When sitting on a boat in the harbour of Cascais at night, you not only have a nice view of the city's old citadel flanked by mountains in the background, but also calm water that makes your mind wander.

‘Alone time’, I call it.  The moment when you are alone with all the impressions you have gained in a short period of time. I live alone at home, so being in such close quarters with between seven and nine people at a time could have been a difficult challenge but surprisingly it has not been. Having said that, the days in harbours where a lot of boat/technical specialists came onboard to make the Oceans of Hope turned out to be an unexpected challenge as the boat offers very limited space.

Some days ago Jens told us, his fellow Danes, that we are now amongst just 5% of Danish sailors when it comes to the distance sailed from Denmark because the majority stay close to Danish waters. Need I say that it made us even more proud of what we are achieving on this adventure?

Add to this the fact that Mikkel's idea has boosted the number of sailors with MS in Danish sailing clubs - all of them now belonging to a group of people that dared to dream. I can't stop wondering how much the taster sails, news on the countries we have visited so far, impacts on the number of MSers starting sailing or reconnecting with sailing again? We have already talked to a few of them and they were happy to receive this little push (reminder) to take up sailing again.

In this port alone we have been recognised by two Danish families who had heard about our project before they went on their sailing trips. They expressed excitement about the project and one can only hope that the same will happen to other nationalities joining Oceans of Hope.

One and a half years ago I dreamed about getting a place on this boat - in two days time I will disembark after 38 days onboard. How will I cope with sitting behind a desk back at work? This trip had given more knowledge about life onboard a ship, MS and my MS - plus the opportunity to meet with a lot of wonderful people involved in the project. It has been a hard journey but worth every minute.