a smooth sea never made a skilful sailor

By the time you're reading this I'll probably be home, the thing about being at sea is that there's no internet, it's a bloggers nightmare but I've actually really enjoyed it. I had 5 minutes to check emails in the marina but apart from that I've had to wait to use the internet, sorry! It's the last day, a huge part of me wants to stay sailing forever, I'm eternally envious of couples like Alex and Taru who spend their lives sailing, however this boat isn't ours and it's definitely not suited to us, we've spent many hours fantasy boat shopping and dreaming of a life at sea. I've really enjoyed that whilst we're not in a marina it's just us and the sea, it's so refreshing being able to lay in my bikini on the deck reading my book all afternoon without another soul in sight ( apart from the boy who's hidden under the canopy). However, I'm coming home to lots of fun, I've just gone full time at work and have so many exciting blog related things in the next few weeks.

We set sail nice and early, which was a blessing in disguise as the wind was definitely against us. We had to motor 60% of the way but finally the wind turned and we managed 5-6knots for the rest of the trip back to the airport, when we arrived back to Kos we anchored in a small bay and took one last swim before heading back to normality.

xo

cold drinks & warm welcomes

There's several good things about being in a marina, the knowledge of warm powerful showers and flushing toilets made the choppy journey a lot more bearable, plus the knowledge that we'd have a chance to fix the leak in the dingy, the best thing about marina's thought is the company. Yachties love talking yacht and after a short period of GPS, fish finder and sails the drinks start to flow and the  topic drifts away from the nautical life. We spent a couple of nights in the marina, on the first evening we made friends with a couple of brits a few boats up who happen to have a house on the island, they were tinkering with one of the cabins, and invited us round for a little party- the house was absolutely gorgeous and had more than enough bedrooms, I was almost tempted to move in as full time mixologist  / cook but Dan said no. After a few drinks we headed in to the main town before being whisked back to the marina on the back of a moped (possibly the most horrific few moments of my life), it was late but still too hot to sleep inside, luckily the neighbours weren't around so two sleepy sailors once again fell asleep amongst a pile of pillows on the trampoline. The next morning we woke up to the sound of meowing from tinks the cat who was chilling out on the canopy, we slowly rubbed our eyes and spent a few moments enjoying the view of blue sky before heading for an ice cold shower. Slathered in sun screen we set to exploring the island for the day, that evening we headed to skippers bar for frozen cocktails with new friends. Most of the evening was spent trying to persuade us to pack in our jobs back home, buy a boat and set sail, sadly the answer for now is no -although we definitely plan on owning a motor boat in aus. We headed back to the boat, made hot chocolate and started planning the trip back to Kos to fly home :(


xo

AWOL

I'm currently sat typing this with the sun beaming down on my browning back and an ice cold drink with in close proximity. Without checking the GPS I probably wouldn't be able to say where we are, all I know is that we're somewhere in the med on a catamaran and it's 32 degrees. We left a few days ago for Kos, one of the Greek islands, we arrived in the middle of the night, piled our bags on to the dingy and motored across the small bay. We clambered up the small ladder and dumped our bags in to our temporary home, before finding our way to bed. Too tired to care about the heat, we fall in to a deep slumber and wake up with the bright piercing sunshine at 6am, we emerge on deck to a beautiful serene bay and stupidly decide to feed our hungry stomachs before setting sail. We head north, up the dodecanese islands headed wherever the wind will take us. When it gets too hot, we pull in to the nearest bay, drop anchor and dive in. The fridge and freezer are stuffed full with fruit and drinks to cool sunned sailors. We get tired quickly in the sun so seista under the canopy, a perfect way to dry off before heading back out to sea. I'm in a whirlwind of bays, all so beautiful yet so similar, we finally drop anchor and decide to sleep on the trampoline, we pile blankets and pillows up on deck and fall asleep with the breeze cooling our bronzed skin from all angles. I want to say it's been a horrible few days so far, but I'd be lying.

xo

Breakfast at Bill's

One of our favourite places to grab breakfast when we're out of town is Bills, they're a small chain of restaurants which can be found across the country, including London, Bath ( where these photos sere taken) & Brighton. They're open from breakfast right through till dinner & pride themselves on warm welcomes, fresh produce & great service. The menu's are fairly compact, but in a good way, there's ample choice but you're not swamped with options. Being vegetarian (just out of curiosity- how many of you knew I was?)I can sometimes struggle in restaurants but Bill's have a good selection for veggies throughout the day, anyway I digress, Breakfast.

Ducking between the curtains the warmth and smell of freshly cooked food hits you, there's a gentle bustle of families tucking in to porridge and toast, a group of boys enjoyed a fried breakfast and a few business women scattered around sipping coffee and reading the paper. Staff welcome you & find you a table, the décor is almost industrial chic, exposed brickwork and ventilation, contrasted perfectly by bright pops of colour from hanging tissue paper and walls of take home products, chutneys, jams & lemonade. As you examine the menu a carafe of mint water is placed between you and orders are taken...

Dan went straight for the Free range fried eggs with English mustard, bubble & squeak, sliced ham & hollandaise, a homely dish perfect to warm the bones on winters days. He tells me everything was cooked to perfection, the egg perfectly runny and the bubble and squeak was almost as good as his dads, that's a real compliment- his dads bubble & squeak is to die for.

Obviously I went for the pancakes, home-made blueberry and buttermilk pancakes to be precise, with banana, strawberries and maple syrup. Strangely it came with a fat old sprig of mint on top which somehow absorbed itself in to one of the pancakes, it tasted rather strange if I'm honest, but the other two were gorgeous. The pancakes were light, fluffy & deliciously sweet. Pancakes are always my favourite way to start the day & as lovely as they were, they were definitely not Cheese and Alfies pancakes.



Have you been to Bills before?
xo