I have been following Save Planet Liners for some time, and since learning about their services and commitment, I had planned to travel to New York by ship. I had never been on a ship before. I was excited, but also apprehensive. It seemed like an epic way to travel, to venture into a new world and a new phase of life. I think it was perfect to start my new life in New York.

I’d been discussing it with my family, explaining how incredible this journey seemed. It was actually a birthday present, in the end, an inside cabin on a ship to New York. BEST PARENTS EVER. Think they got a bit jealous that they weren’t coming too. The thing that drew me to the journey was the fact it was a carbon neutral voyage. Felt like I was participating in the future, or like, contributing my bit. Doing something good and supporting the people who were making this happen.

Before boarding the ship, I hadn't thought about what to expect. For some reason, I had it in my head that it would be like travelling by plane: you arrive a little earlier at the port, check in and instead of a seat, you move into the berth in the cabin. I was led to the cabin by a steward, who I didn’t know at the time was actually an artist too, Oscar’s work is incredible. He knocked on the door and this like, a muffled voice came from inside. Oscar opened the door and there was a woman sitting on one of the two beds reading a magazine. She looked up at me and introduced herself. Mary was a jazz saxophonist and had been touring Europe for the last four months. Now she was on her way home to New York.

I knew I wouldn't be alone in the booth, but I don’t think I was expecting Mary, a woman in her Sixties, with hundreds music books covering her bed. I felt a bit apprehensive in that moment I think, starting to doubt my decision not to take the plane. Feels silly to say now, I think I learnt more from that woman than I did my own mother. But every day on board was filled with one brilliant experience after the next. The twelve days flew by. I was full of inspiration and an endless amount of video footage, but more on that later.

Mary is probably the most interesting woman I’ve ever met. She sees the world in such a beautiful way, like. I don’t really know how to describe it. And she would remember the tiniest things, how I liked my tea, where I left my glasses. Made me feel seen. There was a kindness there, that I haven’t seen before. Like a real, endless, deep-rooted kindness, with no conditions to it.

I think it was on the third or fourth day that we decided to put on a performance together. She came up with the idea, and honestly, this woman’s talent. I felt honoured to even think about working with her. We talked to the crew and arranged for it to be performed on board on the last evening. On Save Planet Liners, guests are invited to help shape the programme on board. Generally, people can already post their contributions via the SPL app before the journey starts, and then passengers who are interested can like and share the posts.

A content team from Save Planet Liners reviews the prioritized submissions and contacts the people involved to get an idea of what the submissions are about. Only the suggestions that are actually considered valuable are implemented, resulting in a pretty incredible program. Two people from the content team are on board. They are then responsible for the program during the crossing. They helped Mary and me develop our contribution and gave us the space on the ship to work on and expand our project. Our contribution was a video about how the journey changed our view of the big picture of society and nature. Mary played her beautiful improvisations on the saxophone live while the video was playing. We called our performance "The Voyage of the Ship – a Social Sculpture."

The last evening, there was a big party. Usually eventing was more discussion orientated, the last evening was in the hands of the artists. Musicians, poets, actors, and dancers contributed their performances in a wonderful way. It was like Cirque Du Soleil without costumes, but much more authentic and real. There was an honesty to all the work that made me, it made me feel like there’s so much beauty here, that’s still undiscovered and unturned.

There was dancing, music and singing. The Creative Space was a crucible of talent where young and old celebrated with each other full of joie de vivre. A true celebration of life, and what it means to be there, on that ship. Surrounded by beautiful people, beautiful food. Magic, really.

It had been quiet on the ship for quite some time when we passed the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn. I stood alone on deck and thought to myself: This is it. This is what life is really all about.