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33. Ten days to go before we set sail on our grand adventure

Set sail on our grand adventureTen days to go! That’s it – ten days before our new life becomes real.

So how do I feel 10 days before we set sail on our grand adventure?

I still oscillate between feeling excited, scared, and flat out exhausted. Sometimes the fear overwhelms me a bit but I keep reminding myself that ‘everything will be fine.’ In England, the smell of spring is in the air right now and all the flowers are popping up. The smells and colours seem to be pulling me towards warmer weather and the ability to spend more time outside! Whenever spring starts, I feel giddy – I just want to get out and enjoy the outdoors.

Interestingly, I haven’t once thought about our old house or any of the many possessions we sold, gave away, or sent to the dumps. And two days ago, the car finally went. I’m not much of a car person so I can guarantee I won’t be bothered by the lack of our car. Fortunately, we can use my father-in-law’s car until we leave.

As far as planning and preparations go, there’s very little left to do other than pack up our remaining bits and bobs to take with us on the plane. The pallet is packed up and is ready to go. We drove to Oyster in Ipswich and the kind staff there helped us load up two pallets. One contained all our stuff and the other contained a sail, the workshop bed, and some other cushions that the previous owner needed to send to us. Although it was a 4-hour journey to get to Ipswich, we managed to stop off and see Simon’s aunt. And on the way home, we took a detour and enjoyed a day out at Hever Castle – home to Anne Boleyn (one of King Henry the VIII’s wives).

Anyway…I’ll get some new make-up to bring with me and perhaps something for Sienna to play with on the plane, but that will be it. We opted to get three vaccinations. Simon and I got our Tetanus, HepA, and Typhoid injection. We had Sienna get HepA and Typhoid. There is Yellow Fever in the South Caribbean but we thought we’ll avoid those areas.

And all the jobs, bar one, are finished on the boat

We have to get the water-marker serviced or perhaps do it ourselves? Our contact in Gibraltar has told us to give it a go ourselves.

Otherwise, it’s all about getting this website up to date, finishing and publishing a book I’m creating on sailing checklists, and sorting out the technology side of things. I’m not sure how and while I’ll get internet access and I’m not sure about the quality of it either. I’ll just have to play it by ear.

So, this is the plan from here on out:

  • Pick out my father-in-law at the airport on Monday. He’s returning from his 35-day cruise around the Pacific. We purposely decided on our leave date for the 24th of March so that we could spend a week with him before we left. The cruise was booked way before we decided to sell up and sail away!
  • On Friday, I’m driving to Heathrow to pick up my cousin and first crew member! Loryn is joining us from the very beginning and I’m so happy to have her with us. She’s never been on a sailboat before so I hope she likes it! Like us, Loryn has taken the plunge and sold everything she owns back home in Fredonia, New York to join us on our adventure. She just turned 30 and thought it’s time to shake up her life a bit…we’ll, she’s shaking.
  • A week from Monday, Simon, Sienna, Loryn and I all fly from Gatwick to Gibraltar – heading for a new future full of adventure, fun, experience, new memories, and ???
  • Five days later, Skipper Mike arrives. Due to regulations we need to have a professional skipper take us into Malta so that we can take care of our taxes. Skipper Mike is the same skipper that help us bring our first boat, Selene, from Oban, Scotland to England’s South Coast. Since our first meeting, Skipper Mike has become a Friend Mike. We’re delighted to have him with us.
  • In addition to Mike, my great friend Eneka Stewart will also be arriving in Gibraltar. Ene is a professional photographer and will be taking pictures of our first voyage! I’m so thankful to have her with us. It’s s dream come true to be able to share these memories with others.
  • By April something, we’ll hopefully be in Malta! From there we’ll figure out our next steps. Hubby wants to head to Crete but I’m thinking a nice short sail might be better. Perhaps Sicily? OMG. How exciting.

Back to today

Today and the next few days, however, will be about amusing Sienna. Yesterday we were told that she has chickenpox! The timing is actually perfect. We’re not doing anything over the next several days. Furthermore, I’d rather have her get the pox here…and get them out of the way.

So – I’m going to get this website all up to date. Set up my newsletter – enter your email address at the very top if you’d like email updates. I need to turn off some old websites I no longer work on. Figure out how to use my external hard drive with all my Mac products… It’s all small fiddley stuff.

OMG – only 10 days to go!!!! Only 10 days before we set sail on our grand adventure!!

Next Chapter: 34. Will this sailing adventure turn me into a dreadlocked, pot smoking, whale saver?

Previous Chapter: 32. Less than 3 weeks to go before we sail off into the sunset

Or…if you’d like to carry on reading all about our journey from selling up and sailing away, you can purchase my book, ‘Changing Lifestyles – Trading the Rat Race in For A Sail Around The World,’ 

Changing LifestylesREADER REVIEW
On Amazon. 5 Star Review!
"Interested in The Sailing Lifestyle? Are your needing just one more reason to change your life for the better, Just buy this book. I actually bought this for my wife(Workaholic) last year. It was the deciding factor for us to change things 😉 , After she read Kim's Book & we watched a few episodes of Sailing Britican (& a few others) we realized there is more to life than the rat race.....!
Thanks." Jon D.
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Changing Lifestyles: Trading in the Rat Race for a Sail Around The World (my book). Chapters:

  • 1. That’s it – I’m selling everything and sailing around the world!

  • 2. Oh crap – Are we healthy enough to sail around the world?

  • 3. House sold, price on yacht almost negotiated – just need temporary housing now!

  • 4. Before I sell up and sail away I need to clean out my closet (in many ways)

  • 5. Getting the boat of our dreams – will we or won’t we?

  • 6. Negotiations 56 Oyster Yacht have finished but not without massive pain

  • 7. Everything was going well until we got this phone call…

  • 8. Quick, quick – we need to sell our current boat. We need a place to live. We need to…

  • 9. My new normal and dealing with giving up all our possessions

  • 10. Going from sailing Selene to selling Selene so we could afford to buy our 56′

  • 11. Sea trials and the survey – the night before we meet our dream yacht

  • 12. Hours before we meet our new yacht…our new home!

  • 13. Sea trials on the Oyster 56 were a success – we love her!

  • 14. Getting a yacht lifted out for a Marine Survey

  • Extra: Sell Up and Sail Away Video – Sea Trails & Survey

  • 15. After sea trials and the survey I ran a marathon (accidentally)

  • 16. What does homeschooling, the paleo diet, writing, and photography have to do with sailing?

  • 17. I’m so freaking frustrated – the world is broken

  • 18. Saying goodbye to my old routines and old lifestyle

  • 19. Life has slowed way down – is it the calm before the storm?

  • 20. A lesson on stopping the ‘what-if’s’ from taking over my life!

  • 21. Serious issue – we can’t take our yacht to Barcelona, Spain as planned – YIKES!

  • Extra: Sell Up and Sail Away Video 2 – Our thoughts, feelings and move day!

  • 22. The day before we purchase our 56′ Oyster

  • 23. My first trip on our new yacht – Dolphins included!

  • 24. Feeling excited, sick, and in awe are not mutually exclusive when sailing on the seas

  • 25.Things got worse

  • Extra: Sell Up and Sail Away Video 3 – Palma Mallorca to Gibraltar

  • 26. Sell up and sail away preparations – we successfully took possession of your new yacht

  • 27. Preparation for our around the world sailing trip couldn’t get more exciting!

  • 28. Two months to go before we set sail for our world adventure

  • 29. We got a gun, but not the kind you’re probably thinking of

  • 30. The contrast of sailing around the world and cancer

  • Extra: The reason I decided to sell up and sail away (video)

  • 31. Courses, becoming British, putting our remaining possessions on a pallet and what else?

  • Extra. No – we did not win the lottery!

  • 32. Less than 3 weeks to go before we sail off into the sunset

  • 33. Ten days to go before we set sail on our grand adventure

  • 34. Will this sailing adventure turn me into a dreadlocked, pot smoking, whale saver?

  • 35. In 2 days we will set sail around the world sailing adventure

  • 36. Leaving Gosport England today to start on our around the world sailing adventure

  • 37. Life aboard our new yacht with the BBC, Daily Mail and Times in tow

  • 38. Feeling amazing, scared, overwhelmed and useless

  • 39. Sailing Gibraltar To Malta

  • 40. I’m honoured to introduce Loryn Bennett – Britican’s Chef

  • 41. I still can’t even believe this is happening

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