The end of the Adventure

The delivery crew we hired to take Dulcinea from Athens to Palma had a relatively good sail.  We were tracking them constantly while we were in Denmark via one of the marine traffic websites.  Its amazing what you can do from the internet.  The max wind encountered was around 25kts and much of the time it was in a favourable direction which meant either good sailing or easy motoring.  As a result they made the passage to Palma in one week and, more importantly, arrived with nothing broken.  

The boat berthed at La Lonja Marina which is tucked up in the north of the harbour near the Cathedral.  We had sourced a spot here earlier with help from Tim Bright who will be looking after Dulcinea for us in Palma.  It was the best deal we could get but is still expensive as its in Palma.  It is however in the calmest part of the harbour which is reassuring.

Nic had found us a small apartment in the old town area only a few minutes walk from the marina.  The day after Dulcinea arrived we all flew in from Denmark and moved into the apartment.  The next week was a frenzy of activity.  Apart from the packing up of the boat there were a number of jobs which needed to be carried out.  Scott had laid down the law and given everyone one box each for their personal stuff but that rule went out the window early on but even so we managed to pack our life into just over half a dozen large cardboard boxes which were then dispatched to Australia via Spanish post.  We threw out a lot of junk we had accumulated, got rid of all the food stuffs and gave away anything of any use.  It was amazing to see how much we had onboard the boat at the end of the day.

After a pretty intense week we were finished.  Dulcinea looked great although there was still some varnishing works being carried out.  We carried out a final inspection and handed the keys across to Tim and with a last look through the rain at our beautiful boat we took a taxi to the airport.  We fly to the US and then back home to Australia.

What do we do now???

So it is over.  It is almost unbelievable to think that we have spent the last two and a half years living and travelling onboard Dulcinea.  It has taken us around 12,000Nm in total, across one ocean and a number seas and to more than 20 different countries.  It has been an incredible experience but hard now to think that it’s all over.  The questions everyone asks are “how do you feel?” or “will you miss it?” and these are not easy questions to answer.  Each of us have our own thoughts on this and the author of the blog can only relate his feelings and thoughts.

There are naturally pros and cons to moving onto dry land.  Everyone I feel is ready for a break from the boat and it’s time for the kids to get into “normal” schooling.  I think Sam will miss the boat the most.  The more we sailed and the more he grew, the more into the sailing lifestyle he got.  He just thrived in the adventure of it all.  I can see him returning to the water once he finishes school.  Calley has spent a quarter of her life on the boat and so to her it’s more normal than anything else.  She has only vague memories of Australia from when we went there on holiday from Singapore.  So for her it’s a complete change, a leap into the unknown almost but we feel she will really appreciate having social contact with other kids in a school - we saw that when she had a brief spell at the Montessori school in Grenada.  Nic is ready to leave the boat.  While she loved living in the boat and visiting all the different and interesting places she never got comfortable with the more challenging aspects of the sailing.  And now she gets to live near her family which is something that has not been possible for most of our married life.

I will certainly miss the boat.  Almost immediately upon stepping off the boat there is a feeling of a loss of freedom.  On the boat we could go where we wanted, when we wanted, how we wanted.  There was very little constraining us.  Now immediately we need to conform to timetables set by others for school, work, familes etc.  Not that that is all bad but just very different.  Luckily there is some interesting work to get stuck into once we get home so the challenges don’t stop but just become different in nature.  I will also be glad to drop some of the day to day boat related responsibility - that ever present pressure relating to the safety and security of the boat and crew.  Whist there are responsibilities associated with living onshore there are not so many daily checks which need to be carried out relating to weather, environment, power systems, food, water etc.

In summary I feel we are all happy to return to shore but will miss Dulcinea.  We are all extremely glad that we did the trip and will always have great memories from our trip.  It has cost a small fortune but the things we have seen, done, overcome and experienced make it all worthwhile and having been able to do it as a family has been priceless.

It just remains to say thanks to all the people we have met travelling, people who have helped us, or just chatted to us or tried to chat to us, people who have supported us and given us encouragement and made it such an incredible trip.  Also as skipper I have to thank my now very competent crew for making what was essentially my dream become reality.