SAILING KOKORO

Well, last I updated we had engine problems.  Nearly 6 weeks since I last updated this blog so I will do my best to fill you in on what we have been up to since we last tied up to the dock in Agios Nikolaos, Crete.  We have been living in a house up in the mountains accessible from the southern coast of Crete. Its an hour and fifteen minute drive from where we now have the boat on the hard in the Marina at Agios Nikolaos.  We had the boat looked at, the engine flushed of the seawater, the problem established and the solution plotted out. That much took us a matter of two weeks. The remainder of the time was spent waiting on the insurance company to get back to us with approval for what we have been quoted as being an 18,000 Euro job, not including the money we have already put into pulling the boat out the water and for paying up for a year in the marina.  Guess what? We finally heard back from the insurance and they have said they will not be paying for the engine o...

 I sit down to write today and I don't know where to start.  I am a ball of nerves, raw in every way, exhausted from having to think the simplest thought and yet I am putting every bit of what remains into slowly packing things away, throwing things away, earmarking things to be put in its rightful place as we prep the boat for leaving her on the hard for anywhere between nine to twelve months! Long story short, our engine has failed, we are now in the process of assessing what is wrong before we go about assessing how we get that righted.  Let me try to start somewhere that could be considered a beginning.  My brother came to Chania, Crete to spend time with us as we anchored in a beautiful and sheltered bay off Marathi beach. He had a wonderful short visit with us and then left two days later. Our goal was to leave shortly after he flew out to Athens. We always check to see the engine is good to go before we depart anywhere, this entails turning it on, running it f...

  We are in Chania, Crete at the moment. We got here on the 27th of June in preparation for my brother getting here to see us. My brother flew from Singapore to Athens, stored his baggage at the airport in Athens before boarding a plane to Chania with just his backpack, swim trunks and roaming Wifi device.  My brother got here on the 30th and he stayed with us for two nights before leaving for Athens on the 2nd of July. It was after he left that we decided to run the engine just to make sure everything was good, plus, running the engine charges the batteries some. The last time we'd run the engine was just a day or so before my brother arrived, when we moved our anchorage to a little bit further out so we were in deeper water as we knew the winds would be picking up and being in 3-5 meters on the depth gauge was a bit too close for comfort for a boat that has a 2.3 meter keel. Well, short story long, when we turned the ignition, there was a slight hiccup of a sound and nothing...

    Well, lets face it, this has taken me more than a weekend, hasn't it? I know I started this journey so sure of my mission, so sure of its importance and, in truth, so sure that people would be interested about my life as it got interesting. Truth is, even when you set off on what could be the adventure of a lifetime, it soon becomes clear that you simply become an adventurer in your everyday life and your adventure simply becomes...everyday life.  I am sitting down to write this and its already creeping up on the end of June, 2022. Its almost a year since we left the Netherlands.  I think it was early July by the time we actually set off down the canals and almost got stuck in a loch. It was exactly a year ago we were meant to leave but got delayed because our hired Skipper got delayed thanks to someone on his flight to Poland testing positive for Covid! So much has happened since that point, one of which is that myself and the kids ended up getting infected wit...

Its been a while since I have had anything new to write about, and so, like an untrained writer, I simply have chosen not to write.  But..! Here we are, in India! So I am going to use our time in home quarantine as a means to an end, I am going to write and try to update you all on everything that has transpired since we got to Sicily and then some.  We've been in Sicily since October, just before Sasha's 10th birthday. It wasn't until around Christmas time that I began to consider visiting my parents in India. The problem with any travel plans in a time of Covid is that its complicated beyond what is necessary and one is left with so many what if queries that its almost too anxiety inducing to make that commitment.  This journey and our commitment to finally taking it has been a real learning experience for us and I think I am no longer going to be fearful about travel in a time of Covid...if there is some place we simply must visit, we will, no matter how ha...

Micah's knee injury healed well. It had taken the better part of three weeks for his knee to fully heal, but its now looking like a big shiny patch of new, pink skin, an island in a sea of brown. For a while there he still behaved like he needed to be handled with kid gloves, constantly asking, "Mama! Have you seen my knee? Is it looking normal? Is this normal? I don't think the scab is on it any more!" I'd respond with something along the lines of eye rolling, exaggerated disinterest so he stops with the knee at some point...or I would take time to look at his new skin with great interest before saying, "Wow, that has healed really well!"  Besides his knee, we have other injuries to contend with. A few weeks ago, I did something clumsy, slipped while walking down the steps into the galley. I felt my big toe slide hard across the edge of the step, followed swiftly by the rest of my foot and then the rest of me...and since these spaces are always so tight...