For those for whom this is news, it was a sudden and unexpected decision! It was toward the end of June, a Tuesday. The idea popped into Elizabeth's head to move off Bella and live in a house. No warning, no build up of disliking Bella or the boating life. Indeed, in the months leading up, we'd bought a new mattress, replaced plumbing and continued to imagine our future in Melbourne Australia where we're to retire in just over three years. The moving off idea was tested with Pete who agreed in seconds. No shock at the idea, just immediate and sudden agreement. From that Tuesday to the Saturday of the same week, we decided to rent, found a house in Braunston and paid the deposit. That's it! We moved at the end of July, Bella went on the market in August and we had the offer two weeks ago. We signed the bill of sale exactly 14 years to the day when we moored up in Hillmorton to begin this life.
We've loved our floating life. It was a huge and challenging learning curve those first few months which is why we visited Bella's new family. A few hints and tips might help! We loved our years when we cruised a lot and loved our years when we hardly moved. We had no yearning to move off except the plan for Australia. It must just have been the right thing to do. Sealed, oddly, by this lovely family making the decision to live on a boat around the same time we decided not to. There we are.
