Can I invite myself?

A couple of weeks ago Max received a message from his auntie Jean. She had been following our journey and was wondering whether she could tag along with us for a few days, or a week, or whatever. She would be flexible and would meet us wherever was convenient. We thought that this was just awesome and we knew we would have a great time together, so quickly set it up.

So early in the morning on August 8, Max and Beau went to the airport on the island of Limnos to pick Jean up. We only sailed to the nearest nice bay that morning, for a day of swimming, relaxing and catching up.

Highlights of the week:

• Going out to do an 8-hour crossing from Limnos to Lesbos in 30+ knot winds thinking it would be fine – and then turning back after about an hour of being tossed around the cockpit by massive waves. If it’s no fun and we don’t have to get there today, why bother! We set out again a couple days later and, as Jean put it, the sea was a completely different beastie that day.

   

  

  

  

  

• Having a lovely lunner (too late to call it lunch and too early to be dinner) at a taverna in Sigri Bay, Lesbos. While we ate and drank, the kids watched as the whole town got involved in some serious sandcastle building. Well, all sorts of structures really: mermaids, islands with volcanos, Disney figures…

  

  

  

  

  

  

• Catching a bird instead of a fish when a seagull went for the lure on our fishing line…

  

  

• The three of us (Jean, Max and me) lying on our backs on the front deck, watching a meteor shower on a clear night in a bay without any lights around us.

  

• Getting back into civilisation by mooring the boat to the town quay in Mitilini and discovering we were tied up right outside the bus stop… A bit weird and there were way too many people looking into our cockpit!

  

Thank you Jean for coming out to see us!

Bianca Kindler