Well it’s 29 April 2018. It’s raining here in Cartagena, Spain. We had planned to have departed by now but the day before leaving another problem came along and as such we are waiting for a new thermostat for our boiler to arrive.

Caroline is teaching the girls today so I thought I might write some more blurb:-

So we are about to enter our third season. It will be coming up to 2 years in July since we left. It’s amazing isn’t it. The girls have grown up a lot and I have been privileged to be with them everyday and spend all that time with them. They really are turning into fabulous young ladies. They are both very different but are so special. They both make me smile so much everyday. I am a very lucky man.

When we arrived in Cartagena last October I cried a lot and was a bit of a mess. I felt so amazingly proud  of what we had achieved as a family and as a unit. I think also the fact we had spent nearly the whole season on anchor and that being in the safety of the marina may also have had its effect. Anchoring is beautiful, waking up in bays with no one else around sometimes, seeing stunning sunsets and sunrises and the tranquillity is awesome. But always you are 100% on your guard in your mind, bad weather coming, rocks, a heavy swell from the wrong direction. A beautiful place can become a nightmare if the wind changes. There have been many times when myself and/or Caroline have spent the whole night in the cockpit making sure that we are safe, not dragging, other boats not dragging into us. There was one night when at 4 a.m. we had to move due to the risk of dragging into rocks that were very close by, as the seas state got worse. At these times the family work as a team to make us all safe. It’s an amazing feeling when that happens and you then move to a safer place.

So we are about to start again which means being 100% on your guard and aware of everything. Throwing off the lines of a safe marina but with the world ahead of us. Many of you may know that we plan to head off to Gibraltar, then Morocco, Canaries, Cape Verde and then hopefully across the Atlantic. A big challenge for us all to go back into the Atlantic ocean with the swell that it brings. We are also looking forward to some of these amazing places. There seems to be a theory that when you turn up at these places for the first time we all go WOW, but after seeing the same place for a while the WOW factor disappears so by continuing to new places you can keep up the WoW’s which drives you onwards.

So our girls, after another 6 months in a Spanish school, have become even more natural at speaking the language. I always love hearing them speaking so fluently to Spanish people, such a gift. Well that’s it for a while. Take care and look after each other all those who read this. x