This was actually Xmas day 2017 – Cartagena but only just found the photo…

Thank you BCC – a fantastic afternoon. Great to see you all. x

Birthday with her cousins

A lovely sailing family and fabulous boys – keep safe guys.. see you soon.. xxx

Cas cleaning the water filter for the fridge / freezer…a regular job

The girls hanging out with Sir Ben Ainslie and team UK in Sardinia…Go Team UK. I think they have taken the girls comments on-board so should do well now.

They wave to us every time they go out. A great experience.

Stargazing in Mazaron

Dolphins Dad…

A short stop in Cartagena and delighted to see our good friends Neil and Gail

My new dress I bought in Morocco….nice and cool…

The moment we surprised Sarah and Grace on their holiday…we had sailed from North Africa and anchored in the bay in-front of them. Well done Tony for keeping the secret..it was priceless..

https://youtu.be/jikW1GFbB6Y

Thank you Stacey, Edward, Freddie, George and Indy, Rose and Ranjan. What a great day. 2 x 6.5L engine, 700 bhp we managed 47 knots and had great fun in the doughnut. What a fab day…

Gibraltar 20

Phoebe and I decorate the ant queen room . The next day we played with Katie and Phoebe again they came on our boat  to play. The next day we drew chalk pictures. We left Gibraltar and went to Morocco and it was a night sail.

Morocco

daddy and I went to look for a place called rent a car we were trying to rent a car to drive into Morocco because we were in a Spanish marina. The next day we crossed the border from Spain to Morocco so we could see Morocco. When we were in Morocco we walked around a market and saw a fish approximately 1metre long then we went back on a bus to spain. From Morocco we sailed to  spain

Spain

We did a night sail from Morocco to Cabo de Gata. The next day we sailed to Garrucha and I called up to see if there was any space in the marina and it was Coco and he was surprised to see us.

17/8/18

We sailed from Mallorca to Menorca to Cala en bosch where we snuck up on Grace and Sarah because Tony already new about the surprise. Grace saw Tony video three random people and it was us .They all came on board the boat .We tried to go swimming but it started to rain and there was a storm and we started to drag and they went . As they were on the beach we had an inflatable donut come past us so we caught it. yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. We didn’t get to spend much time with Grace because we had engine problems so we sailed  to mahon we tied to the quay side and we met a boy named Badger . We went shopping because we were running out of food.We went out to anchor and met two boys and a girl the boys names are Fred,Gorge, and Indie the first thing I said was do you want to be our friends? and if I hadn’t  of done that we wouldn’t have gone donuting at 47kts. The next day we left mahon and went to Sardinia.

Sardinia

At Cala seta we went swimming with Ian and Lorraine on Cuffysark. Drinks were lovely on their boat after a long and hot sail. A new boat came in called yoyo with an English couple called Alistair and Sue and they were from suffolk. All eight of us had a BBQ on the beach. We left the next day and we went to malfatarno and then onto one out favourites on Sardinia Pula.

A short sail into cagliari for a marina stop and an explore of the old city.

We were having a nice day in Vilisimius when Sir Ben Ainslie came into the bay and the Americas cup racers too. Daddy Jessica and myself got into the dinghy I was really exciting because I had never met anyone famous before. We followed a boat into the marina I was really scared too though. As soon as We moored up the dinghy we got more and more and more and more and more excited until we saw him we exploded. Daddy said the first words they were “can We have your autograph please” he said yes here is a picture and another photo of him flying

He invited us on his boat and helped us on by holing our hands we haven’t washed out hands for along time now. We had a photo with them all .  Every time his boat came past we waved to him and on our PA system we said GO TEAM UK GO GO GO! He smiled and waved each time.

Whilst at anchor a tourist boat came past playing music I danced to it and the people always cheered.

We went the other side of Vilisimius because it was to swelly.  The next day we left and went to Plage de Murtas, I jumped in and didn’t like the bottom it was scary. We left the next day to go to Cala Luna. we anchored in Cala Luna. we gutted a fish that daddy caught and Ian and Lorraine helped us. Here is a picture of the fish .

We saw some caves and went to explored them. On the way to the caves we saw some dolphins next to Arctic Fern. In the morning we shot of to a place called Punta Pietra Blanca. We went swimming. The next morning we set off from Punta Pietra Blanca to Olbia.

Olbia

All six of us went into town, I used some of my pocket money to buy some sweets from the witch’s shop . When we got back we went to bed. In the morning we did school, after that a boat came in with three children on board. Their names are Harry,Oliver and Ayden who were great to play with. Day after day we played with them after school until one day they left and now we don’t have anyone to play with but we have their email address witch is good so we can email them.

Finally left Gibraltar with the new life raft. Africa here we come..

Gibraltar-when we got into Gibraltar John off ocean raptor called us on the radio. Once I had finished talking to him Geoff off Magallen called on the phone. Daddy cooked a ten minute curry and it was very spicy and yummy. On Father’s Day we cooked daddy a very yummy breakfast that he hadn’t had in ages. We went to the beach on Father’s Day and we bought our paddle board. We met this little girl called Ella on the beach and she played with us. We met Theo, John and Rachel on the beach too.

When Ella, Livvy and I were on the paddle board attached to the dinghy, Theo pulled us in and then pushed us out. Ella was a bit unlucky because she kept falling off the paddle board backwards. On the way back Daddy tied the paddle board side ways onto the dinghy so Livvy and I sat on it on the way back to the boat. It was fun.

The next we saw an umbrella floating passed us and we went to catch it but two people had already got it. They came over and asked if it was ours. We said no,but we invited them on for a cup of tea. We became friends and their names were Becky and Adam.

We then had a family talk about whether to cross the Atlantic Ocean or to go back into the Mediterranean Sea. The decision was to stay in the Mediterranean Sea. On Father’s Day we were meant to have a BBQ for dinner but it didn’t work instead we had one for today’s dinner. After dinner we watched a cowboy film and then one episode of Ballykissangel.

Today we did school which was English taught by mummy. Just before we went to bed we watched a film called the invisible and it was a really good film. After that we watched another Ballykissangel. We met some friends called Katie and Phoebe. We played with them in a lovely huge park. Phoebe and Olivia made lots of little hollows in trees for the ants whilst Katie and I were making a little house for some animals. We met these other friends called Caroline and Richard and they had a dog called Lyra. They had invited us around for Spaghetti Bolognese. We stayed a long time with them. Whilst Mummy and Daddy were talking, Livvy and I were stroking Lyra and were also playing dobble at the same time.

Livvy and I went swimming in the sea and as we were at Gibraltar we had to wear our wetsuits it was soooo cold. Daddy also got into the water and he was cleaning the bottom of the boat and we helped. We watched the last Ballykissangel of the series that we had.

Sometimes after English mummy does fun stuff and she did it this lesson and the fun stuff was doing riddles. Rachel, John and Theo came over and Livvy and I played in our swings. Theo tried to play in our swings but he didn’t quite manage it. Theo also played a game with us.

We went into a Gibraltar Marina and played with Katie and Phoebe. Katie and Phoebe are two lovely children to play with and so is Theo. Daddy said he was taking us to a swimming pool and we invited Katie and Phoebe round to come with us. The pools are full of salty sea water. We bought our sinking sticks and played with them. We had to dive down right to the bottom of the pool to get the sinking sticks and it seemed to me a little bit deep because none of us could touch the bottom so we had to tread water all the time. At the swimming pools there was a little park with a place that we could go under and it was like a little tent. We met three other friends called Adam, Isabelle and Emelia.

Katie is ten years old, Phoebe is eight, Adam is twelve, Isabelle is twelve and Emelia is ten. We played with Katie and Phoebe and we invited them round to our boat to play and as they stayed a bit late and our dinner was ready, we invited them round to have dinner with us and their mum said yes. Whilst we were having dinner we were watching the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Mummy borrowed Caroline and Richard’s sewing machine to make chaps for the dinghy and she has finally finished them. John and Theo invited us to come and watch football with them. We went with them to watch it but we missed the bus to their Marina. In the end we watched in a pub with them. This was our last day in the Marina. We went round to Katie and Phoebe’s boat and played the cherry blossom restaurant. We then went back out on anchor. Before bed time we watched Hunt for Red October and it was a very good film.

For most of July we were on anchor waiting for our new life raft. We played with Katie and Phoebe a lot and we kept going in and out of the Marina. We had lots of our old friends come in and out of the anchorage. We met some new friends called Peter and Francis. We also met two people off a najad 441 just like ours but red instead. We also met two other people called John and Nancy. When we went round to their boat we found out it was Nancy’s birthday so we made her a hand made birthday card. We stayed one month in Gibraltar.

The last day was a sad day for Theo, Katie, Phoebe, Livvy and I.

We had to do a night sail. We went straight from Gibraltar to Melilla which was 130 miles. We went to a fort in Melilla and we walked around it. That same night we went and walked around the caves. We have been to the beach a lot and have also walked to Morocco. Morocco is a beautiful place and everybody would like it. We walked around the market and I saw a humungous tuna head and tail that was separated. We also saw chickens, bunnies and pigeons. There were also alive baby tortoises that were climbing on top of each other to try and get out of the box. I had a lady come up to me and do my sarong which Moroccan lady’s wear on their heads and also to cover their shoulders. They had huge pieces of corn on the cob.

We tried to cross to Cartagena but we turned around because Livvy, mummy and me didn’t like it.  We had about 30 knots of wind at one point.

The next day Marhia and Theo Skyped us and we talked to them. For the next day we went to the beach for a whole day. In the morning we left and we were going to do a night sail to Cabo de gata. On mummy’s night watch she saw a red moon she was going to take a foto of it but by the time she had got it working it had turned orange. We arrived at 2:00 in the morning into Cabo de gata. When we woke up we walked around the boat as it was so calm and saw an octopus lying on top of our chain. Then the octopus moved and swam along on top of our anchor. The same day we moved to Garrucha and on the way I saw a flying fish and then daddy spotted an ocean sunfish. When we got in the marinero called coco helped us to get in because he was our old marinero friend.

We stayed in Garrucha for one day and then the next we moved to and anchorage near a place called mazarron. The day after we stayed in that anchorage until the afternoon and then moved onto a different anchorage. In the anchorage near mazarron Daddy, Livvy and I went swimming. When we got to the other anchorage I jumped of the front of the boat and into the sea. As soon as we were all awake we moved to Cartagena. Mummy went shopping and she met up with our old friends called Niel and Gail. After we had a little talk with them we then went to the swimming pool that was a free entry because we were in the Marina. In the pool daddy started to talk to these people who had a child. I became friends with the child and her name was Chloe. There was also another little girl who was French and her name was Rose. When we had finally went back to the boat we had to get ready to go out for dinner with Niel and Gail. The dinner wasn’t that nice.

As soon as I woke up we had to leave because we were going to Ibiza. We had to do a night sail. When we were sailing we had lots of memories come back to us for example Tim (which is one of daddy’s friends) crossed with us across to Ibiza the first time we did it. The next day we arrived in Ibiza and me and Livvy went swimming and we kept jumping in of the side and the front together. After that day we then moved to Santa Ponsa on Mallorca. We stayed there for two days. When we arrived we had a nightmare setting the anchor. At 2:00 in the morning the anchor started to drag. Livvy and I got up to help and we did. I started to panic a little and then I calmed my self down. The same day but in the afternoon daddy, Livvy and I all went snorkelling near some rocks and we swam all the way to a beach and met some people who were on holiday.

In the morning we went to Soller and anchored. Once we knew we weren’t going anywhere Livvy and I went swimming. The next morning mummy phoned the Marina to ask if they had any space they said yes so we went in. When we had settled in Livvy and I asked if we could go to the beach and mummy and daddy said we could. Daddy came in swimming with us and we saw these two English girls with a blow up unicorn and we became friends with them and their names were Phoebe and Poppy. We played on the blow up unicorn and played in the water with them as well. This morning I was really excited because it was my birthday and I was turning ten. I got lots of presents for my birthday and they were: a pair of slippers, a new iPad cover, two new books, a word search book, bubbles, a camera and its case, a DVD called sing, a birthday badge, a fountain pen, a calligraphy pen and a lovely bracelet from these lovely people who had two dogs. We went to the beach and met this other girl called Aria.

The very next morning we asked if we could go to the beach and we could. We were going to the beach to meet Phoebe and Poppy to play with them. We were about to get out when we saw them standing by the water shouting our names. They didn’t bring their unicorn but we still had fun. The next day we did the exact same thing apart from Phoebe and Poppy weren’t with us. In the morning we moved to a place called Pollenca. This is the place when I steered out and lots of water aeroplanes kept flying over our mast. When we had anchored Livvy, daddy and I all jumped into the sea. The next morning we set set off to go to Menorca. As soon as we were comfortable Livvy, daddy and I all went ashore and did a surprise to Grace and Sarah. They came aboard and had some drinks and then before it got to windy mummy took them back to shore and when she was still there we hooked out a inflatable donut.

This morning we had moved to Mahon and sailed most of the way. The next day daddy taught us how to use a magnifying glass to burn wood. He also started chatting to some people and one group asked us to come on board his boat that is like a pirate ship. We went and had a look around and then at 9:00 at night we went on board again but this time with his crew and we made a new friend and his name is Badger and he is fourteen. There was a knot competition and it was split in two parts one was the bowline and the other was a figure of eight. I did the bowline from my boat and a 19 year old girl was for the boat we were on. Olivia did the figure of eight and taught Badger how to do it and then he was the competitor for the boat we were on and Olivia was for our boat. I won the bowline and  Olivia and Badger had a tie. The winners got a bit of chocolate and so did the rest of the crew.

Mahon- We went out to anchor and we went swimming. There was a little boat with some children on and we swam over to them with the doughnut and said hello. We became very good friends. The next afternoon we went doughnut ting with them and their names are Fred, George and Indy and we also went at 47 knots. The same night we met these other people with twins on board and they invited us over for some drinks. Their names were Essen, Malcolm, Dylan and Melody. A couple of days after we caught up with Grace Clifton, Sarah and Tony. Before we had dinner with them we walked along the marina edge and looked at all the big boats and Sarah kept saying that she preferred to be on big motor boats instead of on sailing because a sailing boat gets rocked easily and big motor boats don’t. We went to this lovely place for dinner and the waiter kept calling me a Princess and I ordered all the meals, drinks and desserts as well.

Sardinia- A couple of days later we left Mahon and went to Sardinia. We arrived late next morning in Cala Seta which is a place we stayed in for a bit last year. The next morning Ian and Lorraine came over in Cuffysark and we took loads of pictures as they were coming in to the bay. Daddy, Livvy and I went in swimming to have a look at their anchor to see if it was dragging. Us three swam over and we all had hugs because we hadn’t seen them in a long time. Mummy came over in the dinghy and we stayed for lunch and also dinner because we had a lot of things to catch up on. A couple of days after there was another English boat that came in and it was a catamaran from Suffolk like us. They were part of the cruising association so we found out their names and they were Alistair and Sue. Their boat was called Yoyo. That night we were having a BBQ and Ian and Lorraine were coming so we invited them to the BBQ with us. As we were finding a spot Livvy and I were thinking of things to do. When Daddy had set up the BBQ Ian and Lorraine arrived and straight after it was Alistair and Sue. Meanwhile I was looking for some sticks to make a stick house. There was a naughty dog who kept coming to us. As we were eating a horse rider came along the beach on his horse and he let us stroke him.

Malfitano- In the morning I steered the boat out of the anchorage whilst Mummy, Daddy and Livvy were pulling up the anchor. At one point I had steered us into a shallow patch and I didn’t even know! Ian went fishing and so did Daddy and Livvy. I would have gone fishing as well but I didn’t have a rod. It was a bit of a long sail to Malfitano. When Cuffysark and Arctic had got in Ian, Daddy, Livvy and I all went swimming. Daddy and I went snorkelling and I saw a fried egg JELLYFISH.

Pula- After we had breakfast we set of to go to Pula. As soon as the engine went off Daddy, Livvy and I all jumped in to the sea and went swimming. Daddy got out very quickly but Livvy and I swam over to check Ian and Lorraine’s anchor for them. When we had got back to the boat we played with the doughnut.

Cagliari- We couldn’t keep up with Cuffysark as he was using both of his engines and we were only using our one. That day we walked up and into a bit of the old town. We didn’t bring any water so we were really thirsty. We went into a big church and we went down and into a place with quarts coffins of kings a people that were important. We went into a little restaurant and got drinks. When we had finished we got ice-cream and started to walk back to the boat. That night a big 70 foot boat came in next to us and we helped him in.

Vilasimius- We saw the Americas cup racing boats and we saw team UK. Daddy looked up who was on the team UK boat and he told us that it was Sir Ben Ainsley so we got in the dinghy and went and got his autograph. Here is a photograph of his autograph. Every time he came out to practice racing we waved to him and he always waved back. We also went on his boat and had our photo taken with him and his team. When the proper racing happened Ian and Lorraine took us out on Cuffysark to watch the racing and we took videos and photos. We had made some flags into the English flag to wave for them.

Africa on our port bow..

Gibraltar on our starboard

27 knots on the nose at one point in rather large swells.

Playing Tag Rugby In Gibraltar. I was really glad when the girls took my place in the game… Thanks John and Theo for the invite.

This year has been a really uneventful time so far. We left Cartagena in May and soon had the usual issues with the boat after thinking everything was fine. Having sorted the various issues we moved onto Almerimar to stock up on our now dwindling spares!.

The windlass, having been a sturdy work horse for the whole of last year was now needing a couple of new oil seals and you guessed it, they are no longer made by the company who produced it! It’s so old it’s now obsolete and the only spares available for it was a new gypsy which we luckily don’t need (yet). So once again we search the Internet for what we require but it opens up a whole new world…..suffice to say, we dig out the old seal rendering the windlass useless completely now and take its remains to a chandlery. They say they can get one in for us the following day so huge sighs of relief all round. A new windlass to replace the current one would set us back another €1500 plus vat so a couple of new seals at €30.00 total was much better for morale. All fitted and overhauled and another sigh of relief that it was an easier fix than having to fit a whole new unit.

We await weather window to get us up to Gibraltar and see that we can get going in a few days time. Away we go, hoping to do it in 2 longish jumps of 70 miles a day. The sea state is lumpy and soon 3 of the crew are looking less than happy and a rather dull shade of green. Luckily no one succumbed to the motion but morale was a little flat and I asked how they thought they would manage in the Atlantic with the motion the same for days and weeks on end, all positive replies came back but it’s a real concern for me. Being the only one that seems to have an iron constitution in any sea state I wonder how forcing children to eat and drink whilst being ill would work long term. Most of our friends say it takes 3 days to get into the swing of the routine and to get over the sickness BUT if it’s not gone after those 3 days then it’s with you for the whole trip. As an adult you know you need to eat and drink and that you have to do it no matter how rough you feel but as a child it’s really hard to force them to do it. The consequences of not being able to make them do those things is dehydration, having had that myself I know it’s a really debilitating problem and one that is extremely hard to conquer on land let alone miles out to sea. I leave that thought for another day…..

Eventually we settle down and everyone manages to eat something and keep it in place! Phew. We anchor outside Caleta De Valez and settle down for the night.

Morning arrives and we up anchor and head off to Gibraltar again. As predicted the wind picks up steadily as we approach the straits until we have a force 7 (28knts +)  on our nose and a sea that is now crashing over the bow and causing the drainage holes to work hard for once. The anchor rocks in its cradle and Jessica becomes avid at ensuring it is still in place every time we burrow into the sea. We make very slow progress so decide to try to ease off a direct route and use the wind to our advantage instead. It takes us way off course but we get a much calmer ride. At least we aren’t in difficulty like a German boat ahead. He is calling a mayday saying he has engine trouble…..he has sails so not sure why it’s a mayday. I would say it’s because he came tanking passed us on route with his engine on going way over 7.5 knots, so think he is likely to be out of fuel! He gets a tow in from the salvamento boat which is going to be rather expensive, no free rides here.

We drop into the bay off Gibraltar and reflect on the passage. Another successful trip with no mishaps.

We awake to our friends in the bay and have joyous reunions before saying long goodbyes to them too. They are both heading back to their homelands, Maritha and Rainer our companions since Benodet in 2016 are heading back to Sweden and Duncan and Pat who we sailed with lots in 2017 are going back to the Uk. Strong friendships that will not be broken because of distance but will be enhanced for waiting to be reunited again in the future, in who knows where.

One reason for us to come into Gibraltar was to get the life raft serviced. We book it with a company and head into a Marina for them to collect it. They return the next day with my life jacket, which needed a new gas canister but no life raft. Not a good sign. It did not stay up for the time it was supposed to so we need a new one. Great. We do some research and are disappointed to note that considering how we are in such a major port that there is not really an array of products to choose from. All require waiting for an order. We place it and are told it will be 2-3 weeks. So we drop out to anchor again and wait. We school the children and enjoy the location although the water is sub zero even though the sun is out. It is nowhere near the lovely temperature we had last year in the Balearic Islands. It soon becomes a bit boring. We swap off anchor into a Marina for a few days then come back out again, just to give us a different experience.

The anchorage is rather busy, especially at night. It’s on a major route for smugglers. We are awoken on more than one occasion to a rib right by the side of the boat with men in as well as cargo. You can hear their radio chattering as well as their voices jabbering away in Spanish. They use the boat to hide from the radar of customs and police. I get fed up when they get Olivia scared and ask Howard if I can beam them with our spotlight. He says to leave well alone as we are a bit vulnerable here on anchor. It goes on for hours and our sleep is broken and erratic. On the second busy night, we hear the same engine noise as the previous night and know it’s going to be another long broken night again. There is even more traffic tonight but then we hear larger engines. This means customs or guardia are out too and suddenly we hear shots being fired. 5 or 6 shots ring out above the noise of the outboards, then all goes quiet. You see boats up on the beach dropping off cargo then a mad dash back to whence they came. 2 days later a body washes up on the beach…..whose side was it from? We don’t know. It is rather worrying to think we are innocent bystanders in a huge net of corruption sitting here in this bay. Although we are Kevlar reinforced that only goes as far as the cockpit so the aft cabin is vulnerable to shots should they go astray. Never did I think we would be having to worry about such a thing in this part of the EU.

The life raft is still not here. The grab bag has arrived with the food etc but not the raft. We await news to see what has happened but it’s not looking good. They cannot find the raft so another needs to be sent. We ask if this means another 3 weeks as we are itching to get on. Howard says that if it is not here by Friday then we shall cancel the order and get another from somewhere else. As much as we believe in destiny, it’s really rather boring having been here for well over a month and a half now. Please let it arrive…

We have made a decision though. We shall not be doing the Atlantic this year, we are heading back into the med and have booked into Sicily for winter. Once this decision had been reached we all felt a huge relief. We had discussed it on numerous occasions and although most were willing in spirit the consensus was to leave it another year and to get some long passages under our belts  to see if the Atlantic was ever going to be in our grasp. The longest we have managed was crossing biscay for us. So….

We are going to try to do the North African coast, see some of Morocco and its culture then head straight onto Ibiza. That’s about a 350 mile sail. We thought we would do some long hops as we have done the Balearics already. From there onto Sardinia, another 350 odd miles then drop into Trapani and on to see the aeolian islands. Jessica would like to see them for her birthday in  mid August so we have to get our act together. We shall then be heading into Licata for winter. All of these plans are subject to weather, boat behaving, life raft arriving and our health being with us. Fingers crossed all of them remain good, if not then as a very good friend of ours says “a sailors life is written in sand. With the next wave it is all gone and you re-evaluate”.

Fathers Day breakfast…thank you girls..

The decks getting a bit warm…

October 2017 – Cartagena.

A year to the actual day since we descended on this lovely city and here we are again. One of our favourite places especially for its people, culture and amenities. It feels just like we have come home, a bit like putting on a pair of your favourite shoes. It’s comforting and reassuring, fits snuggly in the right places and gives you support when you need it. We wonder how many faces we will see that we recognise.

First things first, we need to get the girls settled back into a routine whilst we are here. We go back to the school to collect the necessary paperwork which will enable them to attend whilst we are here. We shall be returning back to the UK soon though so don’t need them to start straight away, not much point putting them to disrupt them and the class when we take them out again.  The girls and I amble up to the school taking in the familiar surroundings and searching the spots where familiar old faces might be – Jose the lottery ticket seller was not in his spot. We find he is now working further along the street from the chap who has now taken his spot. Such a shame as we see not one familiar face until we get to Colegio Patronato Sagrado Corazon de Jesus – the girls school. Such a warm and vibrant welcome from the administrator in the office, followed by huge hugs and kisses from the teachers in the school. Whoops of “Olivia” and “Jessica” ring out through the hallways as old classmates see them there. The headmistress was consulted and we were instructed to bring the girls the very next day. I tried to explain in my broken Spanish about our journey back to the UK and that it would be best to wait until we had returned, all I wanted was the forms. No forms needed – start tomorrow….Something was lost in the translation – but I did manage to get a pass until after the weekend which gave us a bit of grace to get school clothes sorted for them both again. Routine then takes over – school starts at 09:00 so we are up and sorted ready to leave the boat by 08:30 and collect them at school close 14:00. They do not have a lunch break as such just eat it during play at 11:30. This gives Howard and I a few hours to get the boat tasks done without interfering with time to be with the girls. So free time is taken up once again with us getting intimately acquainted with all the nooks and crannies Arctic Fern has to offer and there are lots of them!. It’s amazing how those 4 hours disappeared everyday all too quickly. Some days one of us would be left behind to finish up whatever it was we were working on to collect the girls and do the bakery run. Davos’ is the best bakery we have found on our journey thus far. It’s a family run bakery located right near to the school. A fabulous place that makes you feel part of the community, learning your name and even your daily order. We used to arrive and it would be in a bag ready for us to collect, always with extra that we had not ordered; Fabulous service and great tasting bread and cakes.

No sooner had we settled into a routine and it was disrupted with a trip back to the UK to spend some time with family. We knew it would be cold but hadn’t appreciated how we had become accustomed to the warmer climate. As we stepped off the plane it was freezing, although it was 23:30 at night. It was like being in a freezer. I was lucky as I had the coats, Howard and the girls however had nothing but short sleeved tops on. Ryanair in their infinite wisdom only allow families to sit together if you pay for the privilege, I was sat at the front of the plane so exited through the front steps, Howard and the girls were sat near the rear and so exited at the rear steps. I quickly saw them on the steps and had coats and jumpers ready for them when they reached me. The bus was packed to the point of us not fitting in; someone had to urge the rest of the bus to bunch up so we could actually get in. Welcome back!

Luggage was not an issue as we had packed light and we were soon one of a few thousand people waiting in the queues to be seen through passport control. Grandad was called and told we were through and were making our way outside.  The girls were eager to get their first glimpse of Grandad in over a year, they didn’t have to wait long. We eventually got back to the house passed 01:00 which meant it was 02:00 for us being an hour ahead. The girls must be totally bushed, I know I am and looking at H he is too. We flop into bed eventually and fall sound asleep.

17 days seems like you will have time to do a thousand and one things and see everyone that you want to. I can tell you the reality is you are not able to fit everyone and everything in. In fact it was an impossible task. We were staying miles from our old home so any journey already had an extra hour before you could see anyone. Not only this, but we had a different kind of constraint that we put on ourselves. Grandad was due for surgery in the second week we were back and we wanted to be close so that we could be on hand to help with keeping the house chores up to date so Grandma could concentrate on being by his side as much as possible. I have to say that this upset some very close friends who really wanted to see us, and us them, but it was just impossible to do it all in the time we had available. I am really sorry about the upset that this caused but it was unavoidable.

The girls did manage to briefly see old class mates when they went to the school and spoke to their old classes. It was lovely to see how much the children had changed and matured – some even asked who Jessica actually was, whilst others from older classes whispered that it was the girls who had gone off to sail around the world. It was brought home to me even more as we were walking to the school at home time; these people’s lives had not really changed much on the face of it, the same faces were still walking the same path to collect their children from the same school, yet here we were on this path for the first time in 16 months and having been through 4 different countries and countless individual new places within those countries. Hopefully we are doing the right thing, people forever tell me we are but I often wonder what their lives would be if we had stayed as these people had. Anyway, we were waylaid by people wanting to ask how we were and what we had been doing, to the point I did not even get to collect the person we went to collect. I was the one who ended up being collected and taken to the school to talk to the teachers. One child from Olivia’s old class had even said to her mum “why can’t I have an exciting life like Olivia”. The problem is that that your constant moving and seeing new places becomes the norm for you so the excitement can drop off if you let it.

We did have a couple of important presentations to attend whilst we were here making our schedule even tighter. Our club that we belonged to and helped us get into sailing the East Coast of the UK had awarded Jessica and Olivia their Endeavour Trophy at the annual awards ceremony. The commodore Keith and his lovely wife Gilly invited us for lunch and presented the award to the 2 girls. They were extremely chuffed although a bit worried about how we were going to get the trophy back to Spain and then back to the UK for the next person to have it. Luckily Grandma and Grandad N have kept it in pride of place in one of their bookcases in the UK so it can be collected ready for the next year’s recipients.

We had a few days with family, catching up with nephews and nieces, brothers and sister in laws and then it was time to leave. It was extremely sad to say goodbye to close family but harder for the girls to say goodbye to grandparents.  I believe that Grandparents play an integral part in a child’s life. The relationship with them is very different to that of a parent. They can be told things and asked things that are important to them without the fear of repercussions. I loved the time with my dad’s parents as I grew up ( my mums parents emigrated in 1977 to the USA and only returned when I was 15). I continued to see them on a regular basis as an adult, they were an important part of my life so I knew how the girls were feeling. They too have great closeness with all 4 of their grandparents and it’s really hard to have to see them say goodbye and the heartache that it causes them. They don’t know when they are physically going to see them again but thank goodness for today’s technology that face to face conversations can be done using skype and FaceTime etc.

Back in the warmth and time to get ready for Christmas and the festivities. Christmas day saw having dinner with 51 people at the side of the marina. The girls had made the table decorations, we had been in charge of cooking 51 baked potatoes in our on board oven ( not a mean feat when the oven only has one shelf in it), others had taken charge of cooking the suckling pig and turkey crowns. Everyone bought either a main side or a dessert. The cruising community had rallied and made a real effort. It was tiring but fun. The girls had great fun playing the games Lorraine had planned as well as talking, dancing and playing with new made friends or anyone who was prepared to play with them.