Moonly Review 🌑 Looking beyond the deck

Where Michał arrives to Douarnanez and gets ready for a refit.

Ahoy from Douarnanez, a picturesque town in Brittany, and the Home of Grayhound. Our sailing journey is complete, and we're taking a few days to chill before starting the refit.

After crossing all the way to the Carribean and back again the ship can definitely use some love and I'm excited to learn as much as I can about all it takes to maintain a wooden boat.

After over a month on board I feel deeply in love with Grayhound, and more importantly the people that it attracts, and the direction of the delightful duo of owners - Wille and Oscar. Running a ship is not easy. Things are expensive and bureaucracy is complicated. And yet, they somehow manage to have a people-first approach and cultivate an excellent vibe that results in people wanting to come back. It feels precious, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. It will be strange to leave, and while I have a lot to look forward to, a part of me is already looking for a way to come back and get more involved into the project. Let's see what's in the cards 👀.

Cards

Speaking of Cards, I've been conducting some experiments on board. My conclusions so far are that ships and cards are a fantastic combination, although it takes time to match the ship's rhythm and make space for cards. I think I did quite well though and you can read about my card journey aboard Grayhound in this article.

The biggest highlight was a kind-of Card Butoh - a session with myself as a Card Wizard and a multiinstrumentalist Kiqui Cañas playing live music guiding the session. Quite frankly this combo blew my mind and I'm very excited for more of these sessions - this time at Nowhere, which is my next step after Douarnanez.

Sheepy Ship

Nowhere is one of my favourite places in the world and the pinnacle of human creativity. We're building an improved version of our ship, this time with dragon sails inspired by a beautiful sailing vessel Biche, and as always we'll be nourishing the Playa with our Blue Lotus Kombucha on tap. This year we've rotated leadership of the camp and I'm there in a supporting role, which gives me more space to improve the organisational infrastructure, such as our master spreadsheet compiling all the coordination needed to build a city in a dessert and then take it all down after a magickal week.

Apart from the Wild Cards I'm very excited for hosting a meeting point for burner sailors and look into organising gatherings at sea. Who knows, maybe even this year? I'm pretty sure that the right crew will present itself. If that's you then ahoy there - reveal yourself!

Lessons from Grayhound

After 6 months of study at Enkhuizer Zeevaartschool I'm finally applying the knowledge into practice.

I feel very blessed to have experienced 3 different captains, and different types of sailing - an ocean crossing, short crossings, island hopping, maritime festivals and now a refit.

Being on a ship is a fantastic learning curve, and definitely a very intense one. With little space for privacy and self time, all the emotions are significantly amplified, and the subtle interpersonal dynamics combined with the rhythm watch system shape the entire world. There is nowhere to go.

I'm still processing the experience, and I'm still here on board for the next weeks. I've started writing down my reflections as a part of this letter to you and then I realised that I want to take time to write a well-thought-through piece and take time to do it well.

So I'll just leave this as a cliff hanger for now.

In a few minutes we begin the The Great Grayhound Bake Off where all crew is invited to create a dessert experience. And as a resident Dessert Wizard I have some plans for delighting everyone's tastebuds 👀.

I wish you a fantastic Moon Cycle and send a big hug your way!
Michał

New squares are ready for the next cycle:

You can see the pictures of my completed squares on Patreon.