My mother wrote me a letter a long time ago, while I was a wee cadet on board the OBO (Oil/Bulk/Ore) Carrier named “HOEGH FOAM”. I read it while the ship pitched and rolled somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic ocean when this next line caught my attention, and it never left me.

She said: Experience is the best teacher and travelling is a great experience

Or was it the other way around? Anyway part of me was just glad that she supports my career choice at the time and the other part was having a Eureka moment complete with a mysterious glow on my face as the realization that I agree with that quote settles in.

The thought of going beyond your normal boundaries, your safe zone, the familiar is so terrifying but all the knowledge you gain from the experience from creating new trails teaches you things that you will never learn from books or any classroom setting. So what to do? Don’t think… just go!

Get lost in other peoples culture, food, language, history, beliefs, traditions and be enriched by the experience.

Well my ship shape days have come and gone it lasted a little over 6 years. I moved from transporting cargo to cruising with holiday makers in places that I used to only see in the movies.

And it is a privilege for me to say that I’ve lost count how many times we’ve crossed the Panama Canal. An honour to share how I learned a few words in Spanish from “mi amigos los estibadores y mis amigas, gracias!”.

To watch the Lady Liberty every Sunday morning standing proud and tall in the middle of the New York harbour as she welcomes us in from our last port of call in Bermuda.

I had coffee while watching the sun set in Nordkapp, Norway at 3am in the morning then watch it rise again a few minutes later without even completely disappearing from the horizon.

I could just go on and on and on but I’m sure you get the point. Acapulco? yeah. Alaska? of course. California, Miami, Puerto Rico? … yup!

It was a conscious decision to leave that life behind despite it’s appeal to my wandering nature, but it doesn’t mean my thirst to see the world has been quenched.

I believe that we should always go and see things from a different perspective. Find inspiration from a different platform or medium or culture. Because… why not?

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