Adventure

What comes first – bravery or action?

/ katrinamegget / Leave a comment

What comes first – bravery or action?

So often in our heads we think we need to be brave or confident before we can take action – I need to be more confident before I ask that person out on a date; I need to be brave/confident before I go for my dream job or start a business; I need to be brave before I can speak out on these controversial topics.

If we think like this we start looking for answers outside ourselves, we start looking for what can make us brave or more confident.

Like, a new lipstick will make me feel confident. More research and experience will make me feel brave and so on.

But it doesn’t work like this.

Continue reading →

What’s it like to sail around Great Britain in a 28-foot boat?

/ katrinamegget / Leave a comment

So my fiance Mark only went and self-published an e-book on our experience sailing around the coast of Great Britain earlier this year.

It’s titled – A Voyage Around Britain in a small Yacht: A true and honest log of two everyday people sailing around the UK.

I’m incredibly excited and proud!

Of course I’m biased but even with my former magazine editor hat on I can say it’s a great little read (even if there is the odd typo).

When we first announced we were going to sail around Great Britain, I was surprised that quite a few people said to me they, or someone they knew, had always dreamed of doing that but they didn’t know how to approach it or they were worried about certain aspects, like sailing around Cape Wrath.

Continue reading →

We are all brave

/ katrinamegget / 2 Comments

I don’t consider myself especially brave.

Yet I’ve been called that a lot recently.

It all started with my solo trek down the length of New Zealand.

But I definitely didn’t feel brave when I stood at the northern tip of New Zealand about take the first step.

In fact, I was a total bundle of nerves and riddled with self-doubt and fear. I’d never done anything like this before. Who was I to think I could walk 3,000km (1,864 miles)?

Continue reading →

Life lessons I learnt sailing around Great Britain

/ katrinamegget / 2 Comments

Almost four months on a cosy 28-foot boat with the love of your life, dealing with temperamental weather and an ocean as changeable as a teenager’s mood swings is one of those experiences that make you look at life and your place in it.

I don’t know if I’d go as far to say I’m stronger or that it was a transformational experience – during the sail I often compared to my 3,000km (1,864 miles) walk down the length of New Zealand, which really did change me as a person – but the sailing challenge made me sit up.

These are some of the things I learnt.

Continue reading →

You’re stronger than you think you are

/ katrinamegget / Leave a comment

We’d been sailing all night and were coming up 17 hours on the water.

It had been a night darker than coal; no moon, thick dense cloud. I couldn’t even make out the bow of the boat.

The wind had been keen and the waves had whooshed. It was anyone’s guess what they looked like beyond the ghostly froth of bubbles that stirred as the boat ploughed through the water.

It felt like the waves were big. It felt like we were going fast.

Come the grey of morning, we were exhausted and the sea was a confused mess, as if it was throwing a temper tantrum at the injustice of the early start to a new day.

Continue reading →

5 things I’ve learnt about sailing

/ katrinamegget / Leave a comment
Beachy head and the Seven Sisters

It’s two weeks into the adventure of sailing around Great Britain and I’m adjusting to being on the water and living in a 28-foot space. 

I’m a newbie to this sailing game so it’s been a full-on introduction to the rigours of sailing. 

Here are five things I’ve learnt so far: 

Continue reading →

Why I’m fundraising to tackle domestic abuse

/ katrinamegget / 3 Comments

If there was one word to describe the realisation that I had been in an emotionally abusive relationship, that word would be shame.

It would quickly be followed by the word weakness.

How did I not realise I was in an emotionally abusive relationship? How weak was I to get into this sort of relationship and to stay so long? What does that say about me? What will other people think?

For several years, those two words have hung around me like a bad smell.

I no longer want to give them power, which is why I’m talking about it now and why, during our upcoming sail around Great Britain, my current (and amazing) partner Mark and I are fundraising for the UK charity SafeLives, which works to end domestic abuse. You can donate here.  

Continue reading →