A life on the ocean waves

Jack, Eloise and George on their "pirate ship" Victoria was craned back into the water last week – all 20 tons of her, with shiny paint work, fresh antifoul, and brand-new rigging – an impressive and slightly nerve-wracking spectacle.   The following day, we said goodbye to life on dry land and moved on board.   It was a momentous day for all of us, as not only were we beginning boat life, but our purchase was complete, and Victoria was finally ours!   That morning, we were so busy saying fond farewells to our hosts and their dogs, and packing up our many possessions, which were sprayed all around our Airbnb accommodation, that we completely forgot to acknowledge the final use of some land-based normalities.   Goodbye microwave, thanks for making our porridge so quickly.   Goodbye wonderful washing machine, on hand whenever we needed you.   Goodbye flat beds, where no rolling waves could disturb us.   And goodbye trusty loos which flush without a fuss; no water pumps, v

The past two weeks have flown by and we are almost ready to make the big move from landlubbers to seafarers.   Angus, Jim and Karin have been working from dawn until dusk on the good ship Victoria, and the junior crew and I have been visiting every afternoon to check on their progress, do a bit of sanding and painting, and most importantly… deliver ice creams.   The boat is out of the water at Half Moon Bay, and although we have a good set of steps with a handrail to climb on board, it is still far from relaxing having children hopping around on a boat at that height.   It’s one thing to fall off a moored boat into the water, but quite another to fall on to concrete 3 metres below.   The plan is to relaunch on Monday, clean and “move in” on Tuesday, and move on board for good on Wednesday.   Once we’re all living on her, we will be in a much better position to share the boat jobs and get the children (and me!) involved in what is going on. Jack, Eloise and George sanding the jock

George on deck! Yesterday afternoon I was working away on Victoria in the glorious sunshine, with her current owners, Jim and Karin.   The previous day had been a sanding day, which involved several noisy power tools, and made chatting almost impossible.   The painting day, in contrast, was wonderfully peaceful; a much better environment for conversation.   We were discussing our families; who likes sailing and who doesn’t, and Jim was amiably sharing his immense knowledge of all-things boating with me.   I had just swapped over with Angus, who had taken our three overheated cheeky monkeys for afternoon ice-cream followed by a cooling swim.   (The options for us this week are childcare / homeschool or boat painting.   You can probably guess who is spending the most time in each role!)   An old friend of Jim and Karin’s came over to Victoria to have a chat, which in true Kiwi style was a long one, meanwhile we continued to cover the mast, boom and spinnaker poles with a fresh coat

Our plane from San Francisco touched down at Auckland airport at 0530 yesterday, and here we are in New Zealand.   Brexit may still be in the balance, but Wexit has finally happened!   It’s hot here, as we knew it would be, but it’s still a bit of a shock to the system – and predictably our delightfully funny Jack has declared that he “doesn’t like hot places..” – so we have had a fairly gentle time acclimatising to the temperature and our jetlag.   The time difference from San Francisco is only five hours, so it shouldn’t be too bad, but bizzarely, both Angus and our shuttle bus driver seem to think that the fact we have lost a day is also significant in the jetlag equation.   I still maintain this is totally irrelevant.. Marcus, Tim, Robyn, Eloise, George and Jack We were incredibly lucky with our flight.  Firstly, we weren’t charged us for our extra checked bag, which should have cost 180 USD.  Secondly, the cabin crew had the foresight to realise that their night flig