This is not quite the announcement for my Bali Yoga retreat this November yet – nor next year’s in Sydney, South Africa and the Pacific (Stay tuned!!!), but simply a summary of what it generally feels like to be back home. It’s exactly three months ago we came back to Sydney – a couple more that we left the boat (time flies!!!). Since being back, despite the obvious nostalgic moments, it’s just been such a treat. Honestly, it is hard to grasp the easiness of land-life I believe if you have never lived in a boat, camper-van or something similar.

Just then the weekly rubbish truck came to pick up our bins. After three years of searching marinas and town quays for appropriate rubbish disposals every time we docked in, it is simply mind-blowing to me that every week someone from council comes all the way to our house to collect our rubbish. Amazing!

Then the lack of anchor-anxiety: When I’m tired at night, I can just fall into bed (ok, it doesn’t rock me gently to sleep – but you just can’t have it all) – without having to double check that the anchor is in and triple check that the weather forecast hasn’t changed in the past few hours. It’s so simple and easy!

That gentle rocking notion that we might sometimes miss when falling asleep – on the good side means that the kids can leave their arts & crafts lying and drying on the saloon table without anything rolling off by itself. And talking about table – it stays on that table or their artsy table in their room and we can have lunch or dinner on the OTHER (read ‘dining’) table without having to clear everything away before. Tremendous!

More? Baking, cooking, BBQ-ing – all of that is, yes, admittedly less adventures but SOOO much more convenient on a non-heeling, stable ground with plenty of space. Most people would consider our kitchen (which the kids sometimes still call galley…) rather small – to me it seems massive! And all the mixers, blenders, juicers and more with their very own storage space and unlimited amounts of electricity to power it all whenever the pallet pleases… Mind-blowing!

Sweeping and mopping the floor might initially seem like more work as there’s definitely more surface area around (3 bed-room wooden-floored house compared to a 42′ boat…), but once you are done, that’s it. There’s not another layer of dirt, dust and sticky unidentified stuff waiting underneath the floor-boards.

One of the most amazing inventions ever which most land-lubbers take for granted and all sailors will tart nodding their head and probably grannies who remember the old days too: Dish-washers and washing machines. I can just sit here in type this post while something is doing all the work in the kitchen and laundry for me – and all that without any ‘drain-on-the-battery’ type of worries. Why stress about anything? This is simply marvelous!

Whilst the kids still miss their boat and sometimes ask when we go home (ia Happy Dancer), they also love many things about land-life, especially gardening. We had a few herbs on the boat, but it is nothing compared to our garden where we have started growing tomatoes, radishes, a big array of herbs, strawberries, lettuce varieties and maybe soon even a little avocado and lychee tree. It’s endless fun and learning for the whole family and definitely one of the big pluses which helps us sooth our nostalgic wounds from no longer cruising the world.

Bubble baths almost every night – not only a fantastic babysitter while kids have fun and I cook dinner, but also a fabulous soother for any pregnancy back-pains. It really does feel like a Spa retreat, just living in a house!

Most things my fellow Sydney mums seem to worry and get stressed about appear a complete no-stresser for me. All of these daily amazements mentioned above (and I could go on and on!) had to be put here on screen to balance my sometimes nostalgic posts of the recent past as we are going through the last steps of selling Happy Dancer. This is not to say that a sailor’s heart can ever be cured. For no sensible reasons whatsoever, we all know – from the baby in my womb over our boys who grew up on a boat to hubby and I that one day we’ll be out there on the ocean again. Why? Only the heart, never the mind can understand…

“At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.” R. L. Graham