46 today. My first birthday on Polly, first birthday on a forced retreat. I am so glad I made it this far. I am grateful for every year that I can be here in this amazing human experience. So many people don’t get the privilege of getting older. This morning Tim was mentioning how I didn’t even have any grey hairs yet and would you believe it on my 46th birthday in the afternoon I discovered one – a thick sticky out grey hair as a birthday present right on top of the head. It was confirmed by all family members that it was indeed grey and not a weird tinge of blonde. I guess I must have grown it over the past 6 months!

Its a sunny day here with a bit of wind. Tim made coffee and crepes for breakfast and I spent a bit of time responding to birthday messages and writing some e-mails. We took Lucy for a walk to the beach – she had a ball today. There were no waves and she swam alot. She is not used to walking on a lead, so the swimming is a bit of exercise with freedom for her.

I also had a celebratory hair wash, shaved my legs and armpits, which is quite an organisational and logistic undertaking in such a small space with a tiny hot water tank. Tim figured out that by having the water just warm you get a longer shower, which I need to shampoo my hair and get all the foam out, wash myself and get all the foam off. Then I managed to squeeze out the last bit of warm water into the sink, swung by legs up and shaved them. Its a little bit like a Haudini show. The water wasn’t warm anymore to wrince all that foam off, so I figure next time leg shaving comes first and then the hair and body. All the water collects on the bathroom floor and you have to put the rubbish bin up on the toilet seat, otherwise it floats around. Then you have to pump it all out and clean up. Who would have thought daily things like showering and hair washing could be so entertaining.

Yesterday we all walked to a bigger supermarket, because we were out of a few things. Because we had the dog with us Tim, Luca and Lucy waited outside, while Nina and I did the shopping. It was 3 stories high and it was a bit of an adventure finding all the bits and pieces we needed. We found even found some things like chia seeds, a whole spice rack, white vinegar (yay – I use it for cleaning), tinned fruit, wraps, tortillas and a whole lot of other stuff that we hadn’t seen before. It took quite some time to collect everything, as everything is labelled in Greek and we have to be so conscious about our budget. I got a bit stressed in the end, because I knew Tim and Luca were waiting. Finally at the checkout with all our treasures the lady told us with her little English that all the veggies and fruit had to be weighed and half our shop had already been scanned. So back I went to long now long row of people waiting to have their veggies and fruit scanned. But we made it out alright and we all looked like camels carrying the groceries 3 km back to the boat, as there is no car anymore. Its so nice to have a bit more variety of food on the boat and start stocking up the bilges with cans and other things, so we don’t have to go shopping so often.

The mood on the boat is pretty good so far, sometimes up and down as we all adjust to living in such a small space together 24/7. We are doing mostly fine, but the kids get onto each others wig a bit and we adults have to also learn to communicate in a calm and collected manner. Its such a bummer that our 10 boxes and 1 suitcase are standing in an Auckland warehouse for god knows how long before air services are going again. They have got all our stationary, arts materials, games, hard drives with movies, books, school books, our medical kit, supplements etc in it. So all the kids have to entertain themselves is 2 card games, their laptops and phones and a few movies that Tim has on his laptop.

Today our Honda Generator arrived by courier. It works well and it fits perfect into the storage compartment at the back of the boat. We need it to power the water maker once its installed and its also a back up solution should we not have enough solar power to recharge devices etc..
The water maker, a seawater pro came from the USA, Tim has to deliver some papers to customs, who then sent the water maker once it was processed and the customs fee paid to Armando’s office (The owner of the charter company who we bought our boat off). Then the lock down happened and the office got closed and it couldn’t be delivered. After a few phone calls with UPS help desk and Armando we managed to redirect to Armando’s private address where it is sitting now waiting to be installed once the lock down is over.

Tim wants to figure out how much water we use, so see how much it would cost us to make it with the water maker. We just filled up the tank today. Because we are at the marina at the moment we have the luxury of shore power. Once we are out and about things will become even more interesting logistically. Warm water will only be there if we run the motor. We might try and get a couple of those hang up solar showers for the deck. And I might try to get away with not washing hair. Apparently once you stop washing it looks a bit greasy for a few weeks until the scalp adjusts. I know there some recipes for dry shampoo too. The last few days Nina platted my hair in 2 french plats which looked nice.

Lucy is settled in well on the boat. She goes on explorations on the deck, tries all the beds and couches. The loves the swimming in the salt water when there are no waves and her fur still seems to be nice with the salt water. Her little nose usually goes flat out with all the new smells to check out.

Sleeping is quite comfy. Last night Tim and I had the first night where we both didn’t sleep well and had all sorts of weird dreams.
Armando told us that there was to be no maintenance done during the lock down period on boats and that boats weren’t allowed in and out of port (I think cargo ships are exempt – you can see them all lined up on the ocean waiting to get in). During the week there is still quite a bit of work happening on our jetty. Seems like some people don’t really take things so seriously with the lock down.

I have had this inspirational spark coming to my mind several times over the last few years to write a book. I had visions of it in meditations and in a shamanic drum session. I never had the time and head space to really go for it. With the forced retreat on the boat I have started to write 2 books. It kind of feels weird to say this publicly, who am I to write a book. Quite fittingly I had started to read the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert just before we left and its all about creativity and how one should go about it and not go about it. It’s amazing how things seem guided sometimes. So I thought no more excuses – I enjoy writing I just go for it. Doesn’t even matter if no one ever reads it. If it never gets published it will be a nice record for us and the kids. One book will be about our sailing journey – that will obviously be a work in progress as we hopefully get of this marina eventually. The other book is about my early years and my journey to New Zealand and it will have art works and reflections that moved me on my own journey and helped me to get from being depressed, anxious and having the lowest self confidence possible to where I am now. It feels so good to dig our those buried treasures and have time and space to do create rather than being busy.

We are almost 2 week in Greece now – its amazing how fast time goes by even with so little happening. Its kind of nice to be able to learn living on Polly and find our new routines before we head off out on the sea.

I think this is the first time in years, that I feel like I get enough sleep and rest and I actually feel pretty good – despite the whole world being upside down. Its amazing how light life can feel once you remove all the clutter. While we get onto each

others wig sometimes, its so nice to be together with the people I love most. So precious.
Sending our love to friends and family. We really hope you are all keeping well and healthy. Until next time.