Part of me can’t believe that it’s already been 2 weeks, while the rest of me is so at home living aboard Nautilus, that I can’t believe it’s only been 2 weeks.
I really should have started writing this post on our first night, so that I could better remember the emotional rollercoaster of the first few days. When our bags were still strewn across the deck & we were eating our cereal out of mugs ‘cos I couldn’t remember which bag had the bowls in it (and there simply wasn’t enough floor space to have all the bags open at once). I do remember waking up in the middle of our first night & having a massive WTF moment, as I took the 5 steps from the bunk (boat term for bed) to the head (boat term for loo). Have we really moved out of our lovely suburban house in leafy Surrey, to live on a yacht on the open seas??? What were we thinking??? Since unpacking our bags & furnishing Nautilus with a few ‘home comforts’, the decision to move has started to feel less crazy.
I am amazed at how quickly my body has gotten used to things, I barely notice the rocking of the boat & I’ve hardly had to take any of the seasickness tablets that I thought I’d be living on. I used to get seasick just looking at a boat let alone being on one. A few weeks before we finalised our purchase of Nautilus, we were on the pontoon in Mylor marina chatting to a yachtie, we had to cut our chat short as I’d started to feel queasy. I’m by no means cured, I still have to take my tablets on most of our sailing trips out of the marina, but moored up, even on the rougher days when the Grigal (strong north-east winds) blows in I manage life aboard tablet free.
Something that neither of our bodies have quite come to terms with yet is the heat. We’re both covered in rather unattractive forms of heat rash. This is something that I never thought my South African body would plague me with, but since moving to the UK, I have suffered from heat rash on most of our warm country getaways. Hopefully, we will acclimatise soon & heat rash will be nothing but a distant memory.
Last week we managed to spend our first ever nights at anchor, I loved every moment of it. Spending each night in a different bay exploring our way up the Maltese costs was amazing for my wonderlust. We spent our first night just outside St Paul’s Bay, our second night was in the little cove of San Niklaw near Comino’s old hotel and our last night wast spent in the pictures Marsalforn Bay Gozo. My favourite thing about being out at anchor is the freedom to swim when ever I like, especially my pre-bedtime cool down swim. I do also love the fact that when we’re out sailing, we’re much more selfcaficent, we’re able to make our own (decalenated) water & we run solely on solar power. At the moment we aren’t able to generate enough solar to run everything we’d like, so we will be adding more panels soon, taking us from 650w to 2000w.
We cut our bay hopping short as I’d signed us up for a beach clean to recognise World Clean Up Day. It was great to join a group of expats doing their bit to clean up the local beaches. Unfortunately, for what ever reason Malta is strewn with litter. Caspar & I managed to fill 2 black bags with rubbish, including more cigarette buts than I’d care to count.
This week we’ve mostly been moored up in the marina as the Grigal mentioned above blew in. It brought with it some cooler weather, which meant we could do a bit more exploring. We discovered Coffee Circus an amazing coffee shop/roasters/cocktail bar, we also found a fishmonger & a butcher. We’ve learnt to be more reliant on Nemo (our tender), she’s our floating car. She more than halves our trip to the chandeliers (fancy term for a shop that sells boat stuff, with a ridiculous markup, call “marine tax”) A example of “marine tax”: mould killer in a normal shop €3,99 in the chandlers €18,99 – welcome to marine tax.
Highlights of our first 2 weeks.
- We’ve done a fair amount of exploring, mostly on foot
- Filled the boat with food & drink (consumed all the food & drink) & filled her again.
- Caspar has fixed, broken & fixed Nemo (our tender). The steering cable broke, as he fixed it he managed to snap the steering cable
- We’ve spent our first, (2nd & 3rd) nights at anchor. Being at anchor is amazing, the sense of freedom is liberating. We’re kitted up so that we are self-sufficient, we’re able to make our own water & electricity. Being at anchor rather than in the marina means that I can swim whenever I want, which really is my happy place.
- We sailed up the east side of Malta, exploring St Pauls, Comino & Gozo.
- I rescued someone’s iPhone from 11m, amazingly it was still working when I brought it back to the surface. I was super impressed with my breath-holding abilities, I might find a freediving club to join.
- We took part in a beach clean on World Clean-Up Day. 30 volunteers, 2 beaches, more cigarette buts than I care to recall.
- We’ve joined a little Nautitech community, there are 2 others in the marina, with another 2 on their way.
- Caspar has stripped & cleaned the Windless (the machine that pulls the anchor up) & made us a new anchor bridle (a length of nylon line attached to the anchor chain to help stabilise the boat at anchor)
- We’ve seen a lot of fireworks. 2.5hrs of exploding to be precise. The Maltese really like their fireworks, this particular occasion was to celebrate Freedom day (The anniversary of the withdrawal of British troops and the from Malta in 1979 )
I am pleased to say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the last 14 days, I couldn’t be happier that we made the move, I know it’s early days & that we’ve been blessed with calm seas & hot sunny days. But I really do feel like I’m living my best life, sharing my days with my soulmate as we cruise the blue seas with a cool breeze.
9 responses
Sounds absolutely glorious! So good hearing from you. Your adventures and experiences from the free diving to the beach clean up sounds so exciting and I guess one day is never the same as the other.
Wonderful to meet people on the same adventure.
Sounds like you’ve got life just where you want it and all is under control.
Enjoy and stay safe x
Ashleigh, it’s been AMAZING! Every day is a little different, be it exploring Malta or exploring our boat. We’re loving the adventure and the complete change of pace.
It’s been lovely to meet others on a similar adventure.
Hope you and the family are well & keeping safe xx
That last sentence got me in all the feels. So glad the move has brought so much happiness and comfort. Free diving sounds amazing! I can already see you doing it. Can’t wait to hear more of your adventure xxx
this sounds so idillic! thanks for the great read…
Thanks Damien, I hope you’re well buddy? This is a bit of a mental new adventure, but loving every minute of it.
Keep ‘em coming Tates & Caspar. We can live vicariously through you! Thrilled that you’re settling in and embracing this new adventure. Miss you guys so much!
missing you guys too – looking forward to you coming out to visit.
Great commentary Tates – good to hear the many things you’ve been up to and are feeling. So perhaps the human social updates from you and the engineering and operational status from Caspar 😀
I am so glad I found this blog. Incredibly interesting! Starting out to live on a boat can be a major change. Glad you adapted well, and I can imagine you are excited for so many more trips in the future. We are just getting started with our journeys as well, but we only sail around Komodo National Park. Hopefully if you ever come, you can look us up at https://www.komodoislandtour.com/komodo_liveaboard_tours.html