LIVING ON A TALL SHIP FOR 3 MONTHS
It’s been a little while since I’ve posted on here and that’s because, from the beginning of September to the beginning of December, I lived on a tall ship called Tenacious during her maintenance period. I have sailed on Tenacious once before in the Caribbean (read more about that here), but this was a very different experience. It was a pretty insane 3 months; I spent my days sanding, painting, greasing, cleaning chain lockers and water tanks, securing shackles, bending sails back on and playing with rope.
The best part was climbing up the rigging, I actually made it to the very top a couple of times which was pretty exhilarating, especially in the wet and windy weather. But I got pretty comfortable up there which was great. It felt so good to be learning new things and putting them into practice up the mast.
Writing this post, I’ve realised how difficult I find it to talk about my time on the ship. I had the highest highs and the lowest lows, and I think it’s one of those experiences that’s going to take me a while to truly process. I learnt a lot, not only about sailing and maintenance, but about myself and other people. Living and working in a small environment with the same people can be pretty difficult at times, especially when it’s high pressure and you don’t get a lot of time off.
I do wish I had handled a lot of things very differently. Hindsight is alway an interesting thing, and so I try not to be too hard on myself. I’m proud of myself for putting myself in such a foreign environment, I really knew nothing about maintenance and very little about sailing, so to be doing maintenance on a sailing ship was completely out of my element. But I did it and I know a lot of people wouldn’t be brave enough to put themselves in that situation. I now have a better understanding of how to live in a group of people and work as part of a team, and that’s been vital for what I’m doing now. And ultimately that’s what matters, that I can process the lessons I learnt and apply that going forward.
