Now more than a month later, my journey on board Oceans of Hope seems like a distant past event in my life already. Coming back home was very pleasant and familiar, but at the same time quite challenging. Getting back into the routine, working full time, shopping, cooking, cleaning, taking care of my dog, paying bills, social responsibilities and the list goes on, makes sailing around the world easy in comparison – who would have thought!

I went to Sydney thinking sailing 2000 nautical miles would be the challenge of my life, but coming back home, living everyday life with MS, that will always be the real challenge in my life. Looking back, living on a boat for three weeks with eight other great people could be tricky, but yet such a simple life, where people look out for each other, belonging to a small community, where everyone understands and no explanations are needed and where everyone is striving towards a common goal. That was refreshing and rewarding!

I will always cherish that time in my life, even though it was only for three weeks, where I didn’t have to worry about everyday things like work, or the traffic on a Monday morning, or walking from my car to the office or about what people think of my walking. I didn’t even think about MS and our many conversations rarely revolved around MS. This was exactly what I needed.

Hope to see you all in Barcelona in October 2015, to welcome Oceans of Hope back to Europe.