Days 243 to 248: 12th - 17th Feb 2019. The week that passed in a windy blur.

Monday to Thursday passed in a bit of a windy blur. The wind was gusting up to about 50 knots on and off and we were all getting a little short tempered. When I was on teacher training I remember being told that kids go crazy when it's windy and this week proved to me that being on a boat only amplified this. Boatschool was not our finest and Patrick was getting frustrated with boat jobs. Fitting the new thermostat for the Calorifier was a fiddly and awkward job where on numerous occasions a screw was dropped inside the housing, calling for small fingers to be distracted from schoolwork in order to try and retrieve it. Once finally fitted the new thermostat made diddly squat difference and the calorifier kept tripping out!

My new exercise routine hit a bit of a rocky period too as, much to the amusement of  my new yoga buddies, I turned up half an hour late just as they were finishing having forgotten that it started at 8 rather than 8:30am. Tuesday morning's run was a non starter as I listened to the wind howling in the rigging and looked up at the dark clouds glaring down at me through the hatch in our cabin. However come Wednesday I managed to get to Yoga on time, the fact that I had been so rubbish on Monday giving me the kick up the bum I needed to get out of the boat despite the torrential rain only 1/2 hour earlier; and on Thursday Patrick pushed me off the boat for my run (ok not really running that much but I'm still feeling good about starting couch 2 5k again even though at this stage it is mostly walking).

It was lovely to welcome the crews of Mrs Chippy and Spacegrazer back and the kids did manage to squeeze in one bonfire on the beach in between showers, however AJ did manage to burn his chin eating toasted marshmallows, meaning he now constantly looks like he has been eating chocolate ice cream and dribbled it all over his face.

Luckily Friday was a new day and we had light winds and glorious sunshine. Yoga overlooking the beach was particularly lovely.

Patrick had to take the hire car back so we had an early morning trip to the supermarket to stock up on heavy groceries and fill up with petrol before he headed off to the airport. The kids and I then went down to the meeting room to explore some data heavy online learning.

The kids enjoyed spending time with friends they hadn't seen for a while and I enjoyed a quiet afternoon until tea time when we had pizza on board Vesna before the adults went to Happy Hour while the kids had their games and movie night.


Saturday was another lovely day. We had a morning chat with Nana who gave us the exciting news that Esmé had a letter!

It was the one we had been waiting for... a Blue Peter Badge that she had applied for before returning to Sicily after Christmas. She had written a lovely letter about our adventure, putting an awful lot of effort in and was over the moon to see the badge in Nana's hands over a video call. Next Titania went out for a sail while a bunch of us walked up to the playground near the market so kids could run and play somewhere different. In the afternoon a kid boat from Licata, "No plans just options", came in for a night or 2 so we all went for ice creams before heading to the meeting room for yet more pizza before the kids had a movie and the adults talked about Greece and cruising plans. It was a really enjoyable and informative evening, although Esmé was struggling with a hurt ankle from a scooter accident earlier in the day! Hope it feels better soon!