Many cruising friends had warned us before: Cruising is not much else but boat work in exotic locations. After four weeks of settling on Happy Dancer, I would add ‘shopping for boat parts in mal-equipped chandleries’ to the list. One must enjoy constantly adjusting to new situations and finding out-of-the square solutions to challenges, problems and tricky situations. Taking a deep breath (or ten) is essential in order to not get swept under the wave of overwhelm at so much new, so much to do, so much to learn.

When I was a kid, I always did my homework first, before playing. It thus doesn’t come natural to me to take a break when the to-do list is still desperately waiting for so many ticks. However, life on a boat is constant work. I love it, but need to make sure my batteries stay charged. There’s that optimum amount of time spent on boat work before they discharge too deeply. Today, it was time to sit down and read a book – despite the dinghy needing a proper clean, the boom a new nylon washer (which I finally found, not easy!) and the bikes a proper rack on the pulpit.

Here’s a beautiful quote from Khaled Hosseini’s ‘A thousand splendid suns’ which appears to describe my meagre attempt of sharing our cruising journey: “Some things I can teach you. Some you learn from books. But there are things that, well, you just have to see and feel.”