Yes indeed! It’s been almost a year since we moved on board La Ola. Time to take a look back.
Positive
Catamaran: The decision for a catamaran has proven to be 100% right for us. We love the space on board – I almost said below deck, but that’s only partly true – our „winter garden“, the front cockpit and the rooftop lounge. Every time we drop anchor, we are delighted that La Ola is still relatively calm even in the worst swell. At sea, we simply leave everything as it is. Nothing flies around. Sailing?! Well, we can’t really say much about that so far. Even on a monohull, we would have found it difficult to find good sailing days with suitable winds. Even if a catamaran had been able to cruise, we would hardly have been able to sail due to the restrictions imposed by the orca threat and the requirement to stay in shallow water. But hopefully La Ola will be able to show her sailing strength at some point. There has to be a nice wind aft at some point!
Lucky: We were so worried and worried about Lucky the cat! Is it better to give him away on land or take him on board with us? Will he miss the big garden and the run if he lives on board? Will he ever accept La Ola as his new home? In the meantime, we believe that Lucky really likes it on board. He has his own corners where he can happily while away the day. He is allowed to crawl into our bunks at night – something I never thought I would ever allow. He has explored almost every area on board. And: he no longer distrusts strangers as much as he used to. He used to run away if there was just a calendar entry indicating a visitor. Today, he joins in when there are visitors on board and even lets strangers scratch him.
Not quite as expected
Weather: To be honest, we had imagined it would be a bit better. Sailing in 2024 was virtually impossible. There was either a headwind and strong wind or a calm. We didn’t find a nice breeze on the way to Portugal. Winter in Portugal was very pleasant until February, then unfortunately far too wet and unstable. It only got warmer from May onwards. But then it really did. The temperatures soared to over 30° C, eventually even reaching 40° C! Far too warm for this time of year. And not just in our opinion. Is it due to climate change or was it „just“ unusual weather conditions? Hard to say! But all in all, even with the bad weather in spring, it was a good decision to spend the winter in the south. More light, more sun, less gray. If we could wish for anything for the rest of 2025, it would be better sailing winds and more stable weather.
Sailing buddies: Even though we got to know a lot of nice sailors and motorboat drivers, we miss a few real buddy boats. We spent great days and evenings together with Jens from the Marieke, but unfortunately we went our separate ways again in April 2025. He is going back to Germany, we are moving on. Other yachts and crews have other cruise plans and are on their way to the Mediterranean or have already arrived in the Caribbean. But maybe something will come up this season. It’s always nice to sail in the same direction and meet up again here and there. We really enjoyed that on our tour with Hello World back then and we hope it will be the same again this time. It will probably be better with the buddy boats if we join one of the big routes – into the Mediterranean or across the Atlantic.
What we miss
Family and friends: Sure, we’ve had a lot of visitors. But we still miss many faces that haven’t made it on board yet. Be it for health reasons, lack of time or because they don’t want to travel so far. We communicate with many of them regularly, whether by phone, messenger or video call. With some, however, contact has simply fallen asleep or simply failed to materialize. We don’t take offense at this and, in case of doubt, it’s even our own fault. It’s not always easy to keep in touch in everyday life, whether on board or at home. Perhaps many people simply read our blog posts and are therefore „in the loop“, but don’t manage to get in touch with us in their hectic everyday lives. We promise to do better from our side and hope that we will have even more contact with the old country in the future.
German food: Whether it’s kale, crab salad or meat sausage. There are a few foods that are unfortunately only available in Germany. Liquorice is one of them! Axel looks for it in almost every country and in every store – usually without success. Is that really a bad thing? Not really, because there are usually delicious substitutes. Whether oysters and prawns in France, tapas in Spain or chicken piri piri in Portugal. Every country has offered us delicious culinary delights so far. But a small longing remains and we will continue to search every supermarket for our favorite German foods. Sometimes you are surprised by a meat salad or a licorice snail on the shelf. Drinks, on the other hand, are no problem. There is good wine and decent beer everywhere. We make our own water after filtering it well. We squeeze our own fresh orange juice every day. Only non-alcoholic wheat beer is only available in very, very select stores. It’s a shame really, because we would like to enjoy this more often in summer temperatures.
What we don’t really miss
Garden: People keep asking me if I miss my mill garden. To be honest: no! Of course our garden was great, it was in bloom everywhere and we were able to harvest lots of delicious things. Not to mention the many evenings with family and friends in the garden. But it was also a lot of work! Today I have a few pots of herbs on board, I don’t have to pluck any weeds and I can look at beautiful gardens and great nature every day. Instead of sitting in the garden, we sit in the cockpit, instead of looking at the green, we look at the blue. I’m sure there’ll be another garden to look after one day, but until then I won’t miss it.
Driving a car: Yes, of course we rent a car from time to time. But we don’t miss it most of the time. We do a lot of things on foot or by bike, so we move around a lot more than we used to. We can also transport large and heavy things with saddlebags and panniers, but we try to carry very heavy things such as cat litter when we have a car. What we definitely don’t miss at all is being stuck in traffic! Every time the radio announces traffic jams, we are happy that we no longer have to deal with them.
Conclusion
We have not regretted our decision to move on board so far! We really like our „new“ life and are excited to see what adventures it has in store for us in our second year on board. Of course, even on board there are bad days when you wonder how you got into it again. Some things that could be done quickly and easily on land take twice and three times as long on board, are more complicated and can’t just be done. But overall, we feel better, freer and more self-determined on board than on land. On the other hand, we also use the time to look around for a new „permanent“ home. No, not immediately and directly. But at some point we want to have at least a partial land base again. Preferably in warmer climes, preferably by the sea. We’ve already found a few nice places, but we can already rule out a few regions. We’ll just explore the world a little more and then decide!