Having experienced enough storms to tell our grandchildren about, we decided it might be better not to sail during the winter when the weather is so very unpredictable. At first this was hard to accept. I prefer being on the move, especially during �a year of sailing�
But after some weeks I began to see the positive sides of a regular life in one spot again.
First you should know that we have enjoyed the pleasures of the ship of friends of ours. Juan and Simela were on holiday for about six weeks. We offered to keep an eye on their boat, which we took very literally. We moved in and have been enjoying that palace with a oven, shower, lounge and a double bed (which is really double, and not one and a bit like our own bed).
But we didn�t move in to enjoy its luxury only, mainly we wanted to improve the Nausikaa. She was lying beside us now her door shines again with a fresh brush of paint. The deck, which was moving up and down when we walked on it, is now filled with epoxy. New cleats are installed and on the better and longer genuarailses we are very proud. We have bought a new genuasail. The former one was falling appart, for me it was a weekly job to tape the pieces together again.
The list of jobs which seemed to be never ending turns out to have an end after all. Of course we made a priority list of which most al the things we wanted to do before we go east are done now. The hundred less important things will have to wait for another sabbatical.
Besides this �working� we have been doing a Spanish course. Jeroen was in a group with four other students who can all speak Spanish quite well. I was in the beginner�s course also with four other students. It was pretty intensive. Three nights a week, three hours each night. Because we didn�t want to stay in Palma we were in Porto Christo, one and a half our to and back to the university. It was a long way, but it was worth it.
We have just had our exams and although we don�t have the results yet, we are almost sure we have passed. Jeroen is chatting away in Spanish now and I can ask where the busstop is and say that I don�t know the word, but that I would like to have that (using my international index finger).
Besides working and learning, our social life is almost back on the level of needing an agenda. Of course our first reason to come to Mallorca was to meet my mother, sister and little niece. After we all adjusted to being on holiday with a baby, we had a wonderful time. The weather was very nice, the hottest autumn day in 30 years. Beach, playing, one day of sailing, examining the island, a real holiday.
We have celebrated old years evening with four friends of ours who honored us with a visit. We have rented a house with a fireplace. What a luxurouy, 7 night of perfect cooking and company!
After that the parents of Jeroen were here for 10 days. For them it was journey of recognicion, since they have been traveling, with their boat �Argo�, around Mallorca for more than a year, about three years ago. They have been in the same harbour, the same spot, for a winter. They even met some people which were there three years ago!
Besides our visitors we have met a lot of nice people and because we are staying here longer than the usual two days we are able to get to know them a bit better. Besides our co-students and our very nice professors Oscar and Lucy, we have had a lot of contact with our Swiss neighbours on the Salta Ola. We talk Spanish with each other! My French which was never much, has disappeared since I started with Spanish. Although both Sandra and I have the need to chat a lot, which we both can�t in Spanish, we do a lot of nice things together. We have created a strange language mixture of French, Spanish, hands, feet and dictionaries with which we manage.
