Liz and Amelia, the sailor cat
"I wanted to travel, lead a simpler life closer to nature and surf in the most remote places on the planet ", Clark tells us when we ask him about the reasons why she left the mainland. The idea, however, comes from much further back: she emerged when she was nine years old and she made a six-month trip on her family's boat to the shores of Mexico. There, the vision of unspoiled nature, the possibility of knowing a new culture and the freedom to sail in the open sea penetrated her then little brainiac, making her promise "protect the natural world from human destruction" and be, someday, "the captain" of her own boat.
A decade later, she would fulfill the first of her promises by finishing her environmental science studies. Later, after a year learning as a crew in several boats and three fine-tuning hers, Swell, she carried out the second, moreover, without any urgency to reach a specific destination: in ten years has "only" visited Central America and the South Pacific , where she is when we speak.
"When I get to an area, I like to spend time exploring, not rush ", she tells us. In fact, she doesn't have a return date either, even though the sea is not always the most pleasant place in which to pass the time. "All sailors have their glimpses of doubt from time to time, it is a characteristic of the uncertainty of this matter. There have been hard times: being stranded in a shipyard due to a mysterious leak -it took almost a year for her to find out what the problem was and fix it-, falling ill with ciguatera (a poisoning from eating coral reef fish), suffering from the fever of the dengue (a viral infection transmitted by mosquitoes) and, above all, living the storms in the ocean. But it is the challenges of the difficult moments that make the good ones even more so", replies, optimistically, the captain.
In fact, those moments of difficulty are what have taught him that the key to navigating in the best way with Swell is get rid of expectations . "Our journey is unpredictable, and challenges are inevitable, so I must be flexible, broad-minded and be willing to keep learning and keep testing my limits. I must be focused enough to feel the rhythms of nature, trust my own intuition and leading with my heart instead of fear or ego," she explains.
And she continues: "This is not a life for people accustomed to luxury. Everything - water, food, electricity - is limited. I drive Swell across the sea, but she drives me too. She keeps me in shape concentrated and grateful . I've got the wind in my hair, oceans to play with, new cultures to discover and enormous freedom. That is the only thing that ensures life on board with each sunrise."
share that with Amelia, her cat (named after brave aviator Amelia Earhart) makes it all more bearable. In fact, the feline not only accompanies her in the water; also on earth, where she wanders like her, but always without losing sight of her human. "I met Amelia on the way. She was six months old and lived in the jungle . After learning to trust me, she became less afraid of the sea and the places we sailed to. she knows that she is safe when we are together Liz tells us.
However, before sharing a cabin with her cat, he had to learn to be alone . "When she had spent about a year and a half on the road, I realized that she was going very fast: she had a lot of different guests , and I thought "wow, I'm going to try to do this without anyone else and slow down".
"For a long time I was afraid of being alone usually. I've always had friends around, I didn't do a lot for myself, and it was something I knew I had to try to really grow up. So during the third and fourth years, I sailed almost always alone and I took my time at each destination. When the wind was good, he sailed; when the swell was good, I stayed to surf. The trip became more of a listen to my intuition and what I felt instead of being aware of times and itineraries, "Clark told National Geographic on the occasion of her appointment as "Adventurer of the Year".
This has allowed him to enjoy certain aspects of the trip more intensely. Thus, the captain considers that her best moments have been spent "connecting with those kind and generous people that I find when I arrive in a new place, experiencing the beauty of the less popular regions , playing with the children of the area, watching wildlife, surfing beautiful waves with a few local friends and sailing the largest expanse of open ocean with my mom."
By the way, to surf, she confesses that the beaches of mexico they are his favorites, although he does not tell us anything else, since he does not like to give exact details of the virgin places he finds on his way. That is not, therefore, what she will tell in ** her book **, which summarizes her decade at sea -and which will come out in the spring-, but what she has learned aboard Swell.
To begin with, what living on a sailboat is not so glamorous as one would think at first glance (you have to spend a lot of time cooking, and even more keeping the boat ready she says). To continue, that something positive can always be born from the negative, which is more useful to look for solutions than guilty and that relentlessly practicing positivity and kindness has the power to change reality one's.
Others of his mantras include the thought that nature, humanity and all life on Earth are inextricably connected , so the best thing is to abandon the "I" and participate in the grandeur of this whole in harmony with our surroundings. In fact, wherever he travels he tries to work communicating this idea, either with workshops in schools or participating in environmental projects.
He also does not forget to convey to us that a simpler life is more beneficial for everyone - of course, also for the planet - than there is always something more to learn and, above all, that to achieve an existence as intense as yours, you only have to meet two requirements: "Wish it and work hard."