“I’m really happy to be back at sea. It feels like the sea is the place where I’m supposed to be, and it’s really where I live.”
— Elysha Piller journal entry, while sailing from Lisbon, Portugal, to Corsica, France.
Elysha Piller loves the sea, and she’s seen plenty of it over the past few months. The sailing enthusiast and Kenilworth native has been an important member of the West Island College International’s Class Afloat crew for the past school semester.
After leaving for Nova Scotia in September, Elysha has helped guide the Concordia sailing ship to ports across the globe, in Europe, Africa and Asia. While her school year is only half over, Elysha has embraced everything the journey has thrown at her, from azure skies and sandy beaches, to stormy seas and the tedium of an ocean voyage.
“Overall it has been amazing,” she told the Confederate during a holiday break back home in January. “The last five months have been a life experience. I’m really and truly honoured to be a part of this.”
Elysha’s travels have introduced her to different ways of life, varying climates, and many different styles of architecture as well, from castles in Portugal and ruins in Africa, to the farmhouses of rural Ireland. What has moved her most is the difference in cultures and customs of the people of the world.
“It’s not the places I remember the most,” she said. “It’s the people who stand out. They’re what you remember.”
The Class Afloat experience has left an indelible mark on the student turned world traveller. Elysha said the semester passed quickly. The sailing seemed to “take forever” at first, but time is going so quickly she fears it will all be over far too soon.
In addition to regular chores on ship, including gangway watch, foghorn duties, scrubbing and painting, the Class Afloat students have been able to enjoy some time to themselves. On the beach in Lisbon, Portugal, friends enjoyed a full day at the beach of suntanning, a picnic of cheese and fruit, and a quick Portugal vs. Canada soccer game on the beach with some friendly local students.
It hasn’t all been sand, sun and gentle surf, however, for the crew of the Concordia.
“We’re getting our winds from the tail now, up to 70 knots, and we’re moving with the waves, up to 30 feet. We had our first real squall yesterday,” Elysha wrote in her journal. “It was crazy. I had fun. Everyone went outside and enjoyed the storm...”
Elysha said the ship was so tilted during the fierce storm, that the entire port side railing dipped underwater. She said the gale cleared up quickly, and it wasn’t until in calmer water that she began to feel seasick. She said everyone on the boat has felt seasick at some point, but once you recover from it you rarely suffer its effects again.
Sailing from Malta to Turkey, Elysha’s duties took her up the masts for maintenance. The seas were rough, and she was swinging 100 feet side to side; her field of vision filled one moment by sea, the next by sky.
“It was amazing sitting on the yard in weather like that. I don’t know why I liked it, it was just so crazy and exciting.”
Weather like that has been the exception rather than the rule, and Elysha has embraced it all. Every country, she said, seems to bring with it a new language, new religion, and new way of day-to-day life. While some cultures enjoy more prosperity than others, she said people are inherently, kind, generous and helpful to strangers and guests.
“You can feel so close to someone, even though you live so far away from each other. It’s been really cool to experience that. Then you set sail and, all of a sudden, it’s the weekend and you’re in a new country.”
On Christmas Day she found herself in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, en route to Senegal. With no home or family in sight, the crew bonded together as a team, a family unto itself, and exchanged gifts they had made. Elysha presented her new friends with wallets she made from pieces of sail.
Halfway through her year-long voyage, Elysha said the most important thing she has learned is to appreciate the little things; be it a big, soft bed, or a warm shower, or something as simple as an ice cream cone.