Departure Day!

Well folks, here it is, after almost 5 years - departure day!

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, it's been a busy week.... First up, testing of our newly acquired cruising chute:

And subsequent minor repairs to it:

 

Then there was dinner and drinks with our sailing chums from Irreversible:

 

After that, the port engine needed an injector swapped (apologies about the bag of shoes - they're yet to be stored / ditched) and both engines needed oil changes and final tune ups.

And then we went shopping (#1 of #4).....

The weather has been truly diabolical the last 48 hours, with 40+ kts and plenty of rain, but the sun is now shining which can only be a good thing....

And time for one last sunset shot.

So there you go. On a personal note, it's been one hell of a trip so far. I bought Calypso back in Oct 2010 and having completely rebuilt it, am proud of what it's become. The project has had it's supporters and detractors but at the end of the day, we're both happy with the boat we have to take us to some pretty far flung places, and that's what counts. There's too many thank you's to mention and I'd hate to offend someone by missing them from the list, so to all those who've supported us - thank you.

I don't need to justify why Lauren and I have cashed it all in to head out on this amazing adventure. Time is a precious commodity, and I'm so glad we've both realised this now, rather than once we get past retirement age and are staring down the barrel.

We're both giving up the work attire, the working lunches, freezing early morning commutes and late night meetings. Giving up the expensive flat, sports car and toys that really, neither of us actually need.

We don’t need a lot of the stuff we had. We won’t have the latest smart phones, we’ll barely get a chance to check Facebook and our inboxes will undoubtedly overflow with emails that we’ll read weeks out of date. The world will go by and do you know what? It won’t really matter.

We’ll still be concerned about friends and family, interested in what’s going on in everyone’s lives and feeling guilty for missing birthdays and Christmas. We’ll deal with terribly glitchy Skype connections, snail mail and static-filled phone calls to keep in touch.

We’ll live in a flat that measures 43ft x 12ft. Our tender will be our car. And the kayaks? Well, they’re amazing for getting some quiet time.

What now matters to us is whether we have good weather for our next passage, that our floating house functions as it needs to, and what great country awaits us next.

We’ll update everyone (through this blog) whenever we can, and organise Skype sessions when time and connectivity allows. If you don't hear from us for a bit, send us an email - chances are we've probably got side tracked exploring somewhere or working on another boat project. 

Later folks.