Boat kids at sunset, paddling from one boat to another. We spent a little over two months in the Balearics, starting at Formentera in the south and working our way north to Mallorca. A few words to describe our time there: kid boat flotilla, school, saharan dust, overtourism, pink bodies, rolly anchorages. Kid boat flotilla We started amassing the kid boats back in March in Gibraltar when we were moored a few slips away from Chris, Daria, and Jasper on RagDoll . We had mutual friends, we met more friends along the way, we created a WhatsApp group, and we started amassing in Formentera. The OG group (as the kids call it) was four boats, then it grew, and grew. By the time we all reached the all-around protected harbor of Port de Pollenca in northern Mallorca, there were at least 10 kid boats, Maybe even 12-14. Honestly, I lost track! We created WhatsApp offshoots, the kids had their own different conversation threads, sometimes we wished that Catran and Chris would start their own wat
Our active cruising season has finally started in earnest and it feels so good to be back on the water again, hopping from anchorage to anchorage, watching the weather, planning passages, and exploring new places. Since we left Sweden in July of 2021 we always followed the favorable weather and winds, so we never paused our active sailing. But once we arrived back in Europe we were suddenly faced with seasons again and, between the weather and off-boat travel plans, we ended up effectively pausing cruising for months. Now we're back at it and it is so good. (Pictures are completely out of chronological order.) Our little hidey-hole between Formentera and Ibiza. The entrance was a little hairy with maybe 10cm under our keep at the bar, but once inside we had pond-like conditions during some nasty weather. The kids took over this cave on the hillside and created their own domain, spending days there, including in the rain. Sunshine is back and we moved down to the main anchorage.
Meeting Positive Waves was surreal. We worked with the team at Boreal for over a year to configure the boat to exactly how we wanted it, from anchor size to autopilot choice to lamps and fans. We had a multi-page spreadsheet that we emailed back and forth with Jean Francois at Boreal and we had numerous phone and email conversations. Hans and I flew to Treguier at the end of January (right when coronavirus was exploding in Wuhan) and saw the boat at about 90% completion. She looked like a boat and we could imagine her finished, but she was still covered in protective plastic in places and the electronics and the galley weren't installed. When we walked down the dock yesterday evening and saw her tied up in a slip, it was like all the imaginings on paper materialized in real life. The kids ran down the dock and we implored them to "slow down, you don't have life jackets on!" Freja says that as she walked down the steep dock her legs were shaking from excitement and
I love that street band's music and style! Nice video :-)
ReplyDeleteLOVE! <3
ReplyDeleteVery nice!!!πππ
ReplyDeleteKristen thank you for that wonderful video, you are amazing blog writer , an insperation to everyone
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