Santorini

So the Adventure here was sleeping on the boat when she was rearing like a horse due to the wind and the fact we had more than 200mtrs below us. We were tied to a floating bouy and alan spent most of the two days in the dingy rowing back and forth to the knots he had secured. As amazing as sailing into a volcano was, I wouldn't do it again!
All seemed happy and calm on top in the village, it was hard to me to leave to return to our bucking bronco.

Mum didn't, she piked it and slept in a hotel. More to the point it was too dangerous for her to board the boat from the dingy in the huge swell, she had already fallen out once that day!
 

My Art Teacher

 

A taste of Greece

Greece is really easy to photograph, not so easy to paint. When Ma came out onto the boat she treated me to a painting lesson. Meet my teacher and take a good look at the work cos I aint never going to frame it.

The exciting stories of this season really only happened whilst mum was on board, exciting isn't really a good description...scarey, yeah that's better. I didn't find hitting a reef or another boat exciting.

Ma had the gang plank collapse under her and I had to dive in chilly water to recover an electrical device she actually thought might work again.
This summer was made up of high winds, intense heat and very lazy days. I vote for Turkey for being more interesting, prettier and far friendlier than Greece, yet my pictures of Greece look more impressive than Turkey. 

In Case you were wondering....yes, still in love.


 

A whole summer has gone and now the boat is funny enough, back where we left her last year. Our plans of heading East to Australia changed after the war broke out between Isreal and Lebbanon. We'll take the risk with desperate pirates but not with political wars. So we did Turkey and the Greek islands for 6 months.

Celeste looked after us yet again, she was working her tail off opening a new pub for her bosses and hasn't got a problem getting down and dirty with the tasks required of renovating a classic building.
It was great to catch up with Celeste and Lee, as well as Katie and Laura who have both returned from their individual oversea ventures.

All the more wiser and experienced are going to be joining us on the boat next year again. Here alan is showing them where we plan to go and where we have been. I should of recorded it, would of saved me time writing!


It was great to have a few wines with good ole Kel Kel, this was at the end of the night when I have great footage of her pole dancing.
It's not always easy or convenient when we come stay in England and we super appreciate the blow up beds and the minor life adjustments that have to be made when we turn up. So THANKS HEAPS! 

It's nearly XMAS AGAIN!

Where has the year gone?

Not the easiest thing to update the blog whilst on our travels. Apologies but you all know where we are and what we are doing anyway...if not WELL>>>>>>>>>

We worked our 'happy fat' off in the winter season. Made fantastic friends. Conquered Blackcomb mountain and Whistler mountain and saw our first wild bears.

Finally the five month adventure in Canada came to an end and we put our baby back into the Greek waters to explore the famous Greek islands and the beautiful Turkish coast line.

It was great, it recharged our batteries to be in the sun again. I enjoyed it so much I began dreading heading into another winter season, which was planning to be our last. A position Alan was promised fell through and I took this opportunity to take us back to Australia. It was the day after we arrived when Alan received the email telling him there were new positions available for both of us with different a company in either Italy or Spain but we are sooo comfortable where we are, we ain't doin it!

Of all the folks who were going to join us on the boat, only my ma and our mate John turned up to battle the high seas. They brought good laughs, took many photos and were a real treat to have on board.

The plans now? Who knows. It'll probably be another year before I can update it onto the blog!

It's nearly XMAS AGAIN!

Where has the year gone?

Not the easiest thing to update the blog whilst on our travels. Apologies but you all know where we are and what we are doing anyway...if not WELL>>>>>>>>>

We worked our 'happy fat' off in the winter season. Made fantastic friends. Conquered Blackcomb mountain and Whistler mountain and saw our first wild bears.

Finally the five month adventure in Canada came to an end and we put our baby back into the Greek waters to explore the famous Greek islands and the beautiful Turkish coast line.

It was great, it recharged our batteries to be in the sun again. I enjoyed it so much I began dreading heading into another winter season, which was planning to be our last. A position Alan was promised fell through and I took this opportunity to take us back to Australia. It was the day after we arrived when Alan received the email telling him there were new positions available for both of us with different a company in either Italy or Spain but we are sooo comfortable where we are, we ain't doin it!

Of all the folks who were going to join us on the boat, only my ma and our mate John turned up to battle the high seas. They brought good laughs, took many photos and were a real treat to have on board.

The plans now? Who knows. It'll probably be another year before I can update it onto the blog!

Xmas Eve

Just a quiet one this year, yeah, stayed at home, behaved oursleves, left the drinking for the others and really enjoyed staring at the walls.



Noooooooooooottttttttttttttttt!!!

Only a few picies cos after this bar my camera got really blurry and the room swayed and 'loud noises' ruined my concentration.

So sad to say I don't have photos of Alan dancing on the podium, or everyone else for that matter, or the view of everyone cheering happy birthday to George who celebrated at midnight his...um..well he's younger than me. I'm sorry I can't remember, it wasn't until months later I even remembered we went out that night let alone to a birthday party!

A Family Affair

We had the pleasure of having Katie and Laura spending Xmas with us. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed myself and laughed so hard during the nights we spent playing Sharades. Quality.
I gave Alan something that put him just that little bit closer to his dream of being a cowboy...when and where he chooses to wear it is questionable though.

Can't you just hear the music?

Blame Canada, Blame Canada....

THE Seb.

Whistler, Canada is our new home from December to May. We have triple the work load this season for there are three chalets to manage, and a staff member less due to capacity down 50%. Less people doesn't by any means make it less work and of the three staff we have, Cat, Hannah and Erika, only Erika has had experience in this game.

During the first week here it felt like we never properly got over the plane trip that incidently was delayed for 24hrs. We weren't really given the proper details of what we were walking into and relied heavily on the previous manager, Mark.

Rather than re-live the stress and headaches of our tasks and duties I'll skip straight to telling about the party's that were held by the village companies hosted with free food and alcohol! It was a week's worth of drinking and dancing with the same people in different locations all over the village with the chance of winning things. Alan scored a $70 shirt and I got a baseball cap!

These parties were great cos we got to de-stress and let loose, the week just went too quick. Just glad we have the whole season to play with our new friends, by the way...meet Seb.

Back to civilization

Our month in England was spent introducing each other to our friends and family. It's no longer nerve racking because we have been together, in each other's pockets for a solid 8 months and we are confident that those close to us will see how happy we are together and nothing silly like age gets in the way.

We were lucky to be in the right place at the right time to catch my good friend's Celeste's engagement party to her English lad "Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee...I gotta friend called Lee"... I didn't even get a chance to even talk to Alan at the party for all the guys surrounding him listening intently to his stories and jokes.

It was so good to see Celeste happy, I've never seen her so content, and smiling like that, I have to add that I can relate.

We got to attend ski instructors Annette and Tim Eyte's wedding, well 2nd wedding anyway, we couldn't make the 1st wedding on a tropical island.

We went back in time when we stayed in the home of Duchess Rowena and John's house, well, miniature castle. Never before have I sat at such an amazingly dressed formal table and enjoyed such a deliciously contemporary meal that I can still taste now. Really fantastic cooking and company.

With keeping with the old time era theme we stayed in my relations 400 yr old farm house. Clive has lived there his whole like and so is used to the slanted floors and walls, and Fee is a comfortable height for the low ceilings! We were grateful they made room for us since we gave such short notice, but I figure I'll make it up to them when Clive comes out to Greece to see us on the boat!

Fee isn't the biggest fan of boats, and wouldn't really find too much in common with Alan's cousins Joan and Peter who have just sold their house to buy a little house and a REALLY little house...that floats. We look forward to when we return and can stay on their new canal boat.

A month was basically too long to stay in UK, but we had our reasons and we were so grateful to be looked after by everyone and a big thank you goes out to everyone for putting us up and putting up with us!

I got a special treat when Alan took me to his home village, Droylsden. Now we have seen each others home towns and we feel just that little bit closer.

Out of the Water

I can't explain how disappointed I was when finally we took the boat out of the water, we drain our tanks and I can't use the toilet to relieve my serious stomach problems that affected me for the 3 days we stayed at the marina. On the last night I was privi to an amazing lightning storm, I watched nervously as it circled the hundreds of conductors I sat amongst. I was thinking, this is not the way I want to be found dead!

It's true love when your partner, in
the morning carries the bucket off the deck and empties it for you.

For 3 days we climbed a ladder to get onto the boat, we walked across the yard to shower and we lived amongst our laundry.

An issue we have is that one of the tanks is leaking and so I went through the bilges with a towel to dry everything to watch where the leak may come from, it wasn't discovered this time around, but a new issue arose on our drive to the airport...I left the wet towel under the floor boards! When we finally return home to our boat, she'll probably smell like a dead body.

It was real big...well, legal size at least.

We have decided to park the boat in the 'Cleopatra Marina' at Previsa, but just before we put her on land we thought we'd explore the inland sea where in the furthest corner has a little village shadowed by a castle on the hill. Vonitsabay.

Whilst Alan tried his hand at fishing, I explored the area attempting to jog off my layers. I came across an area that I could of mistaken for Australia for all the gum trees, shimmering in the sunset.

On my exploration I was lucky to meet some Greek fisherman, and I had a cheering squad down main street as I jogged past, but the best part of the afternoon was seeing Alan walk back onto the boat with his shoes on, his jacket on and a fish in a shopping bag...oh yeah, sure he caught his fish.

I can hardly stop laughing thinking he just couldn't handle failing at fishing and went and bought a fish, just bad timing I turned up I thought. Well, I know it sounds unbelievable, but Alan did catch the fish.

It turns out that whilst he went down to the toilet, a fish took the bait, still on the line he put the fish in the dingy where he climbed into with a plastic bag and unhooked the fish. I did a columbo and checked the dingy and yes there were scales, but the real give away was when he put the bag down, the fish inside starting flapping about.

Ahhhh we ate well that night, after I filleted and floured it!...and made fried rice, prawn cocktail, pompadoms....well it wasn't the biggest fish.