Sometimes you run into someone who challenges the way you view your existence in the world. This impact can be dramatic and immediate or a subtle influence that percolates through your mind for many years. It might be something they say to you, a strength you admire, or an outlook on life that intrigues you. For me, this person was Thomas Tangvald.
We arrived at Leeds University in September 1994, both aged 18, seemingly with much in common. We both loved languages, we both loved sailing, and we both had the desire to find freedom. But that was where the similarities ended.
Thomas’s father, Peter, was from Norway. By 1964, he had already completed a five-year round-the-world voyage on his boat , a 32-foot (9.75m) cutter with no motor, no electricity, no radio and no cockpit. Thomas was born on Peter’s next boat, , in the Indian Ocean in 1976, by which time Peter was already a seasoned, competent sailor dedicated to independent yacht sailing.
