"I Didn't Even Think About Opening Work Chats": How Sea Voyages Help Combat Burnout and Stress
Have you ever dreamed of dropping all your statuses, roles, work tasks, and crushing KPIs? Wanted to escape to the open sea to command a yacht, set sails and have breakfast while watching dolphins and whales swim by? Together with Damora club, we explain how dreams become reality and boredom gets blown away by a gust of fresh sea breeze.
Have you ever dreamed of dropping all your statuses, roles, work tasks, and crushing KPIs? Wanted to escape to the open sea to command a yacht, set sails and have breakfast while watching dolphins and whales swim by? Together with Damora club, we explain how dreams become reality and boredom gets blown away by a gust of fresh sea breeze.
Experiences shared by:
Dmitry, frontend developer
Timofey Otroshchenkov, CEO of Damora
Alexey Kolopenko, Damora Captain
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Yesterday You Managed a Team on Land, Today You’re Steering a Yacht at Sea
Imagine a whole week without distracting notifications on your phone, endless task lists, and responsibilities that have almost crushed you to the ground. All you have now is a helm, breathtakingly beautiful landscapes, and an international company of like-minded people: without statuses, positions, or obsessive success. They’ve all left that onshore.
Timofey Otroshchenkov, CEO of Damora
Sea voyages differ from hiking trips with a greater amount of freedom. It’s a completely different world that you observe not from shore, but from the water. On a boat, you reach places cars can’t access.
We navigate between islands, view fjords from all angles, and work as a team. Together we set the sails, steer the boat, and complete tasks assigned by the captain.
Chat groups created before trips as information channels end up living for years. People communicate, become friends, and travel together on subsequent journeys. The sea has a profound therapeutic effect. It heals wounds well.
Just yesterday you were managing a department, tackling complex tasks, and setting goals for employees, but today you’re commanding an entire yacht on the open ocean and preparing dinner with a team of cool strangers.
If you’ve never commanded a sea vessel before, no worries — the Damora crew will teach you everything. And if you want to make yachting part of your life, they’ll even administer an exam, after which you’ll receive a special license.
Dmitry, frontend developer
In local expat chats, I came across information that a sailing school that emigrated from Belarus would soon open in Gdansk. I became interested in trying it out, forming new neural connections. After all, this was something I’d never done before in my life. Plus, I thought yachting was something expensive and elite. But it turned out to be completely different.
The basic course taught me to catch the wind, set sails, and make turns. After the course, I took an exam and received a certificate allowing me to operate a sailboat in inland waters.
After some time, I saw that the team was organizing a tour to the Canary Islands. I had a 10% discount and decided to try it.
Making the decision to try is the key to these kinds of trips. The unprepared might be scared off by potential seasickness and unfamiliar people with whom they’ll have to share limited space.
But all of this doesn’t compare to the possibility of breathing fresh sea air, seeing the world’s most beautiful sunsets and sunrises, and understanding that you’re a human, not just a set of functions.
New Friends, Shared Breakfasts, and Peeling Potatoes
Even children know: a trip is a collective activity, «if you set out with a friend, the road is more fun.» And when it’s a company consisting of 6-8 strangers from different countries around the world, it’s also a training ground for enhancing soft skills.
Timofey Otroshchenkov, CEO of Damora
The sea is a separate territory. There are no ranks or positions here; everyone automatically becomes a sailor. Common interests unite people. The captain on the vessel is simultaneously a psychologist and a parent. For example, you wake up in the morning, have a delicious breakfast — already in a good mood.
Being in a team of strangers and working together initially seems like extreme stress. But that’s only at first glance. Because a common cause brings people together, the landscapes around calm you down, and the waves set you up for a meditative view of life.
Alexey Kolopenko, Damora Captain
All team members constantly interact with each other. You can get privacy, of course, but the captain structures the team’s work so that the enjoyment comes precisely from joint activities. Setting the sails, peeling potatoes.
After our trips, the same teams sign up for the next one — that’s how close they become.
Setting sail to the open sea is not only about rest and self-exploration but also an opportunity to build new neural pathways, to truly be offline, and to find real, not virtual, friends there.
Dmitry, frontend developer
Sailing trips are an excellent opportunity to develop soft skills. I don’t have problems with this, and during our trip, I met wonderful people from different corners of Europe. Thanks to this journey, I had the opportunity to visit Denmark for the weekend. My cabin mate was from there. He invited me to visit him.
I also met a couple from Gdansk. Now we meet in the city and spend time offline. Overall, I made many connections, and I still communicate with many people. Yachting brings people together.
Let Go of Control to Begin a Journey to Yourself
What a thrill to, at least once in your life, manage not processes, people, and your own life, but a real yacht, even in the open ocean. To capture the feeling of the moment, taste life, and let go of control. Because, in reality, many things aren’t under our control anyway.
Dmitry, frontend developer
On a yacht, there’s no desire to solve any work issue. The sea, sails, and boat divert attention and replace all thoughts about work. I didn’t even think about opening work chats — to see what’s happening in my absence. When I’m on land trips, I constantly check them. But on sailing trips — it’s a real detox. And in general, you can’t think about work when dolphins are on the boat’s course, and you’re steering it. What work issues could possibly matter?
The sea has a relaxing effect on the nervous system. The first week after vacation always went well for me. My mind was completely cleared; I went through an information detox, soaked up beautiful views and positive emotions. It’s a very good remedy. I realized that I like this format of vacation, and now I plan my time off based on the calculation that it will be a yacht trip. For those who think it’s expensive, it’s not. Such a journey is comparable in cost to a regular land vacation.
Instead of Conclusions — Simply Fulfill Your Childhood Dream
Probably everyone in childhood made paper boats, let them sail down rivers or streams, and watched how they floated with the current, battling the waves. And at least once, probably everyone imagined themselves as the captain of their own boat, which carries you away from the boring world of adults.
Damora sea club’s trips allow you to realize your childhood dream, to look beyond the horizon of boredom, daily routine, and burnout. That’s where the most interesting part begins — a journey to yourself. And it’s amazing to realize that it passes through fjords, islands, salty sea air, and swimming in the open ocean.
How to Sign Up for a Sea Voyage?
Simply visit the Damora website and join. Right now, from May to September, you can sign up for sailing trips to Norway — there are 3 great routes to choose from.
Use promo code DzikMorski for a 5% discount on any trip with the Damora club.
У меня даже не возникало мысли открыть рабочие чаты. Я бежал за вами километр, чтобы рассказать, насколько сильно у меня не возникало такой мысли.
А ещё начинаешь понимать, что ты — человек, а не набор функций. А рядом интернациональная компания таких же людей: без статусов, должностей и успешного успеха. Главное при этом не упустить шанс прокачать софт-скиллы, выстроить новые нейронные цепочки, успеть почувствовать вкус жизни и отпустить контроль. Особенно отпустить контроль, очень важно не прозевать окно возможностей и успеть сделать это до конца путешествия. А то ведь так и не удастся настроится на медитативный взгляд на жизнь
Карыстальнік адрэдагаваў каментарый 6 мая 2025, 02:30
Рэлацыраваліся? Цяпер вы можаце каментаваць без верыфікацыі акаўнта.
Работаешь матросом и ещё платишь за это?
Я лучше на галерах останусь.
Правильно, на галерах хоть плетью бьют и мужики потные рядом
Бизнесмены (сео яхты :-)) которые не указывают стоимость пусть сразу плывут на Юг.
Карыстальнік адрэдагаваў каментарый 29 красавіка 2025, 14:54
аренда на самом деле не такая уже неподъемная, особенно когда много человек
На тематических сайтах можно найти разовый подряд матросом на перегонку яхты. Ещё и заплатят.
У меня даже не возникало мысли открыть рабочие чаты. Я бежал за вами километр, чтобы рассказать, насколько сильно у меня не возникало такой мысли.
А ещё начинаешь понимать, что ты — человек, а не набор функций. А рядом интернациональная компания таких же людей: без статусов, должностей и успешного успеха. Главное при этом не упустить шанс прокачать софт-скиллы, выстроить новые нейронные цепочки, успеть почувствовать вкус жизни и отпустить контроль. Особенно отпустить контроль, очень важно не прозевать окно возможностей и успеть сделать это до конца путешествия. А то ведь так и не удастся настроится на медитативный взгляд на жизнь
Карыстальнік адрэдагаваў каментарый 6 мая 2025, 02:30