Sailing Ellidah: The Beginning

Traveling has been a big passion for me for many years. It started way before I bought Ellidah. I backpacked in the Middle East, Central America, South East Asia, and a little bit around Europe. Some of it was solo, and some of it was with friends. 

We even drove across Vietnam on a shady old motorbike. Later on, we drove a cheap old Toyota Camry from Northern Norway all the way down to Western Sahara. 

That’s south of Morocco for those of you not too familiar with the geography. That was a pretty long and epic road trip. That is just summing up some of it, but I basically got totally hooked on traveling.

I wanted to experience bigger adventures. To go further out of my comfort zone. For every trip I finished, the next one was already in the planning shortly after. I couldn’t settle down for too long before the craving for adventure made its presence. 

Some of you might have felt this. Do you know that travel bug that bites you and never lets’s go? The one that starts to itch every time you settle down for too long?

Yeah, that one. And I got bit by a freaking big one.

Right when I was at the doorstep of getting myself into a nice and safe relationship, that bug started to do its thing again. It didn’t help that I’m a tiny bit superstitious and my 30th birthday was storming towards me like a locomotive on rocket fuel. 

My parents were ready to be called grandma and grandpa and the pressure had been on for a while about finally settling down properly. 

I was at a road cross.

Well, as you can imagine, I freaked out. I freaked out to the point that I had to sit down and do a reality check on myself. I was scared out of my socks. 

What did I really want to do? And why the hell did I still live in Norway when I freaking hate the cold? 

My job wasn’t holding me back since I need to travel forth and back anyway. That bug seemed more like a rather big dinosaur trying to chew my elbow off at the time.

The birthday train came and ran me over, knocked me down like a farmer on a chessboard, and I figured that now was the time to make the final decision. 

Settle or embark on the greatest adventure of my life. Settle or fulfill my long-lasting dream of sailing around the world. It was like the universe was telling me that it was now or never, this was the time if I ever wanted to do it. All the signs were there. 

That might just be me being a bit superstitious, but hey, who knows?

Anyways.

To take a step out of my comfort zone was already checked when I started backpacking. I was now about to jump out of a fighter jet without a parachute.

The decision was made and it was going to radically change my life.

I think it all started when I was reading a book series about this family who was on a trip to circumnavigate the globe. I don’t remember the name of these books, but I think a seed was planted in the back of my head back then. I must have been about 12 or 13 years old at the time. I had just realized that it was possible to do this in your own tiny little boat. People were actually doing it and they had been doing it for a long time.

Many years later this seed made its appearance again when I watched the videos about “Berserk” with Jarle Andøy and his adventures.

This half-crazy Norwegian guy sailed his little Albin Vega to extremely remote places.

What an inspirational adventure!

I watched it all. Then I started to read blogs. All the blogs I could find online about people doing extended sailing. I read books, watched YouTube vlogs, saw movies, and sucked up all the inspiration and info I could find. I wanted to experience this lifestyle myself. I have always loved the ocean and I had been working at sea for more than 8 years so I knew I had the stomach for it.

The thought of sailing into distant countries and anchoring up in picture-perfect bay’s with my own boat sounded like a dream to me. The ultimate adventure. How could it get any better? Then when I got tired of one place I could just pick up the hook, set sail, and bring my home, my stuff, and myself along to the next paradise.

This was something I decided that I wanted to do when the time was right. Making sunshine stories, right?

Well, It was gonna take many years and a lot of effort to get there.