Changes to the Bookcase

Our last few days in Gibraltar were a little more dramatic than we expected. Nicky had been suffering from some tummy ache and so, unusually for her, she had been taking things easy. However, 36 hours before we were due to fly back her condition very quickly deteriorated and she was rushed to hospital in an ambulance. Fortunately that doesn’t take very long in somewhere the size of Gibraltar and so she was very quickly in the hands of a capable medical team. They monitored her overnight, but first thing in the morning the consultant surgeon decided she needed an urgent appendectomy. The operation confirmed that Nicky had been suffering from acute appendicitis and they were able to remove it before it got to the stage of potentially bursting. Just as well that we weren’t on a long passage at sea and also just as well that Nicky had spent all of that time back in February making sure that we have good travel insurance that covered us for extended periods of time away from home.

So, to the next quandary: delay moving out of our house or abandon Nicky in Gibraltar? A difficult one to answer but Nicky perked up so quickly after the operation that we decided that I should leave her behind in Gibraltar recovering until she is fit enough to fly whilst I went home so that the removal men could empty our house. Far from ideal but having already waited so long we didn’t want any more delays to the house sale.
  

The new bookcase contents needed for the next step 

With Nicky and some friends looking after BV in Gibraltar, I checked in at the airport along with 2 very heavy bags. Some of the kit was just things we have decided we don’t need onboard but the bulk of the weight was books. It seemed quite a significant moment when I emptied the bookcase onboard of all of the publications for the Atlantic coast of Europe and then replaced them with pilot books for the areas of the Mediterranean we want to explore. It is going to take a little longer than we expected to get to the Balearics and beyond but the prospect still brings just as much excitement and anticipation as when we first started planning this adventure. However, for now the priorities are a speedy recovery for Nicky and some luck in finding a new house quickly so that we can be all moved in before it’s time to set sail again.

Gibraltar