More than Amazing

Sailing to Cuba and back with Ocean Passages was incredible and I will never forget it. Those six months aboard Harvey Gamage changed my life! When I joined the ship just after Thanksgiving we headed south from Maine, ice was falling from the rigging as we sailed from Portland and I admit those first few, cold days made me wonder what I had got myself into. But looking back, I would not change a single thing about that trip. Cuba was so amazingly unique and experiencing it aboard a traditional wood schooner added a special dimension. It was so much more than just sailing: we’d sail into port and the Cuban people would greet us; they were so sincere and welcoming. More than once, a family invited me back to their house and showed me, with extraordinary pride, their home. Coming from a big city, it was quite a contrast and opened my eyes to another way of life. Being part of a ship’s crew – anchoring in a cove and snorkeling on reefs, diving into crystal clear turquois blue water, taking an entire day to buy 550 eggs for the galley, waking up at 4 am to put a reef in the main and fore while its blowing 30 knots – all of it made me closer to my shipmates than anyone I’ve know in my life. On a boat there is no room to shrug your duties – your learn to depend on each other – that lesson and all the memories of Cuba and its people and the sea will stick with me for the rest of my life.