26th Sept - Back to Kremik

The beauty of waking at anchor is the quiet. The boat gently rocks as the day awakes and everything slowly comes to life. Sitting on deck in my PJs with a cup of tea while the others are still asleep is my morning yoga! Bliss. This has certainly been an adventure and a challenge for me, but this morning I am filled with a true sense of self at what I have achieved in skippering this 39ft boat in a foreign land with 4 unknown crew. We have had fun together, bonded along the way, forgiven each other our various foibles and survived! Sailing is such a perfect way to learn acceptance, patience and priorities. You share a confined space for 10 days as relative strangers and come out the other side the best of friends. The sense of camaraderie is more the fact that you have learned to live together in spite of certain short comings (and we all have them!) but overall we have shared the same love of sailing at whatever level we started at, and all benefited from the experience. It's a deeply satisfying feeling.
The short trip back to the marina at Kremik is slightly nostalgic. There are moments of silence as everyone begins to reflect on their journey. Luckily we find some wind from NE at about 10knots for just over an hour and I decide to treat the ladies to another mentoring session, gybing and tacking off Arkandel Island as we head north. Michelle loves the helm and the speed of upwind sailing and manages to get the boat up to 6.8 knots on a close reach. Carolina enjoys steady helming skills and practicing a sailing circle. Then I hand the helm to the guys sailing north on a broad reach as the winds have turned to SE.
As we near our destination, Nik offers to go below and prepare lunch - our very first cooked meal on board and we wait in the refreshed winds sailing outside Kremik on a broad reach for the next hour, passing the familiar isolated danger marker.
Gourmet omelet with crispy bacon and red wine is a welcomed feast as we dine like kings before lowering our sails for the final time and heading in to dock.