Home for Christmas

Irish sailor Cian Mullee, a participant in the OCC Youth Sponsorship Programme © Cian Mullee

Cian Mullee was traveling to Dublin Airport from Cape Town International Airport in South Africa and jotted down these thoughts...

Finally after 20,000km, 11 time zones and a little bit longer spent in Australia than I had planned, I made it to Cape Town! It's hard to put into words how great an experience this has been since flying to New Zealand in April.

I'm extremely lucky to have been able to travel to an abundance of incredible places in the last 8 months. From walking on the rim of an active volcano, to swimming in the middle of the ocean thousands of miles from land, experiencing diverse and unique cultures, landing in tiny remote villages and big coastal cities, to witnessing a vast array of wildlife. Throughout it all, I have had the pleasure of meeting many talented and interesting people from all over the world.

Huge thanks to the Ocean Cruising Club for providing this opportunity for young people like myself to get started in Ocean Sailing.

I'd also like to thank Alasdair and Gill Maclean for welcoming me onto their boat 'Starcharger', Alain Pelchat for welcoming me aboard 'Alerre', captain Francisco Melo and all the crew I sailed with throughout 2018. I had a fantastic time on both boats, thank you!

I'm extremely grateful to the folks at McHale's Marine for their great advice and guidance in picking out sailing gear for my trip. I was well equipped to deal with anything the ocean threw at me, staying dry and happy every mile of the way!

Now I'm sitting in the airport in Cape Town waiting to fly home for Christmas and I couldn't be more excited to catch up with friends and family.

This article has been provided by the courtesy of Ocean Cruising Club.