What a fantastic journey!

So, we finally made it back to Öckerö (as Hanna already has written :-)). We had some nice sailing from Germany through Denmark back here. Now Johan and I have spent a couple of days unloading the boat to be able to make it ours and to fit it for sailing in the archipelago of the Swedish west coast. We are very happy with the boat and like it a lot. Hanna is attending a sailing school the whole week, she is really hooked on sailing now, and Lina is seeing her friends every day, very happy with that.
The journey from southern France to Öckerö has been fantastic. I have never been on a vacation that has given me so many experiences. When we reached Kerteminde in Denmark after a day of really hard sailing when I had to adjust the sails a dozen of times and my body and brain was aching :-) from all the exercise, I said to the rest of the family that now I have had enough of experiences and needed to go back home urgently! My brain could not handle more.
Before we left Sweden I saw myself sitting in the boat relaxing with a book while we slowly made our way through the rivers and canals. Haha. I have only read two chapters! The time flew away reading the map, preparing for the next lock, looking up where there was a harbor deep enough for us to moor for the night, steering, preparing lunch or dinner, trying to find a super market, some place to fill the water tank, and so on.... Not to mention when the journey took its own way when we got stuck in Gray and had to change our plans totally. But I think it was good for me, not hiding behind a book, but instead being really present. Maybe that is why I now have the feeling that even though we have only been on the boat for seven weeks it feels like we have been away several months.
I also think the trip made our family stronger. We feared that we would have a lot of conflicts and some people warned us about making a trip like this with two teenage daughters. Of course there has been moments of conflicts, but as a whole it has worked out very nicely. We have had two bad days, but that's it.
As I said this trip has been fantastic - if you have plans to do something like it - don't hesitate!
/Mari