We crossed from Malta to Mallorca, in a 5 days/5 nights passage. We wanted to test us and to test the boat. Read on to learn how it went!
Malta: a paradise in our parenting hell
"Is your trip as wonderful as you were expecting?" is the most frequently asked question from our friends. I always answer the same: we have some days easier than others. Travelling and living on the boat is not the same than being on vacation on the boat.
Trapped in Trapani on the Earth overshoot day
This year after spending 3 months sailing around the Med, surrounded by nature, I am more concerned than ever about this day and what it means. From now more we are committed to #movethedate. In Trapani (Sicily), we met with some friends and we spent 3 wonderful days discussing about our planet, minimalism and kids education (all those neo-hippy stuff :-)… and we agreed that humans are a virus attacking the planet. We have to take care of this problem, for us and for the future generations.
Pompeii, where the Internet got started
We literally felt in love with Pompeii archaeological site an its history. What an experience to be transported more than 2000 years back in time, see how (wealthy) Romans were living and how we are still building cities with the same structure than Greeks (yes, Pompeii was founded by Greeks) did more than 28 centuries ago. So similar to what we do know in many ways… but also so distant: the most striking aspect of pompeii (and the roman way of life) is slavery. We have to keep fighting to completely abolish slavery in our world.
Evolve or die
The last weeks confirmed that 'not having a fixed plan' is the way to go. We are constantly adapting our journey to the changing conditions and we think it's the right approach. The crew's spirit is (usually) high, frustrations are low.
Following the wind
The wind pushed us from Corsica to Sardinia, Ustica, Palermo and the Aeolian islands. New speed records, new experiences, volcanos... Epic !
Make the sea clean again
We are all astonished that we see more plastic floating around than fishes when we are sailing. Everyday we see at least one plastic bag floating in the sea. It is everyone's responsibility to make the sea clean again, minimising plastic usage and throwing away the plastic to the recycling bins.
Something new everyday
Since we started sailing a month ago, I have been trying to put in place a new 'routine' mode for the family, to match our new life style. The only routine that we were able to establish so far is to get up at 7 am and to go to bed around 11 pm (9 pm for the kids and lights off at 10 pm). This is still very basic and I am afraid that we will not be able to keep this routine when we will have night navigations. We're still working on this.
Our first two weeks on board
Time flies. We left home fifteen days ago, we have been very busy setting up everything on the boat and enjoying our first days out. We are very pleased with our new life style, and if you keep on reading you will know how our first two weeks went.
Announcing a partnership with DIMENSION-POLYANT on Vectron sailcloth
Time has come to replace our good old North Sails main sail (in place since 2008/2009). After discussion and following the advise from our sailmaker, we decided to go for a new sailcloth: Vectron from DIMENSION-POLYANT. This is a new line of woven sailcloth in DP's catalog for 2017.
