When I was a kid I used to loath the ferry journeys we took as a family, across to Brittany in France. To me back then, they were boring, slow, long, my sister would probably be ill and I might feel it; most of all, they just got in the way of getting on with the holiday proper – crepes with chocolate sauce, ladies with scary knives pointing at you in restaurants (I’m sure she was lovely really – what Dad calls a character).
These days I love travelling by sea. The chance to slow down and experience the world at a more gently pace is a rare and splendid thing. Being at sea gives you a sense of the vastness or our world, of its magnificence and might. For me, it’s a far more privileged and exciting place to be, than in a plan where the work literally passes you by without any form of interaction or acknowledgement.
