It's a small world.

It’s a small world after all – or is it?

 

It turns out that at some point (unless you intend to spend the rest of your life cruising) that you have to make a decision between seeing the world and travelling the world. We had heard of many couples and families who set out for a cruise for a couple of years and then extended to 7 years, 14 years, indefinitely…..

 

You look at a world map and think right, we’ll go there, there and there, because it seems so easy. In Santander we met a couple from Stourhead, on the quayside at Ribadesella we met a couple from Creech St Michael_- maybe it is a small world?

 

People go to France for lunch, the Med for a couple of weeks and you can cross the Atlantic in less than a day in a plane and we can talk to people all over the world on the internet. The world is in more ways more accessible but there is still just as much of it.

 

We have now travelled over a thousand miles and stopped at nearly 30 places, on a European map it looks like a long way, on a world map our line is tiny. The sailors leaving Sables D’Olonne last month for the Vendee globe will circumnavigate the world and not set foot in a single country whilst we have heard of a cruiser who never spends less than 6 months in a place in order to explore it properly and several other boats who are moving at the same speed as us.

 

We did have plans involving the Atlantic crossing, some of you know we were looking forward to visiting Brazil particularly, we even had all our jabs before leaving. It turns out however that we are moving slowly, much slower than our excited planning imagined so decisions had to be made and Brazil will just have to wait for us to come and visit some other time.

 

In some places we have stayed longer than we’ve intended –, sheltering from poor weather, to attend a family funeral, for a safe tidal gate or for essential repairs but other times we have chosen to stay somewhere just a bit longer because we feel that there was something else we wanted to see or do. We have heard people describing places as soulless or ‘nothing there’ when they have passed through stopping only briefly but every time we have stayed somewhere and started wandering, we have found many beautiful places just round the corner. Marinas tend to be built for access and shelter rather than the view.

 

So time slips away and even though we have spent this time around the Bay of Biscay there are still places that we didn’t quite get to, areas we missed and would like to see on the way back. Would we like to cross the Atlantic? Yes, but not yet, not without some modifications to the boat, not with only 2 of us whilst the children are still so young. Would we make it across? Probably, the boat has done it before, would we make it safely back on the tougher return leg? Probably, but we don’t take risks with our home and children.

 

So what of the big adventure? Well, we set out to do something different, experience things as a family and have an adventure. We set out for 2-3 years to see how far we’d get and we’re doing that and having a fantastic time so here's to the New Year and an exciting and adventurous 2013!