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Home-Schooling Afloat

Welcome aboard!

We live on a 9mx4m catamaran which encompasses three cubby holes with beds in (I wouldn’t go as far as to call them bedrooms), a tiny kitchen (galley) and cloakroom (heads), cockpit, fore-deck, swim deck, and a 1.5mx1.5m u-shaped seating area ‘saloon’ which serves equally as sofa, dining table, bar, workshop, cinema, office and school, according to our daily and nightly needs.

Today, as it happens, I find myself attempting to home-school in the launderette – our 10 days of washing taking around 2 hours to wash, dry and fold. But 15 minutes into the hot wash, my patience is already running one sock short of a full load: the tablet the boys were learning French on crashed and then both kids announced they needed the toilet, 10 minutes apart… It’s disappointing as usually our launderette learning days are the most productive – benefiting from super-fast WiFi and a morning looking at a different set of four walls that at least have head-room to stand up. A change is as good as a holiday. But today is one of those days when it’s not working, and maybe I need to throw in the (dirty) towel and make a clean start again tomorrow.

Where have the kids gone…?

Cheap laundry puns aside, home-schooling is not the easiest of life choices. So why did we actively decide to home-school our kids?

  • we moved onto a boat over the Summer of 2020
  • we’d planned to return to the UK for the Winter term
  • we didn’t want our children to have to wear a mask for 6 hours of the day
  • after paying for boat repairs we had no money left for private schooling
  • as Brits without EU residency, we weren’t sure how long we’d be allowed to stay in Spain as of January 1st 2021 (Brexit)
  • My kids had often found regular schooling challenging, so it was an option I’d been considering for many years.

We have two boys, aged 7 and 10 years, and as you can imagine, home-schooling on the boat during Covid social distancing is more often than not quite challenging.

Here are some of the challenges we face and ideas on how to overcome them…

  1. Lack of motivation (both teacher and student!). Simply getting out of bed most mornings without a specific time to get up by is hard for all of us. Bed is so cosy and comfortable. I’ve never been particularly good in the mornings, I’m more an night-owl, and sadly both the boys inherited this trait from me. The result is that mornings are admittedly slow in our boat, and the boys need a lot of coaxing out of bed. As an incentive to get up and dressed at a reasonable time they can ‘earn’ stars for each thing they do well and without too much drama. In the afternoon said stars can be converted into screen time of their choice. Each child has a tablet set up with non-violent games and kindle books, and to my relief, Tinker computer programming, Minecraft, Roblox, and CBeebies are their games of choice. This carrot and stick technique has worked well for us because computer games have always been considered as a treat, but this may not be ideal if your home-schooling requires yet more screen time, and a different ‘carrot’ is required.
  2. Lessons in a cafe – a change is as good as a holiday.

    Home-Schooling Method – What is your homeschooling philosophy? For example – are you following a set curriculum from school/paid-for online curriculum/Unschooling//Steiner/Montessori/etc… Whether you are home-schooling by choice or by necessity, one of the benefits is that you can choose a teaching style and curriculum that better suits you and your child. It could be that your child is struggling with a subject, reading, writing or maths, but you find a really useful video on YouTube, or draw on ideas from Steiner, and other alternative teaching methodologies that your child connects with better. If you are looking for more information on different teaching methodology you can find out more online. Check out: educationalfreedom.org,   Steiner Education,  Montessori, as well as useful publications like Alternative Approaches to Education.

    Nature walk treasure – a sparrow’s egg
  3. Learning Resources (varied, inspiring and free).  I personally find the following free online resources very helpful: YouTube, BBC Bitesize (high quality support and lesson ideas based around the UK Curriculum, if you are abroad you will need to use WiFi from a UK SIM card to view full content), Duolingo (which is available as a free language learning app and offer brilliant podcasts on Spotify), Oxford Owl  (fantastic free site to help you keep your child up to date with the UK curriculum educational standards, learning resources and free e-books), and The National Academy (has a good, free virtual library). To avoid too much screen time, I also like learning from books, libraries, day-trips, nature/forest-schooling.
  4. Routine Establishing a suitable routine for your household is very helpful. We aim to start at 9am, and usually begin with physical exercise or a couple of body percussion songs. Otherwise the day seems to slip through my fingers in a mind numbing haze of exercise books and screens. The kids get hungry around 11am when we stop for a snack and a short break, then we study again until Spanish lunchtime, which is around 2pm. After lunch is free-time for the boys, playing with school friends either physically or online, going to the playground, or getting on with personal craft projects (usually drawing or knitting).
  5. The Arts (My favourite lessons). I tend to lean heavily on YouTube channels for crafts and music- searching for videos on whatever the kids want to learn; my boys love origami and paper-crafts (we are currently learning how to make a Mandalorian helmet out of cardboard), kids singing and body percussion if you have no musical instruments. We really enjoy Draw with Rob illustration classes for younger children. Udemy also offers some great, low-cost creative courses which are often suitable for all ages.
  6. PE Lesson – Going for walk

    Physical Exercise I try to build PE into our daily lives, mainly walking the dog or scooting to the park or market. It’s quite hard to get motivated during lock-down, especially here in Spain where adults and children over the age of six need to wear a mask in all public places, so I let the kids choose their form of exercise and have thus become an acrobatics, inline skating, climbing and swimming instructor, keeping me on my toes in the process. We are also enjoying burning energy in the skate park and playgrounds, whilst they remain open. Or you could subscribe to Joe Wicks’ YouTube channel for his distance learning PE lessons.

  7. Break-time – Don’t underestimate the importance of break-time! Snacks, fresh air, hydration and physical play really help to break up the day, for parents as well as the kids! On our break-time we usually go for a swim; nothing like jumping into the sea to help clear the mind!
  8. Play-date with friends

    Social interaction  Living in Spain, AND home-schooling, we have to deal with home-sickness as well as social distancing induced boredom and loneliness. Video calls with friends and seeing other kids at the playground really help. We also make an effort to meet fellow boat families in the marina, and organise play-dates with friends from the Spanish Waldorf school the kids were attending last year, whenever social interaction is permitted. Friendships are really important. Whilst spending six months in the marina over winter we also signed up for acrobatics classes and me friends in the woods to learn woodcarving and build a treehouse.

  9. The Bad Days – It’s gonna happen! Try to keep perspective. Being a teacher is hard enough let alone teaching your own children, day in day out, confined to your house due to a global pandemic situation that even with the best will in the world, the kids simply don’t understand. There are days, most days I expect, at regular school when our kids learn very little; because they’re not inspired, they’re tired, they got distracted. This is normal. Your kid will have a couple of bad days or weeks settling into homeschooling, or after a holiday or illness, when they, and you, feel like throwing in the academic towel, and my advice to you would be to do just that. Simply don’t home-school those days. Take a break. go for a walk, stick a documentary on for them on a subject they’re interested in, or leave them with a pile of colouring in books, or reading, and try not to worry. There are many reasons a child refuses to study – physical ones like they are tired/ill/hungry/thirsty, and emotional ones like they are stressed, scared or feeling defeated by something. On these days, what they need most is trust, patience and a bit of TLC. Keep offering them the space and the time to learn and if one teaching method/curriculum doesn’t work for you and/or them then try again with another. You cannot replace all the teachers in a school. That is impossible. But what you can do is be yourself. Play to your strengths as a teacher, and for the lessons you find hard to teach, the internet probably has the answer. Finally, reach out to fellow home-schooling parents, and you will find that you are never alone.
  10. Baby Yoda testing out a Roman bridge made from white radish. You got to be creative sometimes on a boat…
    Ancient civilisations and art turn out to be things I really love teaching. Here are some mosaics…

    Finding the Joy – One thing not mentioned that I’m really enjoying on our voyage into home-schooling is that I remembered I love learning, and now I get to learn along with my kids. I have so far become an expert in dinosaurs,  the ages of prehistoric man, the Vikings, Greek mythology and Ancient Egypt. I have also had the chance to refresh long forgotten skills in Maths, French and knitting, and love joining in with kids’ singing, art and craft lessons on YouTube. In fact, home-schooling my kids has already taught me many new things, the very least of which was how to teach; that journey I am still on.

 

I hope that at least some of this information has been of use to you, and if nothing else to know that you’re not alone and that, quite literally, worse things happen at sea…

 

Probably the most beautiful and inspiring free teaching resource in the world: The Lost Words art/music/poetry/wildlife project for all ages.

(click title above for link to the free learning resource download)

Buy the books here:

#homeschooling, #boatschooling, #liveaboardfamily

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Living-aboard in Times of Covid

“We’ve gone on holiday by mistake!” – Withnail and I

The movie Withnail and I is a hilarious, cult status black comedy set in 1969 London about two young, co-habiting, out-of-work actors: Withnail being played by a young Richard E Grant. In an attempt to escape the drugs and rock and roll drop-out culture of the city they drive to their uncle’s rustic country cottage for a long weekend, only to discover that they are not cut out for country life at all, and it had been, in short, a bad idea.

Social Distancing Christmas – going for a quiet paddle on Christmas Day

And so it is that many thousands of people find themselves in situations where they would never have been if only they had known that a pandemic would bring the world’s transport, economy and healthcare systems to their knees for over a year…

Here in Ibiza, for example, where the economy is based almost solely around tourism, the once notoriously effervescent and crowded bars and beaches are all but deserted and silent – ghost towns now frequented by occasional masked, mouthless figures, heads down, busy relearning the most elemental art of basic economic survival.

In Madrid it is not just the healthcare system that is failing, but social services, as a shanty town of people who have lost their jobs, and subsequently their homes, spreads like a dark stain in the abnormally deep snow around the outskirts of the capital. If only this story we’re living through were a black comedy in the 1960s. Instead it is shaping up more like a dark and foreboding science fiction.

Pirates of the marina

If we had known there would be a pandemic that would confine us to the island perhaps we would have thought twice about letting our rental flat go to move onto the boat. If we had known that said pandemic would tragically take the life of my stepfather in the UK and that we would be unable to travel home to support my mother then we would have moved back to the UK. The decisions we have had to make these past six months have not been easy, and at the same time we haven’t had much choice.

Likewise, we would not have become embroiled in the epic saga of applying for Spanish residency post-Brexit. If we had been gifted with the foresight of any one of these events, we wouldn’t have bought a boat at all.

Everything is clearer in hindsight.

Yet here we are, a British family of four and a large dog, stuck in Ibiza on a boat that is, according to a horrified family member, “smaller than a bedroom”, during level 4 Covid restrictions, homeschooling, and Brexit…

“that boat looks smaller than my bedroom” (and it probably is)

In many ways it is better to be living on a boat. It is, by nature, the ultimate in ‘social distancing’ and when we get tired of the same view out the window we simply up anchor and move. On calm days we can take our whole house out for a sail, into the bright blue wilderness that is the Mediterranean sea during Covid lockdown, drink in the fresh air, and dive into the cool, refreshing waters…

Sailing is the ultimate in social distancing – Finlay out in an optimist a friend lent us to teach the kids to sail. Since Covid confinement the bay is quieter by the week, and there is now a campaign to prevent the ferries returning to San Antonio; the posidonia sea grass has started to recover and dolphins and even whales have returned to the bay for the first time in many years.

We are in fact, midst all this chaos, feeling very fortunate. To have a roof over our heads, albeit small, wind-swept and leaking like a sieve during the winter storms. For Dom to be able to work remotely. For the food on the table, drinking water from the tap, toilets and hot showers at the end of the pontoon, and plug in electricity that powers a small heater to take the chill off the colder, damper nights of the Mediterranean in Winter (yes, it did get down to zero for a week or two in January). And last, but not least for the technological bounty of video-calling; being able to connect with distant friends and family at the push of a button.

During a 3 hour sail we only saw three small fishing boats in the once bustling San Antonio bay

We are also enjoying being part of the San Antonio marina community – a random collection of people living on boats because like us, for one reason or another, they have no-where else to go. We share knowledge, tools, boat repairs, food, and good company, and the days of more oppressive social distancing pass by all the quicker for it. Based on news coverage from around the world and good long video chats with friends and family back home, the reestablishment of community support systems has been one of the few good things that have arisen as a result of the virus.

It turns out that when the chips are down, what is most important to us all is the support and well-being of our fellow human being.

As I am typing this the sunshine has returned to the island after a month of cold, wet and violently storms; born on the winds of heavy snow on the continent. The kids sit round the tiny table with me learning French on Duolingo and BBC Bitesize, and we have just received an email confirming the progress of our Spanish residency application – we now have NIE European identity cards.

It is true for many reasons that we have moved onto a boat “by mistake”. But equally, given the current situation, there aren’t many other places we’d rather be right now, and as the global socio-economic-health dust storm of 2020 slowly begins to settle, we will tentatively set our sights on home.

Fig tree, sea and a single sail
Working remotely on-board
Boat-schooling
Nature returns to the unusually quiet bay
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Saving Floss – a lesson in how to repair a shipwreck

Fixing Floss, a story in photos…

On 5th October, 2019 we bought Floss from a private seller in San Antonio bay, Ibiza. She’s a Catalac 9m, small fibreglass catamaran, built in 1983 in Christchurch, UK. She lived in Poole harbour for many years before being sailed to Greece, where the previous owners bought her and moved her to Ibiza.

Floss was Dom’s dream boat… just about. A catamaran slightly larger than the Diamond 24 we co-own with some friends in Scotland, with just enough space for a family of 4 to live on in relative comfort, and fitting within our ‘non luxury boat owner’ price-range.

As a 36 year old boat, she was in need of some renovations, which the previous owners were part-way through. However, after she was torn from her mooring and wrecked on the beach during a week of storms in Ibiza just four weeks after we bought her, she was in need of a whole lot more.

A story that would break our hearts, break our bank accounts, and almost break our family apart…

 

OCTOBER 2019

Floss’s first sail… San Antonio to Cala Salada, at sunset. October 2019
Sunset over Conejera island
Finn Learning to row the dinghy with Lily-dog helping him and Ben photo-bombing! San Antonio Bay. Even in the first week of owning Floss she was already enriching our lives.

NOVEMBER 2019

I (Alex) leave for the UK for two weeks to look after my mother as she had a knee operation. Dom stayed in Ibiza to look after the kids, dog and boat… Strong winds were forecast and as I shut the garden gate behind me I suggested getting Floss into a marina for the week just in case. Dom said he’d think about it but it would be hard on his own and with the kids in tow, and in the end decided against it as the mooring block she was on was sound. A decision that we immediately came to regret.

The wind blew strong from the West tearing right through San Antonio bay for 7 days, whipping up 4m waves and Floss bounced around on her mooring with the other boats in the bay. Dom managed to get out to her to secure some extra mooring lines in the dinghy of a neighbour’s boat, braving the storm, but the very next day she was found washed up on the beach along with several other boats from the bay. The constant movement of the waves had ripped three mooring cleats from the deck, and she dragged anchor onto the beach, unfortunately via some rocks…

Floss on the beach, a scuba team attempting (and failing) to float her into the marina, 8th November 2019
High and dry. Phase one of boat salvage complete – Floss is moved up the beach out of the water…

After much searching, and two weeks sleeping aboard a shipwreck to protect it from opportunistic thieves, Dom found a ‘grua’ company who could move Floss to a boatyard. It was no easy feat as being a catamaran she was wider than the tow-truck and would require a police escort.

The kids enjoy watching the crane moving the boat
Planning how to lift her
Is it a bird…? Is it a plane…??
One hull gutted like a giant fish, entrails hanging out… 🙁
Once she was on the trailer we could really assess the damage. Unfortunately the process of moving her had enlarged the hole.
Arriving at the boat yard…
Removing a tonne of sand from the hull, and one large stone…

JANUARY-JULY 2020

We began the repair work ourselves, however the boat-yard stipulated that we must have an experienced fibreglass expert repair the hull and all their team were fully booked til Spring. So we asked around found a fibreglass engineer on the island who could work with us, fitting us in in his spare time as he loved that we were repairing an old boat to live on as our home. And then the work began in earnest…

Both hulls, the good and the bad, were cleaned back and prepared.
The jagged edges were cut away to prepare for a new fibreglass hull to be layered up from the inside out
A cast was taken of the good hull and the applied over the hole, and a new layer of fibreglass created

Building up layers of fibre to create a mould of the good side
Fibreglass
Marking up the mould
Cleaning up the holey side ready for the mould

Cutting away the floor inside to access the area needing fibreglassing
Putting the mould on wheels to move it over
The mould is bolted on
The fibreglass was layered up from the inside to create a new hull, and then the mould was removed
No more hole!

Cleaning inside
Repairing the cut-away floors

 

An old boat that has been wrecked doesn’t just need the hole repairing, there were also electrics and many other jobs to do.

 

Repairing the old rudders
Cleaning and sanding the hulls to prepare for copper-coat anti-fouling
Testing the batteries
Replacing the broken cleats
Cleaning the water tanks
Re-installing the solar panels after their frame was broken by the crane, and one panel was stolen whilst the boat was stuck on the beach.
The plastic work tent used to contain the fibreglass dust comes down.
More work on the electrics – the boat was completely rewired
The boat was also completely re-plumbed
More work on the inside of the new hull
Smoothing of the new hull and preparation for copper-coat
Waste pipes go in.
The copper-coat is applied
Ain’t she pretty!
Ready for launch… 🙂

JULY 2020

On the 7th of July Floss was relaunched from Ibiza town harbour, and we sailed all night in light winds, and by the light of the full moon, round to San Antonio bay to pick up a mooring not so far away from the one she’d been torn from the Autumn before. Only this time we would not be taking any more chances with storms…

Floss, San Antonio bay, July 2020
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Ulefone Armor x5 Waterproof Phone – best sailing phone?

I’ve had a spectacularly unlucky year with broken phones, and finally came to the conclusion that, now I’m living on a boat, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get a ruggedised, waterproof mobile phone.

The Ulefone Armor range of phones are waterproof to 30m, provided you haven’t damaged the casing or left the access panels for the headphone socket, USB and SIM cards open. They come already equipped with drop-proof casing and an anti-scratch screen cover, and all that for under £150. So let’s see what they’re really like to use as a phone…

REVIEW:

Takes two SIM cards, and/or an SD card.

Reasonable built in memory.

Good camera and video, including advanced effects like panorama.

Good screen.

It comes pre-installed with a useful toolbox, including – spirit level, calculator, torch, notepad, compass, magnifier, plumb bob, alarm bell, and height meter.

Easy set-up.

I have to say, so far I’m really happy with this phone. I’ve had it a week and am really enjoying it.

Downsides:

It weighs like a brick!

There’s no back button, so you have to swipe left and right, which can be a little oversensitive, but you get used to it.

It could do with a wrist strap attachment so you don’t drop it when swimming/canoeing/sailing, etc… as it really won’t float!

Overall:

If you like to use your phone in all conditions – either sports, work, or like me – life – then this phone is definitely for you. Check out the photos I took with it below, and prices and availability to buy online.

See what you think, check out other people’s reviews on Amazon for this phone and other Ulefone waterproof phones…    https://amzn.to/36uOxT0

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Ibiza by Boat

Floss – the story so far…

We bought Floss, a nine metre Catalac catamaran, in the Autumn last year and two weeks after buying her strong winds tore her from the mooring and left her washed up on a beach nearby with one hull gauged open from bow to stern, looking very much like she’d been attacked by a giant tin opener. The Winter flew by, the weeks marked by our sweat, blood and tears (and euros) fixing her. Then further delayed by strict Spanish covid-19 quarantine laws, we finally relaunched Floss the first week in July 2020.

As I sit aboard Floss typing this, surrounded by half finished projects on the boat, it is very hard to believe that we have have been living aboard as a family for two months now. In some ways I was expecting to be more advanced with our non-essential boat repairs as well as our travels, but in other ways I wake every morning simply amazed and grateful that we are even here at all.

The weather this Summer has been distractingly balmy and the waters a divinely inviting crystal clear blue, Ibiza tunes drifting by on the breeze off the beach… Where I sit right now, Es Vedra – a large magnetic rock – rising majestically out of the sea, guarding the entrance to Cala D’Hort bay, and I have to confess that it is really hard to get any work done. I have over a 1000 photos and videos to share with you and countless adventures and stories to tell which I will endeavour to do so as I steadily get used to our new rhythm of life on the sea.

But for now, here are some photos of where we are right now to keep you going…

         To help paint the scene, Dom is working, the boys are off sailing on a friend’s proa and the (wet) dog is curled up by my feet having just got in from her third swim of the day, it’s 6pm and 28 degrees with a gentle breeze and we are anchored in the midst of around 20 other boats in the magical Cala D’Hort, situated on the south west corner of Ibiza.

Es Vedra
Vedra by moonlight

 

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Test Diving the AKASO Brave 4 Action Camera

I just bought a budget action camera to take paddle boarding and snorkeling with the kids and am really enjoying testing it to it’s limits…

Check out my first swim with it on YouTube here:

Diving with AKASO Brave 4 and a Barracuda

You can also SUBSCRIBE to our channel and we will be uploading more homegrown family adventure, tech review and boat repair videos soon… 🙂

The AKASO Brave 4 comes complete with a large range of accessories to go underwater up to 30m, and to attach it to full face snorkels, handle bars, helmets and car dashboards. My gorilla tripod snuck into this pic but it’s not included with the camera kit, but the kit does include an attachment that fits a standard tripod fitting when both in and out of the waterproof housing. Good to know! One thing it DOESN’T come with is a harness or strap to wear it whilst swimming and a float which are useful, although after constructing our own body harness to swim with using paracord and a large fishing float we discovered the the camera in it’s waterproof case actually floats on it’s own. One final thing you’ll need to buy separately is a memory card. I put a 64GB card in and tend to reformat every time I’ve backed it up so no problems there.

 

REVIEW:

The Brave 4 is recommended by many tech review sites as one of the best value Go Pro alternatives and I have to agree.

Currently retailing for £70-80 on Amazon, compared to a Go Pro Hero 7, a really popular action camera, retailing at £260-360, but does not include accessories.

It really depends what you’re looking for. I hear the handlebar accessory for the AKASO which is included free in the kit breaks easily with hard mountain biking use, but you can always buy a Go Pro one which should fit the AKASO and take a few more knocks. I haven’t tried it myself so check before you buy…

Check AKASO Brave 4 prices – Amazon UK

Check Go Pro Hero 7 prices – Amazon UK

It is not the cheapest of the cheap cameras, but likewise does not shoot using fish-eye (though some above water photos and videos look a tiny bit curved, this doesnt’ seem to be a problem shooting underwater), I did not have to adjust or enhance any photo or video I’ve take so far.

You can get the next AKASO up in price-range (EK7000 Pro) which has touch screen but as I’m mainly using it for underwater in it’s housing for me there was really no point. And it’s still shoots at 60fps in 4k, with built in stabilisation and a choice of lens width including wide angle (170). I shot my first movie above in 110. It also comes with a wrist band remote control, but this is not suitable for underwater. You can however connect to your phone with WiFi and have someone controlling the camera from somewhere dry.

The only downside for me is the sound quality is not very good, and there is no way of adding an external mic… However, if you are into your video editing you can always record audio separately and add it in afterwards, or simply add some rad tunes over your footage instead, as let’s face it, who wants to hear someone talking whilst they’re doing extreme sports? Unless they’re screaming, which is always entertaining (as long as they’re not badly injured), and the AKASO will pick up a good scream no problem.

Using the 5x zoom for photos…
Best in clear waters.
Good in strong lighting.
Captures colour underwater quite well.

 

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Moving Day – Leaving our flat to move onto a boat…

I will miss the neglected but well walked woodland that flanks the dirt car park outside our balcony window. The the wind whispering in the pine trees. The dappled light, filtering green down through the dense aromatic branches, that dances on the closed curtains like a delicate shadow puppet show. The myriad of wildlife on our doorstep, and sometimes inside the threshold too.

Today, I’m lying in bed listening to the daily ecstatic dawn chorus – ever more raucous during the peace and solitude that a spring and summer without tourists the covid-19 quarantine has gifted this small yet notorious Mediterranean island. Common or garden blackbirds, robins, yellow wagtails, warblers, wood pigeons, and the humble Spanish sparrows discuss the morning news with the elusive and exotic looking pink hoopoe. Summer visiting swifts and sand martins wheel and scream, high up in the endless blue expanses, in feeding frenzies catching mosquitoes for their growing offspring, while the amorous local sparrows are speed-dating, and re-feathering their nests in the recently pruned palm trees, preparing for their second, or even third broods this year. Giant dragon flies hover between relays from sun to shade and back again, their brilliant colours flashing and changing with the light – vermilion, azure, emerald and cyan. Green pitiusic lizards laze on rocks and walls, warming their scales and contemplating the day or perhaps meal ahead, whilst avoiding the non-native snakes that in recent years have invaded the island from the mainland, sneaking in on olive trees disguised as bark. Sleepy brown butterflies, likewise, select sunlit flowers to stretch their wings, whilst the hummingbird moths lie-in, waiting for evening to make a high-speed circuit of their favourite flowers – verbena, hibiscus and jasmine.

I soak up the last few hours of these experiences, all five senses full to brimming over, trying to bottle them to keep in my box of most happy and delicious memories. My eyes scan over the almond tree design on that fills the wall in front of the bed. The boys and I spent several days painting woody patterns on paper and cutting shapes of trunk, sticks and leaves. Every size and colour of blossom and butterfly, and happy smiling bee adorn the tree, and my eldest son Finn made his own almond sapling to rest in the shade of the mother tree. I can hardly believe, nor want to, that it is time for us to go. So many happy memories this house holds, inside and out, from just a fleeting two year stay. Through the window I watch the pepper and passionfruit plants growing in their pots on the steps. They are far from fruiting so will make good parting gifts for our friends and neighbours to remember us by. It is safe to say that in this short stay, we have really put down roots, and Mediterranean life has hooked in deep under our sun burnished skin.

The tiny studio flat is waist-deep with boxed up belongings, most of which we will not need during our summer on the boat, nor perhaps ever again if the wind takes us away from the island towards a Winter in Italy, Croatia or beyond. Or if ever more common summer storms, with the unpredictability of climate change, return us to shore sooner than expected, clinging to the safety of bricks and mortar once more. And if that shore should be Ibiza, Spain, England or Scotland – our ‘home’, or at least it used to be, and may have to be once more when impact of Brexit takes full force at the end of this year, and a second Scottish referendum broods on the changing skies of potentiality. So we are attempting to prepare for every eventuality. There are boxes for the boat, for the campervan and to store in a trailer ready for future home-making on land, whenever and wherever that piece of land turns out to be. My head reels from the multitude of variables presenting us right now, and my heart aches and longs for the security of a simple, static life. How ever did we get ourselves into such a fix?

But Floss is launching in two days time and needs a crew to care for her, and guide her through unknown waters. The hours of packing and preparation tick on unrelenting, leading us onward and outward to new horizons.

The Sunday morning bell tolls, as it has done for over 500 years, ringing out from the little church on the hill – calling “all is well”. No pirates today. Only an empty Sunday mass that you can view online from the safety of a screen at home. The bells, and the fortified church with it’s two metre thick fortified walls, are frozen in time, but life moves on.

Dom sat having a quiet coffee amidst the packing carnage