Goodbye Nikan
Since our last blog entry a lot has been going on. First Nikan finds itself with a new Chilean owner and will probably spend the rest of its days in Patagonia. Goodbye Nikan! Then we started to look for a new floating home around this planet! That decision involved a lot of thought... possibilities are endless... but no perfect boat yet in production anywhere. One thing was clear in our minds and that was to get a bigger boat for more storage and living space. After four years of living full time on-board of a 10 m boat, it was time to go for a bit more comfort and elbow room. So now it has been one month since we are in the Med (sweating, as it is very, very hot here!) on our Amel Santorin ketch, 14 m of length, born 1992, 20 years old boat but in a great shape. Due to the shipping cost and logistic difficulties we left lots of material behind and flew out of Chile with our personal belongings only, some diving gear, a bit of electronics, and landed in Barcelona with 138 kg divided in six pieces of luggage. We took possession of the Santorin in Roses, Spain and after a hull-up for new antifouling and mechanical check up we sailed to Port Camargue, France, only 96 nautical miles away, to bring the boat to Sun Marine yard to replace the standing and running rigging and to update few equipments. And if you are wondering what is the name of our new sailboat, so are we! The current name is Vanille, and if Transport Canada approves that, we are going to keep it - sounds sort of sweet.... And as far as planning where we will go from here - we will decide that when we will come back from our summer visit to Quebec. All is uncertain, life is great. Have a good summer, all of you, or mild winter, our friends down south.
