After a very enjoyable settled six months in beautiful Hampshire, we have started to pack our bags again. Given that we got rid of most of our stuff when leaving Sydney almost a year ago, it is not such a big job this time around. It feels very natural and freeing to travel lightly. Besides my favourite picnic blanket, which didn’t make it in the last minute airport-luggage-weight-strip-down-rad, I haven’t missed a thing. Same doesn’t apply for people. Here it will be similar. I really don’t like leaving places and people behind, but I love discovering unknown lands, living exhilarating adventures, emerging ourselves in unknown cultures and making new friends around the globe. And in order to do one, it sometimes is unavoidable to go through the farewells.

In about three weeks time the boys and I will catch a flight to Rome. We’ll stay with a lovely friend of mine who I used to live with when I went to school there. Pablo will drive down with Wilson and pick us up after a few days. From there we hop onto the overnight ferry to Greece where we’ll only have another two hours to Kilada. Reunion with Happy Dancer who has been patiently waiting for us while we were topping up the kitty, updating various sea-survival, first-aid courses and the like, getting the ICC and other emergency gear and logistics ready, catching up with old friends and family and enjoying a breeze of English living. Blessed be my awesome cousin and his girl-friend who will then have a blast holiday through Greece and Italy, taking Wilson back to Germany where he’ll be FOR SALE from August’14 onwards.

We are then planning to catch up with English sailing friends in the Ionian, Japanese/French friends from Australia in Sicily around September, possibly also a lovely German cruising family on the Aeolian islands (secret volcanic jewels above Sicily!) and from there sail over to Malta around October to spend the next winter there. I have already got a few amazing yoga retreats in planning on Gozo and/or Malta. Get in touch if you are keen to join in!