Why the sea

I grew up in Menorca and I have very vivid memories of those summers. Every year my cousins and part of my family came over from Barcelona. I remember perfectly the joy when summer started and they all arrived. The house, the plans, the meals, the sea, being together…

And I also remember the opposite.

When summer ended and they left, I felt an enormous sadness. One of those childhood emotions you maybe can't name at the time, but that you remember perfectly many years later.

During the year it was us who travelled to Barcelona to see the family. So in a way, from an early age the sea was tied for me to leaving, coming back, meeting again and saying goodbye.

And I think something of all that is still with me.

My father, a Rio 500 Fish and the catch of the day

My father had a Rio 500 Fish and we went out fishing.

There was no grand philosophy behind it. It was simply our life.

Going out in the boat, spending hours at sea, fishing and coming home. Then my mother would clean the fish and we'd eat it.

Now I look back and I realise that many of the things I associate with the sea today were already there: shared time, waiting, conversation, silence, doing something together and then sitting down around a table.

That's why, when I talk about the sea, I'm not trying to find a pretty setting for my work.

The sea was there long before my work was.

From Menorca to Barcelona. And then, back again

When I came to live in Barcelona at 13, the change was huge.

I was leaving Menorca, my life there and part of what home meant to me.

But Menorca never went away.

At 24 I made the journey in reverse: I went off on my own to live in Menorca again.

Later, life took me back to Barcelona and, when I became a mother, I was fairly clear that I wanted to live near the sea. In the end we chose the Tarragona coast.

It's not Menorca — that's a hard act to follow — but it's not a bad place to live either. 😉

And I still have the sea close by.

Then came rowing

There was another stage when the sea showed up again in a different way.

I started rowing in a llaüt català.

I wanted to do a sport, but I didn't want to shut myself away in a gym. I was looking for something that would get me moving and that also had other things I care about.

And I found exactly that: sport, a team, community and the sea.

Rowing has something very particular about it. You can be very strong on your own, but if everyone goes at their own pace, it doesn't work.

You have to listen, coordinate and row together.

And I loved that too.

And now my daughters

Over the years it makes me smile to see that this relationship with the water has reached them too.

One of my daughters competes in swimming and the other in artistic swimming.

It wasn't something I planned.

It just happened.

And when I look at our family history I think that, one way or another, we always end up near the water.

Every year I go back to Menorca

Menorca is still home and I go back every year.

And there's something that still makes me really excited: going by boat.

It could just be the way to get there, but for me it's part of the journey.

It's not a cruise. I don't need it to be one.

It's spending almost a whole day at sea with my family. Getting things ready, boarding, setting off, watching the coast move away, sharing the crossing, eating something, talking, walking around the boat, looking at the horizon…

It still has something magical about it.

Maybe because for a few hours you're not exactly in the place you're leaving or the one you're going to.

You're in between.

And I love that space.

So where does MAR ADENTRO come from?

From something a lot less elaborate than it might seem.

From a need of my own.

I wanted to bring together people who love the sea and who, at the same time, have an interest in their own personal growth.

People who enjoy sharing, talking, getting to know one another, questioning things and carrying on working on themselves.

And I thought: why keep those two worlds apart?

In fact, I'd already done something similar when I chose rowing over a gym.

I didn't want to choose between doing a sport and being at sea.

I wanted both.

MAR ADENTRO comes, in a way, from that same way of seeing life.

The sea doesn't do the work

There's something I want to make very clear, because it matters to me.

I don't think the sea has magical powers.

I don't think looking at the horizon is going to resolve our patterns.

And I don't think that stepping away from our life for a few days makes what we struggle with disappear.

The work is done by us.

But the setting matters.

Stepping out of our usual routine, spending time alongside other people, having time, changing pace, talking without the usual rush and meeting for a while outside our own context can let us notice things that go unnoticed within the routine.

That's why there's one line that sums up MAR ADENTRO better than any other:

And, above all, sharing

Maybe this is the part that connects MAR ADENTRO most with my own memories.

When I think of those summers in my childhood, I don't just remember Menorca.

I remember the people.

My cousins arriving.

The joy of knowing we had the whole summer ahead of us.

My father and his boat.

My mother preparing the fish.

The meals.

The goodbyes.

The trips to see each other again.

And now, many years later, I still hugely enjoy something as simple as spending a day sailing with my family.

That's why MAR ADENTRO isn't born to sit alone looking at the horizon either.

It's born to share the road with other people.

Working, yes. But also talking, laughing, eating together, resting, getting to know places, having our moments of silence and enjoying ourselves.

Because personal growth doesn't have to happen only within four walls.

Leaving in order to come back

Maybe in the end it all comes down to that.

To setting off.

To taking some distance.

To sharing the road.

And to coming back.

Because MAR ADENTRO isn't meant to pull us away from our life. It's meant to let us return to it having looked at some things from another place.

When I look back, I realise that the sea has run through many stages of my story: my childhood, my family, my goodbyes, my returns, sport, motherhood and that feeling of coming home every time I go back to Menorca.

MAR ADENTRO came much later.

The sea was already there.