ever imagined having. With smartphones and internet all over the place, you can be so close and yet so far. With a card, I take time to write something down and send it. It takes one or two days to arrive home and I know they will appreciate what I have written (something I have nothing to say , it happens too!) but the thought is there. I took time for them.

Sometimes the postcard also comes a few month later… 2-to 4 month depending on how remote the place you have been visiting was…

Since I am sailing I have extended this habit to my whole family, and then to some of my best friends, that I now consider family and a few of my very good friends too. That makes quite a few postcards! It used to always minimum of 5, and then if they are cool a few extra and I rotate within my friends; it is now a minimum of 10 I send in every harbour now. Wow I just realized its like 30 harbours a year so maybe 250-300 cards that I send out!!! impressive… 🙂

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Another cool fact about my post card challenge is that by doing this I am also continuing a seafarers tradition: « posted at sea »… How many persons could say that they have received a letter or a card with funky coordinates and a huge ship stamp on it? 

In the old days, the only opportunity to get some news was to get closer to other vessels at sea, and give them the mail we had if they were returning to land.…

If the ships had the same home port, it was definitively no problem to deliver the mail. News about an arriving ship spread quickly and everyone came to check for news. But what about the ship returning to a different port, or even a different country? How was the mail delivered then? Who paid the postage and in what currency……?

Well, all of that led to an international agreement about Ship Mail known as Paquebot, French being the world’s official postal language. Simply put, if you are on the open sea, which belongs to nobody, the deck you are standing on is the territory of the country under which flag the ship sails. That means, that if you write a letter on the ship’s deck and on the high sea, you should be able to use the stamp of the country under which the ship sails. That also means, that if a ship enters a harbor, the officer should be able to hand over the mail to the local post office at that harbor in whatever country, and the mail should be delivered without any additional charge…

In the top right corner I stamp my envelopes with a ships stamp, and the dutch « post NL» stamp and write down my coordinates and « posted at sea ». I think 95% of my cards have arrived. Ar at least 100% have arrived home, that is for sure! 🙂

I love traditions.

 

There are quite some funny facts. When Granny receives them, she still thinks I am at the place when she receives the card. So when I come home and visit her and that she has just received that remote card, she thinks I I just arriving from some kind of banana republic in the Caribbean again.. It is sweet..

Or what I really find cool as well is when after a whole summer people send me a picture of all the cards they received with a huge thank you note. I really find it cool that it makes people happy.

Thank you Yoad!
Sorry Laura… 😉 but it was so great that the card arrived faster home than you did! ❤
mom, dad.. ❤
Or better! As some of my friends do not travel as much they send me a huge letter once in a while… they think they will then be forgiven to not travel as much as I do… but they do not know that they had nothing to be forgiven about… but I LOVE reading letters so I never told them!! Hahah

I also have that special friend who has been telling me for months now that I had to check my mail box but I have never received anything yet… all summer I was told he wanted to write me but he never did. So I have send him – hoping it would help- a few envelopes pre stamped and with paper and my address already written on them but…. It seems that that even didn’t help.

It started when he left in Barbados on semester break: « check your mail box Sophs! », « well you don’t even have my address kiddo! » I answered. «  life is full of surprises » he said back.

Later in the summer it was a lot of  « I really want to write you a letter » « I am going to write you a letter » « I want to , I will I promise »… haha well I still haven’t received anything

I guess some people write and others don’t. I do not know.

In the end the small/ big question is : do I do this to get letters and cards back? What is more important, getting letters or once in a while a text message? Do we write to satisfy ourselves? Or the others? mhmh

I do not know. But I do know that I do keep my letters forever and that text messages are sometimes erased easily and forgotten very fast…. What do you think?

Anyways, I do believe that if you promise you will write, sometimes it is not really about the letter and its content but more about the word and the promise that define you as a person.

 

I love staying in touch with people and I find it pretty difficult when at sea. I am extremely lucky to be able to use whatsapp in the middle of the ocean… it has been a huge improvement since I started sailing. I do not need much more. Just the people I love close by. I do thinking it is a nice experience to not have phones and internet, to be disconnected for a few days when sailing; but to be honest, I have done that experiment long enough in the pas, and I have nothing to prove. Now I want my friends and family close. And I wouldn’t trade that for anything else.

Ok Ok to be fair, even at sea, you would be surprised, but we also have some rules: no emails and phones ( mhmh sneaky sneaky sometimes! I admit!) during weekends and past certain hours: indeed our offices are in two very different time zones, we constantly change country with different agents, and none of them answer in the middle of the night or during weekends. So we do the same now; and we feel way better 🙂

 

Yes staying in touch with my friends. One of the most important things for my. Being in touch in contact, sending messages. – yes. I am addicted to text messages-. But why and how? Why on earth do I have such a job and am never close to any body of my family and friends?

When I was student I really was a party girl, going out every weekends till 5 am with my friends, having a lot of social activities, meeting up with a lot of friends always. Never alone and never stopping one second: studying, rowing, chief scout, the navy, working, going home. It never stopped. I like to be challenged like that but it is also very stressful. 

Living in a big city such as Paris is great. I LOVE it! But you also get those friends – friends of friends, friends of friends of friends that show up all the time because they are in the « same group » but you don’t really want to see them, and you kind of also want to be alone when its too crowded and even though you have a lot of people around you, you can also feel extremely alone sometimes…

so? Whats the link Sophs??!

“All that is not eternal is eternally useless.”

Well when I went at sea I first found the same feeling as when we were moving younger: time would just automatically « get rid » (ok sounds a bit harsh I know..) of those people you didn’t really want to stay friends with. And only the best ones would stay in touch. And that is what happened! I never changed my number so that I was always available. And people who actually wanted to stay in touch with me did. When I think of it we are often close to shore and I can very often check my phone and emails. Just not social media – at that time-.

So i could totally stay in touch with my besties and family. 

I just found a lot of « air » around me and freedom of doing what I wanted.

Well, now. Sometimes I truly miss people and wish I were very close to them. But  therefore I can WhatsApp and send cards! 🙂 and we do stay in touch.

I mean it . I make a point of honor to stay in touch with those I love.

I have made a commitment to myself. (upon quite a few, this is one of them).

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Your commitments shape your life more than anything else. Your commitments can develop you or they can destroy you, but either way, they will define you. Tell me what you’re committed to, and I’ll tell you what you’ll be in 20 years, because we become whatever we’re committed to.

– what wait? Will I become a postcard??!! Haha

– no a link, a faithful and trustworthy friend; hopefully someone who values some friends more than anything and that even without post cards or letters back, even if I never reach out enough. Someone who may be independent but nothing without the people she loves.

I say that. But keeping commitments can be quite hard. But without you will only be drifting through life, and while everything will melt around us, what lives we should be living! (2 Peter 3:11).

The same for half commitments and temporary ones. Or even those where the values might not be the best hearted: competition, wealth, fame. There is none of that at sea. And if there were, these wouldn’t end up very far trust me! No disappointment or bitterness. I am trying to ban these. And it would be a huge mistake to think that God’s goal for your life would be material prosperity or to be popular with a lot of success.

Staying in touch with people by letters and cards, messages, calls is a way to value the person we want to stay in touch with. It is pointing out the value these other persons have for us. And fixing the attention on the things that are eternally important: friendship, family, love. A way to keep them close to my heart and hopefully, me close to their heart while I am far away. Mixing up the sayings: so far but yet so close. 🙂 <3. Ok ok… a little quote from the Bible…. in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever” . He really got it right didn’t he? 😉

Gotta go post my letters!

Thank you all of you who give me lots of joy writing them and thinking of you!

I ❤ you!

Sophs ❤ ⚓

Take your rest when you can!

Take your rest when you can!

Taking your rest.

The Gulden Leeuw is sailing all year around. We have very little time when we are for a few days in harbour, and usually those days are filled with so many things to do that the crew has never that much time to rest before going back at sea. It is, by the way, often said that sailors take their rest back at sea because they go back in a normal routine of watches and systems and regularity. Having said that. Every day is so different onboard that there is also – specially for sailing vessels I guess – the hidden rule to take your rest when you can because you never know when will be the next time you can go to bed.

Sleeping and sailing is a mixture that is pretty interesting actually. We are lucky we can go to bed several times a day, in between our watches. But it also means that we usually don’t and even cannot sleep more than 6 or 7 hours in a row – if you are lucky. Well for somebody like me, needing a lot of sleep, it is sometimes tough, but you kind of get used to it. Indeed I am still there! 😉

Sleeping several times a day means that :

1. You can be in a watch in the middle of the night and in the middle of the day, that sometimes you are never there for sunrises or sunsets, or for some meals; so your routines is a bit strange. And 2. That time flies also in a different way. I cannot really tell if it goes faster or slower. Looking back I would for sure say faster but when I am looking forward to something, it is way too long.

Indeed. You go several times to bed , so you think that your day is over several times a day but.. it is not. You remember when younger you would maybe tell yourself: «  yes! Still 5 sleeps till this or that », « still 4 sleeps till holiday », « still 3! »… a good way of counting down. Well I have tried it here. It doesn’t work. Every thing seems two times longer than usual. And again, when looking back, you just wonder where time went!?

 

sophie 2

When new trainees join the vessel, we always try to tell them they have to go to bed and remind them to take their rest. Days can be long, and nights even longer! It is difficult, and I understand them completely. People always think they will miss out on things if they go to bed. I can understand that. I am a Sophie and I literally have difficulties making choices; so if I know something might happen I can stay up all night for it! And making the right decision, balancing choices such as « fun+ no sleep » and « sleep + good day the next day » well I’d probably choose option 1.  It is difficult to think in another way such as: « If I wouldn’t have known there was this opportunity, then I would have continued my life the same. So I should just act accordingly and pretend you didn’t know that it would happen, thus take your rest ». nope. Not for me thank you.

The best example would be when at anchor. If we are sailing for weeks already and we arrive earlier at anchor, we usually split the watch in 2 and do 2 hours-2hours instead of 4 in a row. Well sometimes people complain a bit, but I answer that it is actually a bonus because we could be sailing so no split watches.

To be honest, I usually end up staying up with trainees or crew or talking the time to finally watch a movie and realize I stayed more awake than if I had ben on watch the 4 entire hours. whatever.

To take your rest is pretty difficult. Sometimes, you do not really have the choice. The rhythm onboard is ongoing, crazy, chaotic: new trainees, familiarizations, schedules, drills, guests, corporates, daysails, Liaison Officers, maintenance, technical issues, shifting berth…. And all this at the same time – of course, what else?. I sometimes wonder how we survived some days onboard. But we did and days went great (in the end)!

I love when things get really busy because I do not have time to think, it is just ongoing. If I have my brains with me (small notebook I keep in my pocket and locker and write down everything on it) then I just need to prepare a good schedule. Take time to plan it ahead and check with all departments if everything works well on their side.

« just » and « good » schedule…. Of course. The art of managing different departments with the known and unknown in order to please the captain by scoring most of the necessary requirements and the crew by hopefully according them half a day off to go sight seeing and discovering a new place.

In other words, inventing the unicorn.

So there you are with your busy schedule, people running around to get things done and you orchestring the whole and trying to go forward with your own duties and to concentrate on one of these 60 pages captain’s manual you had to read for two days ago for the corporate event, the harbour, the sail training or any other reason why administration came int the sailor’s life… 

But then off course, how many times does one interrupts your motion, to download a grib file because the program is not working, to cast off mooring lines from the vessel alongside, to give the shopping list to the Liaison Officer, to check out some things with the deck crew and answer their questions, to run to the Race Office mobile Home to exchange the crew list for the race pennant… Your day is pretty much full and by 17:00 you realize you haven’t gone forward with your work yet but it will have to be reported to the next day because you have a VIP-firework-evening-trip-with-Classique-Chic-buffet-for-200-guests and that you scheduled yourself behind the bar to promote « department-exchanges » and that you are late to start filling in all the glasses of wine for welcome drinks, and you have to wear that so famous corporate smile…..

Yes the schedule and safety harnesses check and fire extinguishers check still on your notebook since two weeks will wait the next morning…. So will the boring manual you attended reading three time already…

 

As I said, I love being busy, but… I hate being disturbed in my work. I like to be in silence, no talking or noise around, no interruption then I can focus on one task at the time and chop chop things take no time and I can be so efficient. As soon as there is a question that you have to solve something for someone or that there is a coffee break or a question outside on deck, every single task of mine takes five times longer and instead of having two « items open » I have 5 running at the same time, for 5 different persons! priorities, priorities… the worst is when you come back to the shared computer you were working on and someone has kindly started a new task for them selves and you have to wait your turn again….

Then, (and only then of course! 😉 ), I get short and sharp to people and ask people to come back later and later isn’t a good moment either. I do not know why but some days everything seems to happen at the same time and everyone wants you to solve something at the same time and that is when you tend to explode to the nice guy bringing you desert in the bridge…. How awful am I?!

When I am tired, I guess I tend to be sharper faster. And maybe I do not contain my « anger » long enough, and my face gets that annoyed and grumpy mask. 

Yes. I am also known for saying things directly and not always keeping my mouth shut long enough… Although I am getting better at it, I know 200% sure that some people are happy I say out loud what some think and happily, or luckily I do not know, most of the times it needed to be said.

Then you also learn pretty fast that there are ways of bringing the message, of course and listening, nodding and accepting what people have to say is very important too. Take the British for example. They ace at the « politically correct » answer. Every one is then a winner!

I will of course not mention I still have a long road to acquire this wisdom….

Trust me. Event if it doesn’t always sound like it, I love my job and wouldn’t exchange it for anything. I love those busy days because they gather the crew together. The crew works so hard and we rely on each other a lot.

I always believed that a leader should get people to overtake them, and I was already working like that when I was chief scout in Paris. Let me explain.

If you sit, they ( the youngsters, the crew, maybe anybody looking up to you? anybody) will lay down; If you stand, they will sit, I f you walk they will stand, If you run they will run.

Until you want your team to believe that they achieved things as a team, as their team by their own.

This is to my opinion how you will want to se them grow.

But it can be tiring. I admit. 

And It also happened that I ended up not being patient enough and doing it myself (fast and better of course…). Now I learn and practice a lot « delegating ». You’ll see it is pretty could.

The idea is that you make someone else responsible for a task you want to see achieved.

Works- almost– well.

But it also means you know exactly what you want, that you give the good job to the good person and that you are clear in your explanations. It tales time to explain. But it give you also a better overview of who is doing what.

I try to do that in schedules. If we know ahead what is going to happen when, and with who, then you would just need to apply stricto senso the schedule hanging on the door.

hahahha… not that easy… Some just like to read what they want to read. Sometimes I didn’t write down everything either, and sometimes I do mistakes. Yes I do! And often, last minutes changes occur squeezing into an already tight schedule, things to do that would require – at least – 4 times the amount of time we have… of course. Gulden Leeuw style? In the end, what matters the most, is that we always manage.

sophie 4* check out my new schedule for the week!! 🙂 #citybeach #therightchoice *

« If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit. »

When I get tired, it is easy, my voice goes away the first. And no. It isn’t because of the beer that I almost never drink. My captain’s who know me, as soon as they hear my voice slowly disappearing send me to bed for two hours. They know I will only go for less than an hour, but they know. That is nice. It is all the talking. Ok, ok I already hear some of you thinking I already talk so much, it shouldn’t be a problem… but it is talking over music at a party, talking louder than other people around or just repeating myself, explaining and training all day long. My voice disappears.

The other day, sailing out of Sunderland all our trainees -56- needed to me familiarized before departure with the vessel and they received instructions in the bridge, for their watches, for climbing, wearing harnesses, for line handling…it is a lot of information. And divided into smaller groups means easier to go around the vessel but also means more talking. A couple of hours later, in a short amount of time it was an abandon ship drill, shifting berth, working on our generator that decided to not work just the moment we needed it, finish bunkering water, making sure the vessel is ready inside to receive 150 guests, making sure all trainees have their tall ships teeshirt on and and are ready at their stations to set all the sails for the first time, making sure we are in the parade at the good time, that sails come down, all passengers disembarked, no trainees lost in the crowd and full speed back to the start of the race setting once again all the sails and shifting to sea watches for the rest of the week….

You just need to go for it. When you think some job or task is to big, most people will walk away from it and end up doing the tasks they know: emails, small non priority jobs, cleaning etc, doing jobs they know. On the opposite, you need to tackle it straight in the flesh to get over with it and done. Then go for the easy known « safe routine jobs ». Just get it done and go for it. This is the way to get forward. Not pushing it away. In the end you realize it was doable, and only then you get better at it.

We managed. I have no idea how, but we managed. And it also went great and surprisingly smoothly! It is all in the mindset. If you believe you will win and manage, you will. If you think you will not make it and that it will fail… the chances are pretty high it will.

Mindset is important also for your crew to mirror your same mindset. What other people think is impossible to do might be common for you.

To be honest, hat day knackered me. I would still do it again though… #crazysailorlife

Since I have been sleeping a lot in the race. I have a full list of things I would like to do while at sea to have more time in harbour, but…. I sleep and read. And my sleeps are finally deep again. Hopefully I will manage not to be angry to fast. Angry at myself for snapping at someone kinder than me. And also getting rid of those black pockets living constantly beneath my eyes…

Only three days racing then back in harbour. It is a short one again… and the story will start all over again :-/

I love my job and not one morning I wake up not looking forward to what the day will bring. To be honest there are also moments when I do think «  shall I just quit everything? »… no sophie. Go get your rest and breath in deeply, and think before you speak; or just don’t speak at all, it would be better haha! ;p

« Do what you love and love what you do »

Time for a nap in my hammock now…. See you later! 😉

Sophs ❤ ⚓