Sudbury woman reflects on sailing adventure that came with the pandemic's first wave

When the pandemic hit more than a year ago,Kelly Tyndall of Sudburywas working what she calls her dream job at anonline travel company.

Her job was cut, and she wasstuck in her little condo in Toronto, where she was living at the time, without work.

A friend connected her to a small company that makes sail boats,called Green Yachts, which needed some help running their social media.

So Kelly connected and agreed to do some pro bono work, helping with their online presence.

Not long after, the owner of the company asked Kelly if she could be part of a three-person crew to deliver one of their sailboats from Sweden to the United States. She only had oneweek's experience sailing under her belt, and she was worried.

"My first reaction was, 'anything to get me out of this country and traveling again,' so I said I would think about it," Tyndall told Morning North CBC host Markus Schwabe.

"And of course, the first person you call when you are about to sign up for something as crazy as crossing the ocean is your parents."

Her mother, who also hails from Sudbury "is the epitome of the adventurous spirit" and gave her daughter the following advice:

"When else, are you going to have an opportunity like this? When else are you going to have the time off to do this? When else are you going to be able to take on an adventure like this? Go for it."

So Tyndall called the owner back to sign up for the job. They left two weeks later.

Crossing the Atlantic with Sudbury's Kelly Tyndall

4 years ago

Duration 0:08

Crossing the Atlantic with Sudbury's Kelly Tyndall

The plan was to pick up a yacht in Gothenburg, Sweden, and take it from there through the North Sea, along the English Channel to Plymouth, to meet up with another yacht there. Thetwo yachts wouldtake the northern part of the Atlantic across to the northern U.S.

"Theplan didn't really go as scheduled ... and we ended up going south," Tyndall said.

The second boatthey were supposed to meet up withended up being two- to three-weeks delayed because of dead winds in the Mediterranean, and they hadno capability to sail through it.

"So instead of them coming up to meet us, we said, 'well, don't worry, take your time, will come south to meet you.' And so from Plymouth, we ended up sailing across the Bay of Biscay, through France, along the Portuguese coast, south, through Spain and into Gibraltar, where we were able to meet up with them and kind of recharge, get all of our provisions set," Tyndall said.

"And then together, we sailed from the Canary Islands across to Bermuda, which took about 18 days.So 18 days with no land and no Internet or connection to the outside world except for a very finicky satellite phone."

They wound up taking 62 days in total to finish the trek more than double what Tyndall had signed up for.

And she was still on a major learning curve around how to sail.

And you realize, when you think you have nothing left in your tank, there's just so much more.- Kelly Tyndall

"I was still just learning the basics so that I could help as much as I could. Our journey through the North Sea was probably the most traumatizing because I was still a brand new sailor, but I needed to allow both my other crew members to sleep," she said.

"I had to be able to understand the basics of keeping the sailboat at the perfect angles. So although I had probably a twenty-four hour crash course in Gothenberg at the docks, the captainspent hours every single day with a notebook going through all of the sails, going through the names for everything because it's a whole other language."

Tyndall says it wasnot only learning how to sail, but it was learning about the world of sailing "so that in a storm or if there's an issue, someone can look at you and speak in this language [that you must understand]."

And there was stormy weather, of course.Tyndall says she questioned herself and what she was doing daily.

"I thought that I was completely exhausted, that I was done and I missed my family. But every single time I hit the next port, it made me realize that I'dgone this far. I'ddone all these things that I didn't think I could do. I made it through the North Sea when I thought I was going to die. I made it through the Bay of Biscay when I thought that we were going to capsize, we made it through all these things," she said.

"And you realize,at that point,when you think you have nothing left in your tank, there's just so much more. And I think that that's what this challenge really taught me. We can't sit at our desks, and think that this is all we are and all we're capable of.And I think that this is what a lot of people don't realize is that we have so much more potential within us."

Tyndallhas since found a new job, with a travel company called Umapped, and she says she can't wait to get back to the ocean for another sailing adventure.

Tap the player to hear the whole interview.