Meet the Parents

From: Calpe, Spain
To: Alicante, Spain

The wind was going to be excellent in the morning. We set the alarm at 6:15. By 7:15, we managed to roll out of our cabin. The wind was coming from over land, so the waves were small. Tiny waves and good wind on the beam(the side of the boat), the kind of sailing I — and probably every sailor with me — like best.

We left the rainy, stormy weather behind us…

… and sailed straight into the sun. Let’s hope this is a sign of things to come!

The wind speed kept fluctuating between 5 and 25 knots, and Vite & Rêves answered with 3 to 10 knots boat speed. Smooth as butter because of the lack of waves. I was as happy as an Italian who invented a pair of self-removing trousers. A pod of dolphins appeared and swam along for a few minutes, playing around the bows. It felt like nature was making amends to compensate for the gnarly past two weeks. I even mounted the gennaker(a large light sail that is used when the wind comes _from the side_ of your boat) for a while.

We arrived in Alicante and could stay right in front of the reception, next to the excellent showers, laundry and free wifi. Cruisers’ heaven, I’ll tell you.

The Parents arrived an hour later with four huge suitcases, filled to the brim with 80 kilos of books, chocolate, speculoos and all the toys and other stuff we packed in boxes before we left. Vite & Rêves will cross the oceans a little slower now, but her younger crew members will be a bit less bored during crossings, so she’ll definitely seem faster.