The gain of the journey

So if family, friends and certain type of food are what we occasionally miss when sailing far from home, what are the actual reasons to why we're doing this in the first place? Cause there must be many things that overshadows the longing of the familiar? 

- The freedom of course. To be untied to everything. No one is telling us what to do with our time. With the exception of when waiting for things to arrive or so, we can always pack up and leave whenever we wish. And we can practically steer the boat wherever we want to. Now, we do make a few plans for ourselves, plans that inevitably steers us into a certain direction, but it's relieving to know that we could change those plans whenever we would want to, and go somewhere completely different.

- The distance. While the distance to friends and family is hard at times, it certainly is good to learn who and what exactly you're heart and mind is longing for. We have always been away from our families in different longer periods so no real news in that sense. But this time is different, as we have no one else with us but each other. The distance is also good for the reason that you begin to understand and see the beauty of the different episodes in life that passed, and you learn to appreciate the different places you've been before, as you now get a new sort of perspective to it all. 

- The rewarding feeling of being self sufficient. We rely on nothing and no one but ourselves. If we want our fridge or lights on the boat to work properly, we need sun or wind energy to keep it running. If we want to change location, we are the ones who have to work to get there. Meaning: plan the route, raise the sails, avoid bad weather and deal with it when it arrives. Find and clear in with the customs when we get to a new destination. Learn the culture and traditions of the new place we visit. If something's broken on our ship, we will repair it ourselves. As we have no traditional jobs, we need to find ways to survive and so on. Though it occasionally is a lot of hard work with the boat, and we sometimes get stuck in seriously bad weather - it is extremely fulfilling to know that all what we do and all what we get to experience, happens solely because of our own efforts. The harder we work, the more do we get to see, and the safer and more comfortable will we live.

- Love for each other. Like I earlier mentioned, we do miss our other people a lot, and there obviously are days when we wish to kill each other. But in the end, the fundamental reason to why we are here, why we started this journey, and what makes us go through the hardships that a lifestyle like this brings - is because we love each other and we want to be together. This journey has taught us a lot about, not only ourselves, but also one another. Inevitably, we have come closer to each other and grew the relationship stronger than what we probably would have if we were living under normal, land based circumstances. We see the three of us (boat included) as our little family, and we all have a need of each other, as well as a need and will to keep all of us happy and strong. Sometimes we get the question if we would want to have children, and no that's in none of our plans. There's too much time spent on taking care of the family that we already have. We wouldn't want to be attached and locked up with even more work so to say. Maybe in the future. 

- The education and experiences we get. So many life lessons we've learnt on this journey. Not only about ourselves and each other, but we get to see many different places and learn to know many different cultures. Now for example, we've spent almost two years in the Caribbean. Who knew we would ever spend such a long time in the West Indies? Was never our intention anyway, but looking at it from retro perspective, it has been tremendously rewarding. We've got to know a whole new culture. We know a bit about what is important to the people of the Caribbean, what they eat, who they are, what music do they listen to - in general. Our preconceptions got challenged many a time and some experiences have totally surprised us. We are definitely much richer in knowledge now than when we got here. And to know that we have many more portions of the world, in different locations with different types of people, nature, food and culture to explore, is just a very intriguing thought. Even though we sometimes miss our own culture a lot - the wonderful Mediterranean flair, light, food, people - we still want to take the opportunity to explore more of the world, to be able to compare for the future. We'd like to be totally sure of where in the world we should settle with that house we wish to build for ourselves. I think we will always be sailing for as long as we stick together, but of course having an own house, a new life project, is one of our ultimate dreams. But first we need to find out where.

- We lead a much healthier and more balanced life. So many aspects of this, but to begin with - the air that we breath, clean and unpolluted. The food that we eat - sometimes straight from the sea, but always as fresh and natural as can be. We get to swim whenever we'd like, hike in beautiful, natural surroundings. We are simply much closer to nature and can take part of it and it's energizing effects whenever and we do take advantage of that as much as we can.

- The peace and beauty of nature. The ocean, wildlife, magnificent sunsets, the ever so changing weather - we're part of it all by living in the midst of it. I wouldn't want my life to be different in that sense. I've learnt to wake up with the sun, and I get tired when it's melting down in the horizon at night. I hear the waves lapping gently on the hull when I go to sleep, or you hear them crash violently on shore when weather is rough. My body and soul is tuned to the energies of the world in a way much different to before and it's refreshing to live right in the middle of the natural happenings of this gorgeous globe that we live in. The raw and unforgiving ocean doesn't make things up or pretend, it's just there, does what it's always done and will do so till the end of the days. There is something extremely relieving with living in a natural and unpretentious world like that. It is what it is, no one is ever going to change that. I love that thought. The purity of it. The sun will get up and give you light each morning, the water will carry you across oceans if you're conscious enough. The birds, fishes, dolphins and turtles are here for a reason and gives you joy and childish pleasure along the way and the sun will inevitably leave you each night. It's pure magic, and we get to experience it front row, every single day.