We’re back! After several months at home working, cleaning, plus whirlwind visits with friends and family, we flew back to Portugal at the end of March. First off was time with Mads and Lotta, who were kind enough to let us stay with them while we turned the boat back into something we could live on once again. We dove into the tasks of unpacking, filling the water tanks, airing out all the clothing and linens that had been packed away, installing the new batteries (were able to donate the old ones to friends who will be using them to power an electric fence or a water pump up in the mountains!), washing the boat, and generally cleaning things up. No matter how well we store things away, it always takes a few days. Linens always smell a bit stale, no matter how freshly laundered and zipped up in compression bags. A bit of mildew always forms, despite the regular airing that Mads gave over the winter, and of course there was a fine layer of dust on both the outside and inside.
In between bouts of cleaning, there were lots of trips to the farmers market and the local stores. You can only buy what you can carry, but the exercise is always nice (one of the things I really missed while back in New Jersey was the ability to walk to run errands). My lists were usually a mix of daily needs plus long term cruising supplies. The one advantage we have this season is that we don’t have any extensive, long passages planned, so will pretty much be able to provision as we go along. There’s an additional incentive not to over provision – this season promises to be some of the best eating, with Spain and Italy on the docket.
And in between it all, time to catch up with old and new friends. The live-aboard community here is a delightful one. We’ve had the chance to try Qi Gong, meet up with fellow sailors for regular happy hours, play darts at a local pub, and I even got in an afternoon of paddle boarding (I’m hoping for much more of that this season).
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