The period in Bruinisse after returning from our summer vacation until the end of October flies by. By now we are completely used to living on the boat and are no longer concerned with the difference with living in a house. It all goes very naturally and we feel very good about it 😊😊.

After all, on board we have everything we need. We like it, living a more minimalist life with less stuff. It gives us more time and space for other things, like weekends out and vacations. We also live more outside and closer to nature. And we get more out of the various weather conditions. Washing laundry that is not allowed in the dryer I only do on sunny days so the laundry can dry outside 😉 . If it's windy we are rocking a little more in the playpen. When it rains it taps cozily on the roof. As soon as the weather even allows, we eat outside. We do this much more often than when we lived in the house. It gives us a healthy color, we are regularly told.

 

Toine now goes to the office about 2-3 days a week and I 1-2 days from mid-September. That variety is great fun. Fortunately we don't have to hit the road every day, but regularly seeing colleagues f2f gives us both a lot of energy. Toine has regular evening sessions again. Somewhere in September the weather is very calm, Toine has appointments outside the door, and I decide to spend the evening and night anchored here just outside the marina. It feels very cool I must say ☺️! And it gives a huge feeling of freedom 💪😃. That is also the right term to describe the difference between living in a house and living on the boat in one term: "it gives more freedom", in a literal and figurative sense.

 

The weekends are fun with the girls, family or friends. At the beginning of September we are in Utrecht for the weekend with our family and Sam to eat delicious Japanese food. The day after we go to visit Inge with, as always, delicious food from the Green Egg 👌. We all sleep in a nice hotel in Utrecht because driving back to Bruinisse is not an option.

 

We are going to Maastricht one Saturday at the end of September to celebrate Marinthe's 20th birthday! We eat cake in her room and have a lovely dinner with nice matching wines at Rozemarijn restaurant (unfortunately I forgot to take pictures 🥲). We sleep in a hotel, because even now driving back to Bruinisse is not an option. Especially since we are going to Nijmegen on Sunday for Grandpa Wim's 85th birthday. Cosy family moments with a hotel stay. Now that we live on the boat we do that more easily. That also has its charms we both think 👍.

Those are the times when we see Marinthe; with her busy schedule, she doesn't manage to come to Bruinisse again. Eline has a bit more time in the weekends and regularly comes to Bruinisse to sail with us 😃.

 

We had a very nice weekend with 24 other Hallberg Rassy boats from the Hallberg Rassy Connection (HRC) at the Ossehoek in mid-September with a delicious BBQ. A very successful event 👌.

We are also going to spend a weekend on the Oosterschelde. We are anchored in the Schelpenhoek on Friday evening. It's a bit tricky to sail in and don't do it towards low tide! Saturday we go with the NoDoubt to Zierikzee. Very nice with delicious food.

At the end of September we heard that we could spend the winter on the good side of the marina in Dordrecht after all. This was uncertain for a while because of the renovation of the monumental access bridge. So we looked at some alternatives, but are very happy that we can go to Dordrecht after all. That is clearly the best option for us ☺️.

 

At the beginning of October the two of us are going to Canada for a week. We are going to visit family with Teun and visit two national parks in the beautiful autumn colors. How lucky we are with the weather 😎☺️. Really a 'gift' ☺️. After three cosy days at Teun's place, we'll go on a five-day campervan trip. We make firm walks of 10, 15 and 19 km in rough terrain. Untrained Toine is in no way inferior to me, while I have done a lot of hiking this year 👍😎. Going into the Canadian countryside with such a campervan also gives a nice feeling of freedom. But you should not compare the camper with our boat. Such a camper is much smaller, less solid and less luxurious. Fine for vacation, but not to live in ☺️.

The Fridays in the even weeks I go out for a walk. With Mieke I will walk stages of the Hertogenpad or alone somewhere in Zeeland. Mieke also inspired me to start training for the Warandeloop 5 km race (end of November). In a few weeks I'll build up to a run of more than half an hour.

 

In October we are going to sail two weekends on the Grevelingen with Eline. The first weekend we anchor in the Hals and return early on Sunday so Eline can go to field hockey.
This past weekend we lay together with the NoDoubt and the Summertjes at Ossehoek. We have beautiful weather with a delicious BBQ. A nice closure of the sailing season 👍👍. In between the weekends we both have a few days of flu. I do a self-test and a test at the GGD; negative! Just having the flu is still possible. Fortunately it doesn't last long.

 

Next weekend we are sailing to Dordrecht. We are looking forward to spending a few months there again. It feels like a kind of "hibernation" as far as sailing is concerned. But with more opportunities to walk into town for dinner, shopping, theater and / or cinema.

And so the first year living on the boat in Bruinisse flew by. Now a few months in Dordt. And then back to Bru ... living in the peace and nature of Zeeland we like. We even regularly listen to Omroep Zeeland with beautiful music and cozy talk 😊😃.