August 2018.

It was a hard week. Packing all our belongings into boxes and putting all our stuff and furniture into our parents’ houses. We drove about 1500km in 3 days, learned how to handle a van on narrow roads, and realized that we have way too much stuff. Stuff, we definitely don’t need.

After making my parents happy with the last round of boxes, we drove to the boat, the car full of personal belongings. It was the first time to arrive at the boat with our bags full of clothes, books and other personal things (in the past,  the car was loaded with tools and spare parts). It was a great feeling to start thinking about questions such as “Which dress do I want to take with me?” or “How many books do I want to read?” Unfortunately, we also have to decide when and where we want to get our fridge fixed. In the last days we realized that the compressor doesn’t stop running and we guess that we need a refill on refrigerant. And 35°C without fridge isn’t funny, especially when it comes to sundowners.

We don’t have much personal space on the boat and the answer to the question, how many pairs of shoes or dresses I can take with me, is pretty easy: not many. But it makes you realize that you actually don’t need much and that it feels better to own less. Being rich starts in your head and mind. Memories and experience are priceless, they don’t break and last forever. They don’t take much space and don’t need boxes or a van to carry them from A to B.

Speaking about memories… there is one special memory we want to share in August. I know that I am a little late to post this, but on August 5 last year, we celebrated Johanna’s Christening. You can watch the video here:

For both of us, the final days at home at our parents’ houses have arrived and we start to get excited about what is about to happen soon. We were waiting almost a year for this special day and now we can count down the days until the final departure, setting sails and saying goodbye. We just hope we will untie the lines with the fridge running. 🙂