Moving on the boat now liveaboards

Arrived at last

Dave met us at the airport. We arrived 10 am on Monday the 30^th April.
This seems such a big step leaving the comfort of Yvette and Normans for nearly 8 weeks and finally moving on board for good.

Only 8 weeks earlier we were struggling with three foot of snow in Casali in Italy where we had to escape the cold and long hard and expensive winters in the Italian mountains .We took the boys out of school and returned to the UK,

So now here we are in Almerimar.
 Larry and Norman have been helping Dave rewire the boat this week and they had worked really hard late into the evenings to get it finished before we came.

It works!

Laurance having a head for electrics

 Just a bit of finishing off and then getting the starter motor working  to fire up the engine so they could check that all the electrics were working okay was all that was needed to do when we arrived, I was very impressed and relieved it was a well needed job that was desperate to be done I don't think Dave would of done it so well on his own. Plus Dave was suffering with really bad mouth ulcers and blocked glands he tried Homeopathic but unsure what the problem was so he went to hospital and they said it was gingivitis after giving up smoking.

As there was too many of us and the boat being in disarray it was best to rent a holiday flat for their week of being here.

We arrived on the top floor of a penthouse apartment in the afternoon it was sunny but a bit windy the view from the top floor was great over looking the Marina and within the many masts we could see our boat quite well from here.

We spent the week chilling out in the flat or going out having Tapas and Yvette helped with the boys while I sorted out our things from the car and loading our stuff into the boat . They took Artie to the holiday flats swimming pool and he had a great time swimming about but Yvette got him out of the water when he started to turn blue from the cold.

Samantha text-ed me saying she had booked a flight on Friday and didn't want to tell Larry as she was coming to surprise him, but she didn't, couldn't help herself, bless her. Had to tell him.
That meant the flat would be a full, but Dave and I managed to be sorted to more back on the boat by then.

Artie loved having his bike to ride the area of being flat and not to busy. We cycled by the beach and to the shops and tapas bars. Lorenzo just wanted to be on the boat with all his music and stories and of course to roll about in the back cabin.

The weather wasn't that great, it was very windy and a bit chilly. Very disappointed for everyone.

Sam arrived Friday, it was a nice weekend.

Samantha and Artie

Lorenzo's  turn Larry

Played at the park

Watched film ' Puss In Boots'.

Chinese restaurant for dinner one night

Tea and biscuits on the boat

Tapas at the bar over looking the harbour marina.

Larry, Sam, Norman, Dave Lorenzo and Yvette

We officially moved onto the boat Saturday 5th May.
 Our beds were sorted but everything else was a mess. Dave put the the flat screen TV up. That we bought second hand for 50 pound. We love bargains!

Moving On Board

I had bought 100 boxes ( well it felt like it anyway) Sorting and storing was my main aim.. Can not live on a small boat in Confusioni as Italians would say.

Yvette Norman Larry and Samantha went early on the Monday 7^th May  .

There was a calm loneliness and a true beginning of our next chapter in life. The boys slept on while Dave got up early to take them to the airport. The calmness was also with the weather the winds had died and the sun came out in its full glory. A knowing that summer is here for the next 3 mouths, and it was only going to get hotter and it was getting up to 30c already.

Thursday 10^th may

Winnie the Poo is playing after listening to the Italian version of it first. Artie now listens and reads with it at the same time a good practice for his reading. We have had a full morning Artie made a blanket slide and tree house in the back cabin for his bears, Woody and Buzz.

Artie helped Dave do some sanding

Lolly helped …......by laying out the way in back cabin.

Artie and I spent time cycling around the marina

and stopping at the Stubble Inn while I did email check, Artie entertained the bar man. Asking him for a beer but the Scottish friendly guy said he needed ID with a smile.

Lolly enjoyed cycling a long the beach on the back of my old folding bike Dave found at the rubbish tip in UK. It is rusty but it works..

Arties skill and confidence on his bike has improved so much in just this week. Not afraid of cars driving about and after a few minor falls he just gets back on and off again, he hasn't stopped cycling up and down the pontoon telling Caroline and James how they should ride their bikes.

Caroline and James who have their boat four berths up from us kindly looked after the boat for us while we were away, making sure the bilges were working and the boat was being pumped out okay.

Dave went with James to special shop to get some wood returning like a kid who had been at a toy shop. He bought enough wood and more to remake all the hand rails on the boat. The old ones were made in several pieces and fell into several pieces when we took them off. But now Dave has made them from one piece of Iroko wood. He has been busy ever since, getting them all made. Two on the aft cabin and two on the saloon he had already made the two small one on the dog house back in the autumn.

Artie and I went back to the Stubble Inn, while I do the Internet  Artie chats away to these two chaps Nigel and Gorden,  He tells them jokes and makes them laugh.They are waiting to deliver a boat to Malta but have had to wait until the boat is ready and are spending the time at the bar by the looks of it.

While working on the boat Dave heard a huge splash and thought Artie had fallen in but there was nothing and we couldn't see what would of fallen in we assumed it must have been a fish.hoping it wasn't some of Dave's tools falling over board, it wasn't until a few days later that we realized it was a big chunk of concrete from bottom of pontoon

After dinner of steamed broccoli, leek, potatoes with scrambled egg, we took the boys for a shower. After not wanting to go they really enjoyed it and I find it hard to get Lolly out he loved the warm water pouring all over him. Its always quiet in the bathrooms this time of the evening. but apple crumble was the only talking lolly would listen to.get him out the shower , so Apple crumble we had before bed time. Our bed time story at the moment is “ How to Train Your Dragon” How to be a pirate” by Cressida Cowell.

11^th may

Lolly slept in the front cabin last night as the boys have been fighting and staying awake all evening playing around. He still fidgeted about and ended up upside down in his sleeping bag and then just as we had turned the lights off  he fell out. He panicked to get back on the bed as he thought he was going to get told off for fidgeting . Don't think he was hurt just a bit shocked. Bless him.

It was hard to wake up this morning unfortunately Artie was lively he had been sick in the night so I had to clear up, putting everything out side then I went back to bed much to Artie’s disappointment. Jumping all over me for attention so I got him to do a Shiatus pressure move on my sort ribs. It was great just perfect pressure, I feel he has lovely healing hands, probably being a kid helps.

raiding the food cupboard

Artie was desperate for breakfast

He went off to play while I lay on my bed pondering on how adulthood takes away our magic. There is no other place I would rather be right now but it doesn’t come without its problems and worries. Finance and schooling for the boys,' will I ever be able to give them what they need'. I suppose that’s what all parents worry about but home schooling is not my talent.

Today has a cooler breeze. Lolly is happy listening to Big Rock Candy Mountain songs, while Artie has been playing with James riding their bikes on the pontoon and taking it in turns to shoot each other with Artie’s new water pistols.

 Dave has sanded all the wooden parts of the boat. On the top of cabin and saloon, and getting the hand rails ready for varnishing. Artie has been great helping him with the sanding.
 I have tidied and washed Artie’s bedding and helped Artie with his school work.
Tried starting science lesson

atoms

 today but he just wanted to run off.. I get so frustrated with him. We ended up doing maths still on 2x and 10x table but he just doesn’t remember the most simple stuff that we have done a 100 times over. Then he goes off and does something really creative and clever by working something out all by himself. Like how he put his den up in the back cabin he has a lot of common sense but just is not interested in academics.

Artie and I went for a cycle to get some postcards to send home and for his new scrap book he's going to start today on living on board.

While I was preparing dinner and Lolly was listening to BFG,  Dave and Artie disappeared when I came out to the cockpit to see where they were, there they were rowing off in the dingy around the marina..

I swapped places with Dave

 When they had reach the end and on the other side of the pontoon, Dave got out and I got in. Artie and I rowed back again giggling all the way as I was splashing too much and kept rowing the wrong way. I was getting Artie wet as I tried to row. Artie helped when we got closer to the our boat we went round in circles and laughed so hard Artie pissed himself., and then we had to get out of the way of a sailing boat .
We tried to pirate Caroline and James boat but they got the hose out on us.

Back on Pontoon we got our weapons and attacked our Pirate neighbors but they defended themselves once again with their hose.

Artie dress up in his pirate outfit and got his little parrot kite out and play with it with James on the Pontoon.

Dinner of rice and beans and off to bed.

James and Caroline came over watched the sun set with a rum and coke with us, although Dave went off and fell asleep with the boys. Both boys in back cabin again to night. While I write this Lolly is kicking about, giggling and blowing raspberries. So I'm off to beat him. (joking)! Goodnight :(

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