👉The 'bare' necessities

Rusty knots, new radar, and a little cheeky freedom — Novera’s adventures are officially underway again! ⚓️😄

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9/15/20264 min read

It’s so good to be back on Novera. It’s not always the easiest way to live, but it gives so much back in special moments.

After returning, we completed a few jobs and were keen to get going. However, after just six weeks at home, I realised I felt a little rusty! I wasn’t throwing the lines quite as confidently or setting the mooring lines quite as well. It was a good reminder that I’m still learning — and while practice makes perfect, perfection clearly requires a lot of practice! 😂

I did, however, quickly remember my bowline knot, which had seemed so impossible back in March. So I’m definitely not rusty at everything! 😂

Tim, meanwhile, manoeuvred Novera beautifully once she splashed back into the water on Wednesday.

Our new radar was fitted and, after a little experimenting, Captain Tim was very happy. At £4,000, it wasn’t an inexpensive replacement after our previous one decided to fall off in July. But the upgrade seems perfect for the adventures ahead as we grow braver!

The Mistral held us in place for a few days, but on Saturday I slipped our lines, grabbed my phone and picked up exactly where I had left off — filming, blogging and loving that feeling of freedom and adventure.

It feels a little different this time, I think, because we have a deadline. We need to be back for winter storage in just five weeks. Funny, really, because last year a two-week holiday felt like a long time. Now we’ve been away for almost six months, and somehow five weeks feels far too short!

Sailing is not a fast way to travel, and perhaps that’s part of what I love about it. You learn to slow down a little. To look at the water and the wind dancing across it. To listen to the waves. To feel the wind in your hair. And to work as a team.

I fell in love with Tim’s amazing sense of adventure many years ago. He took me walking up small mountains, camping off-grid, motorbiking and then off in our campervan. I still see that same youthful hunger for adventure and joyful sense of freedom in him today.

We are back in the Porquerolles as we head up the coast towards our halfway point, somewhere past Cannes, depending on the weather gods. This tiny 7.5km x 4km island is picturesque, with crystal-clear bays and green woodlands. Some of the trees look as though they should be in the jungle — you know the types, with long, thin trunks and a huge canopy, almost like an umbrella! I love them!

The island was bought as a gift in the early 1900s. What a gift! There is an old fortress atop a small hill, reflecting its military past and its role in protecting the French Mediterranean from pirates.

Lucky for us, as it’s mid-September, we find ourselves in a fairly empty bay — just five boats spread across a sizable stretch of water — so Tim smiled, stripped off and jumped happily in.

I watched his almost luminous white bum cheeks disappear beneath the water and the biggest grin appear as he surfaced. Probably because he realised I was completely mortified for him. 😂

He laughed and encouraged me to join him.

I feel naked in a bikini! 😂 How can he not care?

It seems many boaters are the same. I try not to look too closely, because you can almost guarantee you’ll catch a glimpse of a showering sailor at the back of their boat, completely unencumbered by the need to be very British about these things! 😂

Eventually, I jumped in topless, hoping desperately that the boats in the distance had short-sighted crews who couldn’t find their binoculars. 😂

Baby steps towards freedom from the apron strings I seem to tie myself in! 😂

Sailing teaches you to embrace the ‘bare’ necessities of life. The beauty around you, the simplicity, the freedom, and the fact that you really don’t need much.

I’m good with simple.

I’m just working on being relaxed about the bare bit! 😂😂

From dreamy anchorages to decadent Saint-Tropez, this week has already reminded us that life aboard Novera is never dull.

Novera is our happy place.

And it feels so very good to be back. ❤️⛵