Road tripping to Gibraltar. Making a huge decision about the work on the boat. Leaving Almerimar for rainy England. Visiting family & friends.
I don’t know where to start, so much has happened lately. Let’s try to start where I ended the last time. We made a trip to Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory, on Spain’s south coast, to get our epoxy layer for the haul (VAT free). It was worth the trip and the shop owner was very friendly but I never wanted to leave a place so badly. I can’t believe that people can live on this small rock to safe a few pennies. Madness!
Furthermore we took some well deserved days off to watch The Six Nations on television. For the people not knowing what this is, it is an annual international rugby union competition, and I love it! Very nice to have a drink in the boozer, wearing green, and cheer for the Irish while I am surrounded by the English in the pub.
There is something that I didn’t tell you in my last blog, that is that David agreed a sale on our house. For the non English people, this procedure differs in terms of commitment. As a buyer you are not committing until you actually exchange. Which means a buyer can pull out just before the transaction, with very little costs involved. Meaning, agreeing a sale is worth nothing until the money is in your bank account. For a seller it is a bit like holding your but cheeks together until it’s sold.
But you have to act like it will sell, and stay positive, meaning we had to go down to England to pack our belongings and store it. Luckily (not sure about this one) the buyer would like to buy the house with all our furniture. I am flattered about the case that someone loves our interior but I am also going to miss our own things which we carefully collected in all those years. We are literally left with nothing and we did feel a bit like students again packing our personal things and driving it to The Isle of Man to store it with David’s brother, Stephen. We stayed a couple of days with him and had a very nice time filled with lovely walks and laughs.
After the IOM we went to Brighton for a birthday party from our friends Darren & Anna. If you would know them, you know that you are not capable to act like a normal human being the day after. Actually, it takes about a week to recover from a visit to them. Great party it was!
On our way to Brighton we had a quick visit into the Marine Super Store in Portsmouth. There are a couple of things that we really need, and one of them is proper sailing gear. Bottom line; you need to transfer money from your savings account to your current account to walk out of the door in this shop. I don’t think I have ever spent more than two hours in a shop and never were the numbers so high that I wished I robbed a bank before going in. Anyway, we are extremely happy with our purchases and can not wait to experience 45 knots and some spray over the hood! Bring it on!
So, and what about the boat I can hear you think? Well, David has done so much hard work that he decided to give himself a little present for when we are coming back. The copper coat and the polishing will be finished by the yard. How nice is that, we can go back straight into the water!!
At the moment we are enjoying our home. We are making beautiful walks with Floyd and are having cosy dinners with the wood burner on in the background. Life is not too bad at the moment but I do miss the boat a lot! It is not very clear when we will go back to Ker Marie, it depends on a few things, hopefully soon, so now we are just enjoying life on land!
Love,
Kelly
Sailing Ker Marie 