Breakfast in January

Yesterday,  it was a beautiful day.   Warm,  so warm that we sat in the sunshine, in our cockpit and had breakfast.

Branko made  breakfast,  yum.

The cockpit

 I am not writing and sending pictures,  just to rub  you the wrong way.   But as a way to say,  how happy we  are to have  made these choices and that all the work we did and all the things we missed because of it,  makes these types of days even more  special - to us.   And,  well, wanted to include you all,  seeing that you are not here in person :-)

What are you all doing?

Marg.

Hi, its Sophie

Here in Spain my name is Sophia.  I think,  a sophisticated sounding name, with just a hint of voluptuousness - perfect for me, no? :-)

First, a brief , on my trip across  the ocean:

1) I slept and lived mainly in the centre of the salon table; my body supported by the fiddles (holding on when the going got rough.).

2) I enjoyed the company of  my good friend Anne - and we almost always, slept side by side.

3) Ummm that is pretty much it,  seems I slept allot and lost weight in doing so.

Holding on.

My friend Anne

Sleeping side by side.

Back to Spain.  Nothing  new really,  except  time seems  to slip away very quickly.   It is difficult to believe we have been here for over 4 months, and still we find each day different, fun and exciting. 

Reading up on currents

Short  stop in the sunbeam

I exercise each morning by running  back and forth, crazily, so I have been told -  from the bow to stern and repeat, repeat, repeat and...... repeat;  then a short scratch on the ropes (try hard no to be seen, or heard doing this) and back to my food (quick bite) and blanket for another twelve or so hours of sleep.

Exhausted  

  I often look out the window and sometimes sit on the bow watching life go by -

 I have been safe (so far) from the 'Top" marina cat who pushed me off the boat.  He surprised me!  I slipped and he gave me a one/two and then I was holding on for dear life,  one paw and one claw was all that was preventing me from yet  another swim (remember  Florida...),  when Branko (again) came to my rescue and chased him away.
 Mind you,  he was not afraid and stood on the shore watching...waiting..until the next time.
 I did not leave the interior for many weeks - until I um, totally forgot about it all :-)

On the bow

My bed - blanket

Yes, this is my scratching pad!

Thinking about life and sleeping

Salon table, where I used to sleep

Lets see,
 oh yes,  I had a  bath or  two (cannot remember how many..) when we first  arrived,  and  well, having never had one before I was  none  too happy.

 I was good though, I did not scratch  or fight, just hung there making allot of noise - but  no one came to my rescue;  and it  was quite  a racket.

Thankfully,  I have  not met up with "Top Cat" again nor had another bath since.  I keep  my paws crossed that, that  was the end of both.    Although, whenever I see the big tub, or another cat,  I remember, something, not  sure what,  but  something, and it tells me to run away, run away.

Talk soon
Sophia XXOO
P.S.  For those coming to visit, I no longer sleep on the table.

Now they have..

My feet have not yet met the water

What A Year It Was!

Quebec friends in Florida

I will always look back on 2011 as a great year.  It began in the Bahamas with old friends and ended in Spain with new ones, and it was all fun and adventure in between.  It was a year of achievement, learning and discovery.  We took risks, overcame challenges, and continued the adjustment to our new lives.  Most importantly, the year that was 2011 brought into sharp focus the very real opportunity that we have to live anywhere in the world that we wish to experience.

Gerri and Alan catching supper in Abacos

Shaking the Bahama beach sand out of their bathing suits

People, that's what can make a place truly memorable instead of merely beautiful.  The white sand beaches, palm trees and crystalline waters of the Bahamas might only have been for us a postcard memory but for the friends we made there.  Warm evenings spent at anchor having a few drinks with friends and fellow cruisers; catching lobsters among the reefs and grilling them on a driftwood bonfire made on an empty beach and warming ourselves by the dying flames as we watched billions of stars come out in the evening - that's how I remember the Bahamas.  

Kathy & Elsie on  cruise in the Sea of Abacos

Surprise visitors from Toronto....

....in Bermuda.

Beautiful Flores

The harbour in Horta

Bermuda, an improbably tiny speck of land in the middle of the nowhere in the Atlantic Ocean where you meet people excited by having completed their first ocean passage or by preparing for an even bigger one that will take them to a new continent.  The Azores, the crossroads where you meet and exchange stories with other ecstatic voyagers that have made the 3000 mile journey to get there, and where you meet the people that live on these mountainous, flower-covered islands that are genuinely happy to meet someone from Canada, a place to which so many of them have some connection.

Anne enjoying a quite day on the ocean

The Crossing, I will remember it as weeks of living on the heaving ocean, beautiful in the way that the few elements that comprise the seascape - wind, clouds, waves, sun, moon, and stars - can conspire to present something new to behold each day; sharing the thrill with Maggie and Anne of seeing a whale, dolphins, another boat, or even some large floating debris that might punctuate the vastness through which we were sailing; and of course the humbling experience of being on a tiny boat when the big ocean gets a little angry at the audacity of us being there.  In as much as it was a journey measured in miles, it was also a spiritual one, because if you lie on your deck a thousand miles from the nearest city lights on a calm, moonless night and look up at the clear sky with binoculars, you see among the billions of stars visible to the naked eye, billions more and know that you are still not seeing billions of others, you can't help but ask the oldest and shortest question in the history of humanity - why?

Europa Point

The European continent, the Old World where ancient history has shaped the land and its people, is where we have seen and touched things that people made well before the New World was ever discovered.  A huge milestone was dropping anchor in Portimao, Portugal, because it signified that we made it - we crossed the ocean in a boat that we practically built.  Also a big milestone was passing Europa Point on Gibraltar and entering the Mediterranean Sea because it will be our home and playground for the next few years and the achievement of a goal.

Terri and Drew in Mojacar

The girls having fun with paddles on the beach???

We closed out the old year celebrating with new friends that live here in Spain and have graciously invited us into their homes.  We hope to add them to our collection of "old friends" that will we see in the future when we move on to new destinations and they come to visit us.  We rang in the new year with cruising friends, both new and newer, which is all somehow appropriate.  When we were all together on New Year's Eve, a toast was made calling for 2012 to be a better year, but I felt that, for us, that was asking too much.  We could only hope that 2012 will be as good a year to us, our collection of friends, and to everyone reading this as was 2011.

A trip to Berja for an afternoon with some new Spanish friends.

Fumi and Yoshi

Fumi and Paqui

Tony and Maribel

 Branko