Purpose ... after three years

August is the anniversary of our moving onboard Pavlov, so we've been living on the boat now for three years. So, what's the experience like now, after this period of time. Thats what us Pavlovians have been asking ourselves. I'll try to capture some of our navel gazing.

Pavlov at anchor off Cavata near Vrsar

Another nice caravan park sharing its facilities with us! Where's Pavvie?

We're finding that the impact of tourism on the coasts of the Mediterranean is considerably reducing our enjoyment. We just don't like spending time looking at tourist grockle, eating at restaurants serving the same tourist food as everywhere else, or visiting 'husked towns' that have had all the real residents stripped out to make way for more tourist endeavours. We still love travelling and experiencing these European cultures, but often, particularly in Croatia, that means leaving the coast and travelling inland. With car rental and hotel fees, this works out to be prohibitively expensive for more that a few days at a time. We really enjoyed our recent trip to Slovenia, but it wasn't cheap. As the aussie dollar dives, and we move more into the western mediterranean, prices are going up and things are getting more expensive. Although, we are still living cheaper than we could in Australia, including boat maintenance.

Vrsar, the marina is actually bigger than the town

Vrsar town square, no local's here, they're all down serving the tourists in the marina.

Nice old style Croatian town.

We're also finding that we're not 'life is a beach' natives. We just don't want to 'go to the beach' every day. In Croatia, because we've been living on anchor much more than in Greece, it has often meant that we're at the beach metaphorically. It means a lot of time swimming around the boat to reduce the heat, but generally brief trips into the local towns in the tender. In contrast, in Greece, we'd tie up to a dock in a port (which was generally free or very cheap). We could wander off the boat whenever we felt like it, and it felt like we spend more time immersed in foreign culture than beaching about. Also about this time, in the middle of high season, we start getting heat affected and thinking that we've had enough. We start looking forward to being still, to getting to our winter anchorage, to getting out of the relentless heat.

Shady lookout in the main town

All of these factors are as they have been, but I think we're also starting to feel lacking in purpose. For the first years, we were just gob-smacked all the time. We were looking at amazing historical sites, seeing and immersing ourselves in foreign cultures, enjoying novel foods and meeting interesting people. The life was very rich. We could enjoy the constant boat maintenance, balancing that with travel and sailing. Eventually however, familiarity sets in. We've seen so many ancient sites, ruins and temples, cities and towns that we tend to go ' Ho hum, just another pile of old stones'. We often don't bother going into local museums or historic churches. We've just seen so many. And I could really give up scraping crystallised urine out of pipes and pumps!

I love the textures of the paving stones.

Now that the amazing is familiar, the foreignness is common place, what is sustaining our sense of purpose? We don't know. Over winter, we have had rich social networks, and have had activities like art and music to keep us engaged. These are lacking during the sailing season. Megan is really missing her family, particularly her children. It is a constant weeping wound, and she is always thinking of how she can mend her relationships, particularly with Sophie. I'm not sure what I'm missing. I know that I've always been very goal driven, but what meaningful goals do I have now? Sure, I'm enjoying playing guitar, but I'll never be even a pale imitation of Eric or Jimi. I'd feel more purposeful  if I could do something, like teach guitar to youngsters, or help students with maths problems. Also, I miss our family relationships. My mum is now 83, bless her little cotton socks!

Vrser, the town runs down a hill to the harbour.

So where to from here? Ah, there's the rub. How do we go about swallowing the anchor? We originally said we'd be going for 'around 5 years'. We've still got to get the boat to the United Kingdom, as that's the optimal place to sell Pavlov. Realistically, that's at least two years away. This winter is Sicily, next winter could be Southern France or Spain, and we could shoot the Bay of Biscay and up to the UK the year after. Also, the boat could sit in the yard for a year before she sells.  So, we're here for probably another 3 years.

Great beach environments in Vrsar

Megan has always been slightly jealous of the Poms and Europeans who could dash home for a song. They could drive out to their boat, or get a charter flight for just a few Euro. We are thinking that this might work for us. Its an expensive option, but we could start thinking about spending 6 months at home, and six months on the boat. I'd miss my favourite season, which is winter, but that's not insurmountable. We could start developing a life again in Australia. We kind of tore up our old life. While our house is only rented, neither Megan or I really want to go back to Bexhill. Lismore was a great town for us while we were working, but its not where we want to retire. While I have family in the region, and could easily live on the north coast of NSW, I've made a commitment to Megan to live closer to her children. Unfortunately they live in Sydney, which has some of the highest real estate prices in the world. So, where do we go, within say 100km of Sydney. We need to have public transport, we both want a bike-friendly town, and I need a shed (or at least a double garage). We'd like a bit of culture, but we've both lived in an idyllic rural setting, so a transition to suburbia gives us the horrors.

Vrsar art gallery

At least, spending half the year in Australia means that we could spend time with my mother while she is still around. We could start thinking about where we'd want to wash up, and start with practical things like selling our current house. It was a big project getting to live on the boat, but it feels like an even bigger one to get off! Time will tell, and as I keep saying to Megan, lets just take the next step, one step at a time. Or maybe, I just need to go to Italy and get out of Croatia. A new country cures many ills. Stay tuned... same bat time, same bat channel ... and we'll see what eventuates. Ciao for now!