Only four more sleeps!! It is only just starting to dawn on us that this time next week we will see Aura for the first time. Scary stuff when you consider it has been seven years to reach our goal. With most big dreams, the fun is in the planning and the anticipation of what will be. What will it feel like when you are standing at the dock about to board your new home that is on the other side of the world?

So …. what planning was involved I hear you ask? Packing up one’s life and tying up all those loose ends might seem simple enough but it is a web out there that required plenty on entanglement. Selling the house, car, furniture and leaving work …all stuff that we tend to have a false sense of attachment that has resulted in a little bit of heart break along the way. After all, it is what we have been led to believe is what defines us. Not to mention saying goodbye to family and friends. That is a lot of heart break!!

On a brighter note, we have had a great few months catching up with both old and new friends. We had a great trip to Perth after Christmas catching up with our very dear Perth friends. Our old pals from our first sailing adventure, Geoff and Merel (S/Y Miss Molly), spent Easter with us in Noosa. We caught up with Brendy and Sue from Melbourne. The gorgeous Di flew up from Sydney and Bec and Paul came up from Canberra. Last night was our Brisbane farewell party which saw everyone dressed as pirates. Great fun and plenty of laughs.

I spent some time with my family a couple of weeks ago and saying good bye was really hard. Simon’s parents are meeting us in Rhodes on the 26th May so that was a lot easier.

We already have lots of people joining us over this year in the Mediterranean. We plan to spend the first month and half getting to know AURA and practising out Mediterranean mooring. The whole joy stick thingy will be interesting!! Hopefully there won’t be too many people around to laugh at us. From Turkey we are heading to Greece, Italy and Spain. We are joining the Barbados 50 Rally on the 17th/18th September where we will spend some time in the Canaries and Cape Verde islands before crossing the Atlantic to Barbados to join in the 50 years of independence celebrations in November.

Dare to dream…it is a lot of hard work but well worth the end result. Will touch base once we have arrived in Turkey and we are finally on board