LEAVING THE CARIBBEAN AND ARRIVNG IN THE USA
Just where did I think I was going in the Caribbean?? 9 pairs of long pants that I never wore once, 12 long sleeved tops that lived under a bunk for the entire time, 3 jackets, 7 pairs of shoes and all I wore we're slips slops and running shoes, 5 summer dresses that I couldn't wear (getting in and out of a dinghy all day makes dresses very impractical) and a 'little black dress', just in case! Note to self.....do not pack for the Caribbean during a Cape Town winter!
Just the 4 of us sharing a bottle of champagne on our last night on Katz.
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| This is what a year at sea does to one! |
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| Making sure all our reservations are in place |
Leaving the boat was a mixture of emotions for all of us. We were packing and cleaning madly during our last few days and did'nt have too much time to think about leaving. We were thinking we would be on the boat for another few months so provisioned accordingly, buying lots of pates and condiments to last us. We had so much food left over and luckily for Rufus and Kate, a young SA sailing couple, we were able to re-stock their pantry.
The last night on the yacht was spent quietly, sharing a bottle of champagne in a very upside down boat, all feeling a bit sad. It was a bit surreal and we were all exhausted. During the past week we had been going through the motions of doing things for the last time....the last dinghy ride, the last time we sleep in our beds, our last swim. We knew that it was a good experience when on the last night Tayne said he really didn't to want to leave......
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| The courier company collecting our larger items |
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| Our entire lives packed into suitcases |
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| Our Maxi Taxi ride to the airport |
On the day we left, the kids packed our mound of luggage into the minibus and Stephen walked down to the dock to take one more look at the boat. I will never forget the moment when he walked towards me with tears in his eyes and the two of us walked away from our Katz, both in tears!  |
| This is a sad picture as Stephen walks away from Katz for the last time |
We're back in the USA!!!
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| Yay!!! Hello America!!! |
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| "Kak and Betaal" for all this luggage! , |
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| Waiting for the shuttle, the shape of things to come....??? |
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| We loved the luxury of driving this rental car |
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| Welcomed into Tampa with a beautiful sunset. |
This is the end of our incredible journey but it is only the start of a huge change in our lives. I look back and I know that squeezing our lives into a suitcase and leaving Cape Town for the unknown was the best decision we have ever made.
Lots of people have told us how brave we are, and that they would be too scared to do what we did. We were scared, but have realised that courage is only a small part of it, 90% of it is purely wanting to do it with all our hearts. From the moment we decided to take the plunge, whatever came our way, we just dealt with. As Stephen always said, "We're in the sausage machine, there's no turning back".
It's initially a strange feeling to have so much freedom. Once you've given up all your comforts and made it work thousands of miles from home, it feels pretty liberating. The word "routine" is dismissed from your vocabulary. We were constantly discovering new places, meeting new people and dealing with the unexpected.
We learned stuff about ourselves we never knew existed, we amazed ourselves and were amazed with the world. We grew in humility, we broadened our horizons, we evolved and we got to know ourselves a little better.
We realised that home is not a particular address. Home is your family, the people you travel with and the space where your life takes place. Home is the place where you keep the things that are important to you at the time, but things that that we were able to leave behind in the blink of an eye when the time came to leave.
As we head home we see the world through new eyes, we will live life simply and we know that life won't stop for us. There is an endless, beautiful world out there and we choose to keep traveling and discovering as soon as we can again.
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