Once upon a time there was a little girl

Once upon a time there was a little girl living in a marina. After living on board and being on the move for most of her life, this little girl, Clea, became very independent. She goes from boats to boats, knocking on their hull and having a chat. If she disappears for too long I go looking for her as we never know when you live on the waters edge. It is how, one day, I found Clea on “Magic”, a house boat at the beginning of our jetty. She was sitting having tea and cake and a good conversation with Cathy and Mike, the owners. Since, they became very good friends of hers and Clea goes in and out of Magic as she does on Merlin, our home. They also have a little dog called Gezmo, but nicknamed Gizzy by Clea. She goes and pats him, takes him for walks and plays endlessly with him. We find this great: the advantage of a pet, without the inconvenient!

Few weeks ago, they gave her a bike, so she could learn to ride, this is one thing the boat kids are not good at! Clea was so happy, going up and down the jetty with her bike, waking up sometimes at 5am to try some more riding. …until the day she fell into the river with it. She looked behind and didn’t think of stopping so she went for an unwanted swim in the river and the bike sunk in the mucky waters. Fortunately she let the bike go, as she was taught. Victor found it a few days later with a grapnel while he was practicing his surviving skills. After some needed oil treatment and a good shower the bike was Clea’s best friend again. She was more cautious and was only riding on the pavement. However, the other day she left her bike close to the edge of the jetty and went to pat Gizzy. She came back telling me that “her bike disappeared”. We are not too sure of what happened. It might have gone for another dip by itself when the wake from a City Cat shook our jetty. This time the grapnel didn’t do any magic and we are again looking for a cheap second hand bike!

Des que le vent soufflera ...

Il fut un temps où le vent décidait bien souvent pour nous. Trop de vent, une escale se prolongait. Pas assez de vent pouvait avoir le même effet. Nous n’avions ni calendrier et encore moins d’agenda. Il y a bien une horloge à bord, mais elle servait surtout à régler nos quarts ou bien à confirmer, si nos estomacs criaient famine, qu’il était bien l’heure de manger. C’est un sentiment terriblement libérateur que de se sentir ainsi exempt de toutes obligations professionelles, RDV importants ou contraintes temporelles.

Aujourd’hui, les semaines se suivent et commencent à avoir un air de ressemblance. Etonnamment, je m’y retrouve bien aussi! Ainsi, il n’est pas désagréeable de retrouver une certaine organisation et de s’y glisser doucement. L’école et les activités annexes sont là pour charpenter nos journées. Lundi, piscine à l’école pour Cléa et Footsie l’après midi pour Cléa et Felix (ai-je pensé à prendre leur ballon?).

Mardi, piscine à l’école pour Victor et Félix. Mercredi: bibliothèque à l’école pour tous (ne surtout pas oublier de ramener les livres lus), puis piscine pour les trois (est-ce que les trois paire sde lunettes et les trois bonnets sont bien dans leur sac?).

Jeudi, tiens on dirait qu’il n’y a rien de spécial ce jour là! Vendredi escrime pour tous et parfois barbeque des plaisanciers au parc d’à coté. Samedi matin, je donne mes cours de français (j’ai tout de même réussi à oublier mes préparations la semaine dernière). Le dimanche arrive déjà bien trop vite se remplissant de-ci de-ca sans que l’on se rende compte que nous sommes à nouveau lundi!

Aujourd’hui, le vent ne nous dicte presque plus rien. On l’apprécie toutefois toujours autant, notamment pour nous rafraîchir lors de ces journées tropicales ou pour nous annoncer qu’un gros orage se prépare et cela quelque soit le jour de la semaine.

(Footsie lundi au parc juste avant l'orage)

En Garde!

Une salle de sport qui propose de l’escrime pour les enfants et les parents en meme temps + un prix modere + 3 enfants super motives pour aller mettre en pratique ce qu’ils voient dans Star Wars ou jouer aux Mousquetaires + une activite que j’ai toujours voulu essayer = d’excellentes (et evidentes) raisons pour aller s’entrainer tous ensemble avec un grand sourire (cache sous le masque).

Specials

We subscribed to few of these popular websites offering amazing prices on all kind of thing (…haircuts for example!).  It is a great opportunity to try new things, like our kite surf lessons a few months ago, to enjoy outings we wouldn’t do, like our 7 course meal for my birthday, or to feel proud about a really good deal, like my boot camp classes which were only $20 for 20 sessions. Yesterday, I used one of these vouchers to do something I always wanted to do: a photographic course to be able to leave the automatic mode and try to be more creative. The botanical garden was offering a perfect setting and our instructor was so enthusiastic that I learnt a lot and did some shootings with my camera that I am quite proud of (check the gallery).

I still need to practice a lot but most of all I am having fun!

Reactions and inspiration

I went to the hairdresser earlier this week and he was so surprised to hear that I wasn’t blow-drying my hair so I had to explain my situation: I am living on a boat so energy can be an issue, have three kids so time can be an issue and just don’t bother using an electric machine blowing hot air when the ambient temperature is 25+deg. He was so amazed to hear about my travels and told me he never heard anything like that and didn’t know people could do something like this. It made me think back of our project and some of the reactions we’ve had since the idea popped out of my mouth in 2003.

But first why sailing the high seas? I always wanted to go sailing for an extended period, it feels right and at sea I feel really myself. Coming from a place far away from the sea, I started sailing quite late. However, I dreamt a lot and read few inspiring books (for example Joshua Slocum, Bernard Moitessier). I always loved the sea and studying marine biology was may be just a good excuse to spend more time at sea. Then getting married to a recognized South African sailor was even a greater bonus as he didn’t have to be convinced for more than ½ sec that travelling by sea would be something to do together in a near future.

Once the idea was out it got stuck in our mind and we started telling our friends and family. Some weren’t surprised. They were very supportive and encouraged us. Others were laughing, telling us we would never manage all the organisation such a project required. For them we were just big dreamers. There was also a third category. These people were shocked by such a decision. We met for example a lady at a dinner party at a sailing friend’s house and she was horrified that we could sell our house, take our kids way from a good private school and not think of their education and our retirement. Such reaction reinforced even more our idea of going sailing, all together, for few years.

Once we agreed on setting sails, it was just a succession of different steps : selling the business, finding the boat (ok, the project was deviated here because we found a hull to build and not a finished boat), selling the house, getting lighter and lighter and living more and more our dream. Along the way, we  met very inspiring people, Joe and Peggie De Kock, Peter Muisic on Shoestring and the crew of Mahi Mahi. They prooved to us that we were doing the right thing and that it wasn’t so difficult, complicated or even dangerous. A few local sailors were huge supporters of our project and helped us a lot (Alan on Derbigum, Alan on Alleycat and Mike and Muffie on Exta-Sea).

Victor showing his sailing skills on an improvised trimaran with Thomas Coville (now busy sailing the Volvo race) and Nick Leggatt (now busy sailing the Global Ocean Race).

Anyway, reactions before, during and after this trip were very different but most importantly, they didn’t change any of our motivation.

So, going back to this hairdresser who then knew a bit more about me, he decided that I was very wild and my haircut should reflect that! I should have taken a photo of the first "sculpture” he did of my hair using a pulsing (?) hair dryer. It was kind of very funky and I couldn’t recognized myself as I don’t see myself as wild, even with 40knt of wind. May be just a stubborn dreamer but I am not sure how this would reflect in a haircut!