The Best Laid Plans….

It has been an interesting winter! In October we left Blue Velvet safely tucked up in Gibraltar and scuttled back to England to move house. We did hope that would all go through quickly and that we would be able to enjoy some winter cruising based out of Gibraltar. The odd day or two exploring Moroccan ports within easy reach of Gibraltar was the rough plan; surely an easy one to enact after quickly finding a new house and moving in?

At the end of October all seemed to be going well. We had sold our house in England, put most of our belongings into storage and moved into a small flat on Guernsey to house hunt. By early November we had agreed a price on a lovely house and just needed the sellers to find their dream home and move out. From here on things did not go so smoothly.

The sellers couldn’t find a suitable house for their plans; they wanted a large plot of land to set up a smallholding and large plots of land are not readily available on a relatively small island like Guernsey. Accepting that some things are just not meant to be, we hunted around and fortunately found another house that would work nicely for us. Our aspiration to be moved in by Christmas was a nice one but never came to fruition. What should have taken weeks took months. We were strung along, not able to return to Blue Velvet as the paperwork and signatures needed to secure the house purchase always seemed to be imminent. A deeply frustrating time.

However, that is all in the past. Our home base is now secure and, as you can see from the photo above, we have just arrived back in Gibraltar. It’s now time to see how  Blue Velvet  has survived the winter and to spend a little time getting her ready for the next stage in our adventure.

Gibraltar