To get some distance to what happened and because it’s Loana’s 12th birthday, we decided to take the ferry to the neighbor island of Moorea. Jean Claude, whom we helped evacuate his yacht two weeks earlier, invited us to spend a weekend with his family.
The trip with the speed ferry only takes a little more than half an hour and we get picked up by car. The ride along the coastline has some magnificent views and we soon enter cook bay and continue towards the center of the island. Here we pick up the birthday girl and her sister Heilani who spent the day at a horse ranch. The energy of the soon to be 12 year old seems to be endless as we first drop her off at the jazz dance class before we finally get to their beautiful little house. The garden is typical for the area and has mangos, papayas, bananas and of course cocos and underneath all that green we see chicken and rabbits enjoying themselves. The weekend on the ‘countryside’ is a perfect change for us as we finally stop thinking about the Rancho Relaxo but have endless talks or (try) to repair an old motorcycle.
The time passes rapidly and sunday in the evening we’re back in Tahiti. Monday morning we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by the amazing number of TWO austrian ships: The ‘Chi’ arrived from the Tuamotus and the ‘Optimist’ came back from Moorea to do some last minute repairs before finally leaving for Fiji.
We’ve talked to many people, asked for prices and looked at used masts but it seems to be a fact: The Rancho Relaxo can not be repaired by us. We have tried to be as objective as possible but in the end that’s really difficult. The Rancho Relaxo is not just an object but our home and we had many thrilling and beautiful moments together. Saying good bye will be incredibly hard but a repair would cost us more than we could expect to ever get back by later selling the boat. After all we try to see the positive side of this: The market for used boats is really bad right now and we’re what you could call at the end of the world. So it is right here that we have actually good chances to find a new yacht. This and the financing of this new boat is what we were focussing the last days. And in both areas there have been extremely positive developments !
It seems quite surreal but only two weeks ago we were on the reef and thought that we would loose everything. Now it seems as if we will continue our journey with a new boat in the next year. This is possible because we have the support of both our families and they not just approve of our lifestyle but encourage us to finish what we started. Many friends helped us and want us to continue our journey. And that is exactly what we will do, although it will not be with the Rancho Relaxo of the Seas – and it will mean more work for us in the future. But that should not take the fun out of it and we are extremely happy about these amazing developments of the last days !!
“Apres la pluie, le beau temps !”, siempre dice mi mamá.
Me alegro escuchar buenas noticias, estoy más que con uds por continuar el viaje aunque sea en otro barco porque si bien fue su casita por mas de 1 año, uno se muda varias veces en la vida, no? Y siempre vuelve a crear un hogar.
Te extraño Guillou, ojalá hubiera estado con vos aquel día para abrazarte! Te quiero y te espero. No te encierres en la ranita, salí de tanto en tanto!
beso
They say that you recognize Wise People when in difficulties they find an opportunity and not craziness.
It is a very wise and difficult decision but Congratulations! It makes you all really Wise people. The spirit of Rancho Relaxo will continue, is not just A boat. Is a lot of things and you are great for that. And the journey will continue, different boat, who knows, but the dream is the same. And we all try to keep our dreams alive, right?
You have a wonderful family that supports you, that is a gift from Heaven, not only from the family, ja!
We wish you all the best and we keep our fingers crossed for you so you can continue in a very short time!
Lots of love for you all!!
Der Ankommprozess hier in Bremen kostet uns viele Nerven und viel Zeit, daher erst die späte Nachricht von uns. Wir waren in Gedanken bei euch und sind es auch jetzt. Wir senden euch von Herzen die nötige Energie und Zuversicht. Wir zweifeln nicht daran, dass ihr euren Weg gehen werdet!. Ihr seit so eine tolle Familie. Auch hinter den tiefsten Schlägen verbirgt sich ein Sinn und eine Chance zu wachsen. Eine ganz liebe Umarmung an euch.
Anna und Robert (die Timpetee liegt schon im festen Winterschlaf)
P.s. da hier schon die ersten Weihnachtskekse gebacken werden wundert euch nicht über die frühe kleine Weihnachtsspende für Bruno und Viola ;-)
Cuántos buenos amigos que tienen!!!!
Qué bueno!!!!!!
Hallo ihr vier!
Wir haben eben von eurem Unglück gehört und haben mit Schaudern eure Berichte durchgelesen. Wir können natürlich nicht alles nachfühlen jedoch sehr viel.
Wir segeln ebenfalls seit Anfang 2010 eine Feltz Skorpion IIA unter österreichischer Flagge um die Welt. Haben uns ebenfalls 2009 um ein passendes Schiff umgesehen und ziemlich sicher auch eures besucht. Und zu guter Letzt hatten wir vor acht Monaten ebenfalls in den Tuamotus einen beinahe Zusammenstoß mit einem Riff, aber glücklicherweise nur beinahe. Wir möchten euch auf jedenfalls alles Gute für die Zukunft wünschen und vielleicht treffen wir uns noch irgendwo auf den Weltmeeren. Liebe Grüße aus Fiji
Barbara und Christoph SY-Taurus/Wien
ja dafdaf!
ihr seids ja noch immer unterwegs!!! . ..
wie gehts euch denn so??. . . .was ist mit dem schiff passiert??
grüße aus dem alpenländischen Salzburgerland. . . . .
Felix