15 months has been a long time with Noel in Canada and me in Australia. After a lot of waiting, two visa applications and 1 rejection for Noel to come back here, we made some pretty drastic decisions and went into full time planning. We are finally at a point where everything is coming together after a lot of work and tasks to accomplish to make this all come to fruition. Some of the things we coordinated:
• Sell MAD – said goodbye Jan 27, 2021 to her and introduced her to her new family.
• Buy a car to facilitate the move off the boat to land.
• Bought a new boat, found one that checked many things on our must have list.
A Beneteau 473 (KARENA to be changed to MAD 2) which happens to be on Leros Island, Greece.
Survey, negotiations with broker and seller, boat storage fees (stored on dry land since Oct 2019). Arrange work to be completed to address issues from the survey report. Register the boat in Canada. The registration took some time as we didn’t have appropriate pictures and measurements that were required by the Canadian government. Working with the boatyard and gentle persuasion finally convinced them to accept the registration. Yeah! we get to fly the Canadian flag.
- Whilst on land get my Radio license – done and dusted.
- Complete my Australian Citizenship – yeah Aussie Aussie Aussie, oye oye oye June 7 2021.
- Get vaccinated prior to travel for both of us – second shot scheduled June prior to leaving.
- Apply for travel exemption to leave Australia – done, travel insurance, flights, hotels, luggage and boxes to be sent to Greece.
I couldn’t have done it without the hospitality of Mom & Dad, Terri & Dave and Mike & Helen. I bounced around between Brisbane, Mooloolaba and Sydney trying to be useful in families homes and not be a nuisance, thanks everyone. Noel also had family and friends support, a big shout out to Shelley and Gord for putting Noel up in Nelson and Janusz and Jacek for putting Noel up in Vancouver.
That’s where we are! flights to Athens booked June 27th and we get to stand in front of the new boat June 30th , all going well. It seems that we made a pretty good choice as Australian borders remain closed and expected to remain so into mid next year (but hopefully earlier in 2022).
It has been a long 15 months not just for us but for everyone. There have been family separations during this time that are more extreme than ours, Families not able to attend funerals, weddings, partners separated, children separated from their parents. The vaccine rollout has relaxed a lot of restrictions and it will only continue to get better.
To say we are excited is an understatement. We are stoked to see each other, start our sailing lifestyle together again and put behind the covid imprint on our lives. We will blog our arrival and post as we are so curious to see what (KARENA) has on board, organize, clean and make her feel like home.
Whilst covid affected us we are thankful that our families and friends have stayed healthy and well. Thank goodness for zoom, skype, facetime and messenger. Sometimes Noel and I have spent hours getting on with our days over zoom ? We thank our lucky stars every day.
Ye!!!!!
Woohooo lucky you ?? we’ll see you when we see you xx