Summer hit from one day to the next – just like in December the temperatures had dropped in a similar unexpected, hurried way. It’s siesta time again. Today the kids need it, exhausted by a morning with our beautiful Malta community on the beach. I enjoy the silence in the early after-noon heat and life on the nearby boats which has slowly been floating back into the marina as the sun got stronger and stays up longer. I really should be servicing the windlass and sowing a few cockpit cushions. There’s only a couple of weeks left and, although the bulk of the winter maintenance has been done, there’s always more to do on a boat.
Instead, I take the luxury to wait for my energy levels to come back from their siesta low. Instead of soldiering on, forced to line up endless coffees and sugar hits to get through the day like in the old office days, I take the ten or fifteen minutes it will take until, I know, my energy will increase again naturally. It always does, like a steady after-noon breeze. In the meantime, my chocolate-coconut smoothie in hand, I dive right back into John Kretschmer’s Serious Ocean Sailing. Friends have lent us his book and they’ll be sailing away soon. There’s an urgency to my reading. Since munching through Bernard Moitessiers entire series of books, I haven’t had such a good read. Encapsulating to say the least. How can I feel so connected with someone who I’ve never met? It must be something to do with the ocean. It is John’s words here below, but they spring right out of the depth of my soul – and describe the drive for our own sailing journey:
“I was born with a powerful wanderlust. I don’t know why but I have always insisted on steering my own course, a wayward course that invariably runs counter to conventional wisdom. Yet, I have managed to eke out a living, doing the things that I love…. “

And at this point here’s a serious heartfelt thanks to all my yoga students who (also) make it possible. I will miss you as we cast of very soon. Hope to see you on one of my retreats in Turkey or beyond. x