Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.
Mary Ritter Beard
In 2006 Marcin left Poland and went to the UK, looking for a better future for both of us. I have joined him nine months later, resigning from my job as a teacher. I remember arriving at Luton airport, suddenly surprised that I was able to leave our families and friends behind and that my life in Poland fit into one suitcase I was desperately holding to. We have left everything behind – the life we built, our lovely flat and our loved once.
We did not know what it’s going to happen, how much our life is going to change, how much we are going to miss everyone. Leaving everything behind is not easy, but sometimes you must do what is best for you and take the risk, otherwise you are going to ask yourself the most hated question ever – What would happen if…
There are no ifs in our life now, there is only how and when. We travel, we sail, we work. We try to find a balance and even though we have achieved a lot, we are still on a journey, not thinking about the destination, as the journey itself is what matters. For us traveling creates a sense of freedom and independence, teaches us things we did not know about ourselves and makes us better people – more tolerant, forgiving and understanding.
At this point in life our biggest dream is to own a sailing boat and sail for a few months or perhaps few years. We want to be able to take our home with us, as the idea of backpacking the world has never appealed to us. We like having a home we can come back to, so the sailing boat idea is probably the best we could come up with so far! Of course there is a possibility of getting an RV, but sailing is so much more interesting!
Last year we have started our training – you can read about it in the Sailing part of our blog! So far we have managed to sail from Bergen to Reykjavik on a lovely boat Brego, and I am proud to say we have crossed the North Atlantic Ocean!!! Now we are preparing ourselves for another sailing trip and more training – this time on the Baltic Sea! This trip, which we finished on the 1 October 2016, gave us further sailing qualifications and now we are proud to announce that we are YACHT SKIPPERS! In February 2017 we have passed our RYA SRC/VHF Radio course and now we are planning 3 sailing trips – one in the first week in May (Liapri Islands), 2 weeks sailing around Malta, Gozo and Sicily in June and in September we will be flying to Poland to try for a Coastal Skipper RYA qualifications. For us gaining more experience before we set on our own sailing adventure is crucial!
Life can be exciting and what is more important, life can be what you wish it to be, not necessary what it supposed to be, in the eyes of others. So travel, live, love and sail!
Wind Travelers 