SAILING KOKORO

Today we arrived in The Balearic Islands . After a nearly 22 hour sail from Cartagena, our last port, I am pretty sure we can say we are getting better at this non-stop sailing through day and night thing. I am certain that I am more of a night person because the daytime sunlight hours are simply too hard for me to survive, I don't have the hypothalamus for it! I would never have clocked myself for a night person, because when I worked the restaurant, early rising was the only thing that allowed me to get everything done, and going to bed on time, most times prior to 10pm, was the only thing that kept me sane. I still go to bed around 10pm, but I allow myself an hours grace period in which to truly make a concerted effort to fall asleep. Sleep is important, especially as you age and your hormones fluctuate. You don't want to be on the bad side of sleep because, as I have learned quite recently, every kind of hormonal imbalance gets worse and every kind of inflammation flares u...

(You will be able to see exactly where we are, in real time by clicking the link in this post)  Its a shame that Blogger doesn't offer a visual like they do with when you upload a Youtube video, but this is as good as it can be, if you are interested in checking on where we are located at any given time, being as we will update our blog once a week and that we won't always be within range of wifi, its still handy to know you can see where we are in the world when you click the link we are providing. Predict Wind is an app that we are paid subscribers to, so that is why we have the capability to share the link with you.  https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Kokoro   We hope you enjoy following our journey. Maybe save this link in your bookmarks if you don't want to keep searching for this post :)

Have you ever felt so frustrated at some point in your life that you want to cry? We've had many of those moments this past week.  Just this Thursday night, I watched my husband as he crumbled, his shoulders slumping as he sat on the floor by the encasing to the mast in the middle of the boat, swearing under his breath as he held back tears. He'd been cutting wires, stripping them, reattaching them, all in the hopes of getting our radar working. Our radar had been working when we motored across from the boat yard next door to our berth at Amsterdam Marina, but somehow it stopped working.  Not only was the radar not working, our VHF radio was not working either. Both had been working just a few days prior, so the only issue could have been when we put the mast back in and something went wrong with the wiring.  People have this idyllic view of sailing, you know, the ocean blue, the warm winds, the sunsets...you don't realize that every day its like a game of "Whack a Mo...

As I sit here, unsure of where to begin, we are comfortable in a mooring in Amsterdam Marina. Its chilly but not unbearable, despite it being early July. There is condensation on every single window panel, or maybe its rain, Dutch weather never ceases to amaze me. You can have all four seasons in the span of an hour! I mean it! A few months back, I recall seeing a beautiful sunny day suddenly turn to rain, and from rain to snow, and from snow to hail...only to end in a rainbow of a day. We are in Amsterdam as we prepare for what we are telling ourselves will be the adventure of our lifetime. In all honesty, I am scared to the core. I am scared of the unknown. I am an anxious person, always have been, and this morning, I woke up with my salivary glands working overtime, I was so sure I was going to throw up! Have you experienced that feeling? When you feel nauseous, and you are stuck somewhere you don't want to be sick in, like a car (think of car sickness) or a plane (more of the s...