On The Move Again

It Is Time

When we left South Africa it was heartbreaking, but we were on our way to Barcelona with our whittled-down possessions to begin a new phase of our lives. We arrived in Gothica a little shattered but clutching our dream. We quickly settled in and started a different life in a new country. Leaving Spain in June when the borders opened was easy enough as we were activating the dream which had been on hold during lock-down. At that stage we had no ties, we were merely leaving a city and country in which we had created many new wonderful memories. Biding our time as we forged forward, step-by-step, attempting to get to Croatia and collect GypsyDjango. Enough said you know the story.

Leaving Croatia was again part of the planned journey and one of much excitement and trepidation for the ocean crossings ahead of us. Along the way, we collected new memories and experiences from new countries to new friends to hurricanes. Just before November, we reached our destination, a return to Spain after 1452 nautical hours spent at sea since leaving Croatia in September.

Exhausted and thrilled at our experience we tied our mooring lines in Arenys de Mar to grab a brief winter respite. It was such a welcome delight to have chosen the perfect marina. Club Nautic d’Arenys de Mar turned out to be in a perfect location just outside of Barcelona, with welcoming friendly and professional staff who helped us ease into our new temporary home. Here we began a new chapter, one we feel that left a mark on Arenys.

How quickly you can settle into a routine, create friends, and set down roots. We have had many hours of fun and a lot of laughter and felt safe in this new home. The support of friends was fantastic which we, unfortunately, put to test when Kevin ended up in hospital after injuring his back trying to take out a tree on his bike and not only was he rushed to hospital by Toni but Toni also handled all the intricacies of our Spanish medical aid. And then our wonderful doctors down our pontoon provided strong pain medication after much fussing over Kevin, the same friends who provided open access to their car whenever we needed it. And how we valued the surprise pop-in visits for coffee by others.

But it might be the exceptional barrister, not the captivating company ;-).

Five months is the briefest of time in the scale of life but, maybe due to the contrast of our nomadic life, it seemed so much more to us. It made us cling so much tighter. Having spent the previous nine months mostly alone and on the move was not without its challenges. Perhaps as humans, we are not designed that way and we crave stability and consistency? Which makes it that much harder to overcome natural barriers in order to go searching for adventure.

But overcome barriers we must and with our winter contract in the marina ending on the 23rd of March, it was time to move on. We were eagerly watching the weather and cautiously keeping an eye on the news for any developing pre-Easter lockdown measures. Our plan was to set sail for Mallorca on Friday afternoon with two of our very good, recently attained Spanish friends, joining us for the trip across. This was of course was a rather crafty attempt to ease into the separation anxiety. As we have seen though, with everything around covid, plans are made to be changed. We woke on Wednesday morning to the bad news that the Balearics would be locking down their perimeter from Friday morning.

Decision time; do we leave this afternoon or we are stuck waiting out the restrictions for three weeks - or who knows how much longer?

In a frenzy, we squashed the planned three days of preparation into a morning and by 3pm we had departed the Marina. Unfortunately minus our friends, or maybe, fortunately... And so, our wonderful neighbor untied our mooring lines, setting us free from our safe winter haven. We hoisted our sails and set our course for Mallorca, and then the dam unlocked and my tears started flowing.

I tried to hold on to the excitement of what lay ahead but it was too soon. Arenys had become our ‘home away from home’ and the separation of leaving our good friends and the people in the marina behind was harder than I expected. It brought back the sad memories of leaving Cape Town all over again.

During our 24 hours of sailing, watching the day disappear into the night, we were rewarded with an almost full moon and a perfect ceiling of stars. We were perfectly alone most of the time thanks to Covid minimizing the traffic to the Balearics. Our quiet isolated crossing was however delightfully interrupted with a pod of dolphins surfing our wake for close on ten minutes and a lonely sea turtle which we, fortunately, managed to avoid. This to me felt like a positive sign all would be well on the journey.

So here we are self-isolating in a little cala and watching out for the civil Guardia just in case they decide to try and evict us. (Not quite sure where we would go ;-). With the beauty of Mallorca and the excitement of new experiences, it’s near impossible to stay down emotionally. It helps though that we are creating new plans to meet up with many of our new friends after the islands open up again post-Easter. The best part is that some are sailing across, some will be flying, and some coming to collect their SUP board which was forgotten about in our hasty departure. Of course, this could have been the plan all along, did I mention we were crafty? Yes, it’s easier for the Spanish to catch a quick flight but I don’t understand why the useless South Africans aren’t. After all - it takes longer to sail across from Barcelona than to fly from South Africa. Don’t make me sail to South Africa to come and fetch you!

And finally remembering that this journey crossing the Mediterranean to Croatia is only just beginning. In the meantime, we will explore new bays on the three Balearics Islands and so far, I have been blown away by the natural splendor of Mallorca. We have dropped anchor and are taking the time to breathe and savor the anticipation of what’s next.

#jacioutthere #sailinggypsydjango