From Chasing Ports to Choosing Presence: How Ten Days in Dover Turned Drifting into Destiny
Born in 1965, I turned sixty in December 2025.
For most of those years, my life felt like a race I never signed up for—a calendar full of deadlines, a head full of plans, and almost no space in between to simply live.
For decades I had lived with one rule: reach a goal, then run toward the next.
No celebrating. No lingering. No letting the moment catch up with me.
So even on the water, old habits followed.
I crossed to England, slipped along the coasts of Belgium and Germany, pushed north to Sweden and Denmark, wandered down to France. Ninety‑nine percent of the time, I travelled alone.
And still, each time I dropped the anchor or tied up at a quay, my first instinct was to plan the escape.
Then, in September 2025, the weather made a different plan.
A storm pinned me down in Dover
Amidst of this storm, I met some one.
She told me her personal story, and she shared her secrets on how she handles live.
This video is about the lessons that changed my live, and no, it has nothing to do with religion.
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Thanks for coming along! Please leave any questions or comments below.From Chasing Ports to Choosing Presence: How Ten Days in Dover Turned Drifting into Destiny
Sailing MV Lady Liselot
Dr. Henk-Jan van Essen balanced a PhD defense with single-handed trawler voyaging on 'Lady Liselot'. Follow his 2026 mission to London and Paris in this feature.
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