Whales, stars and spectacular sunsets away from city lights
ACTOR-TURNED-SAILOR TALKS ABOUT THE VESSEL THAT CHANGED HIS LIFE
Imagine seeing sights you could never see on land and views you could only see away from the city lights.
They were all experienced by an actor who became a sail trainee on a spectacular ship.
Tatu Sinisalo who was part of the crew of the Atyla and this summer it is coming to Sunderland. The Spanishbuilt vessel will be here this July and she reaches 100ft.
What’s it like to sail on Atyla?
Tatu, 25, an actor from Finland, said: “Atyla changed my life in a lot of ways.
“First of all, teamwork. I realised that, even though I have done theatre, I have done sports, music, films - teamwork on a ship is different.
“If you don’t do your duties, people can get killed. It is really learning to respect one another.”
Tatu added: “It is a meaningful job because you are all on the same boat.”
He also learned that there was also life underneath a ship - a “lot of life.
“We know about a fraction of it even though oceans cover more than 70 percent of this world.
“Weshouldprotectit,learn from it and teach our kids.”
The scenes he saw were breathtaking. “I saw whales, tonnes of whales,” said Tatu.
And he also dished out a stroke of reality about life on board a ship. “It gets boring once in a while,” he admitted. “And that’s good because that is when you learn new stuff. “You learn new things about yourself, about your mates, about the nature around you. “You get new ideas and you can see the sunset and sunrise and stars like never before because the city lights are not blinding you.” Tatu finished by saying: “The crew? They are the best.” And summing up a tall ships experience, he said: “Considerthatan optiontochange your life.”