You may well have experienced this. We both certainly have. You’re in a situation where others think you’re confident and skilled to do the job in hand and you’re being looked at as the expert, but actually what’s going on in your head is the exact opposite.”I’m going to get found out here. Others have loads more experience and knowledge than I do. I truly hope no one asks me any difficult questions because I’m feeling completely out of my depth.”
Chris Lake, a Unique Solutions client and more importantly a lovely bright entertaining chap who works as Head of Professional Development for the NHS Leadership Academy has written a blog about this in relation to leadership. http://www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk/blog/imposter-syndrome/
It’s a feeling I’ve most definitely had in relation to work occasionally and when I read Chris’s blog, I though bang on. I’ve had that!
I mention this as we have successfully arrived in Santa Cruz, Tenerife after pretty much 5 days solid at sea. We’ve been here for a few days but have been drawing breath, hence the radio silence. All around are boats preparing to cross to the Caribbean. I do feel a bit like an imposter.
Grace stands out as being quite different from many of the boats here and draws attention because of that. (Much prettier too in my opinion!) She looks like the kind of boat that will cross an ocean and be sailed by competent knowledgable people who have oodles of experience to draw on. Ocean experience on this boat…. None.
We do now have 5 solid consecutive days at sea in our experience locker after our passage from Lagos. Think it was about 670 miles. At night doing 3 hours on, 3 hours off was at times pretty exhausting but we’ve always said, in no way feel sorry for us as this sailing jaunt is all of our own making. We had the amazing super moon that lit the sky from sun down to sun up. Stunning.
Having poled out twin headsails worked brilliantly for the downwind sailing conditions. It was a bit rolly but apart from a bit of motoring out from Lagos, we sailed all the way. That’s what we signed up for. Oh, until the end of the trip when the engine wouldn’t start again and we had to get towed in the last ¼ mile into the marina. Pesky starter motor. Thought we’d sorted that but obviously not. Grrrr. The boat that towed us in was driven by a lovely mad Spanish lady with two guys in support who did the donkey work with the lines and fenders. We’ve been to see her today and shared a coffee and an hour in her company. I hardly ever drink coffee so consequently am now quite wired. I may be writing complete gobbledegook here.
We’re relaxing into life though and very nice it is too.. Lots of walking around town finding out where things are. Chandlery. Supermarket. Post office. Cafes with good wifi. Nearest beach etc. We’re gonna be here for a couple of weeks. Our friend Julian arrives today so looking forward to seeing him and tapping into his woodworking prowess. We have squeaks when sailing along which will mostly likely drive us mad on an Atlantic crossing so we’d like to be squeak-less.
And there’s some great walking and climbing here on the island so once a few jobs are ticked we plan a couple of days exploring. Should be fun.
Next destination. Well not totally decided. Barbados or possibly Antigua. Departing west is a couple of weeks away and who knows what may happen between now and then.
grace of longstone 
Cheers Gary. Will keep an eye out and avoid banana liquor. Have had some very lovely tuna from the impressive fish market and there’s plenty of rabbit on sale from the butcher’s stalls. No proper beer for Dave though.
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Glad you have arrived safely. Check out rabbit with sweet potatoes – a local delicacy. Avoid banana liquor at all costs. Enjoy the rest.
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