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Hi, we’re Colin and Ailsa Burn-Murdoch, AKA SV Mirounga Leonina, or Mirounga for short.
Is this the beginning? Is it just before? Or are we well in to our journey? Only time will tell.
Where are we now?
At the moment, we are exactly 6 weeks from leaving the UK to meet Mirounga, our 1997 Prout 45′ catamaran, in Bequia, a beautiful little island that forms part of St Vincent and the Grenadines.
It feels a lot like a new beginning, but to call it that would be to ignore how we got to this point – almost 7 years of learning, plotting (literally), planning, and prepping. Four training weeks, three qualifications, two bareboats, two house moves, two bereavements, multiple job changes and promotions, more delays than we could have expected, a LOT of saving, and a DIY house renovation.
The long road to a new life
We decided that we would pick up and go, but picking up and going has taken most of our 30s. The blog and social media accounts we thought would show a couple in their early 30s throwing in their desk jobs and sailing off in to the sunset is now likely to be about a 38 and 41 year old balancing freelance work with living aboard.
It’s taken a long time for things to get real, and in that time, well, sh*t got real.
Excitement and trepidation
What don’t we know yet? We have to see how we take to a catamaran (having only sailed monohulls so far). We’ve no idea how we’ll adapt to long term living in a warm climate. How will we find being so far from family and friends? We still have to figure out how to keep working, and how to keep life onboard fun around work. We have absolutely no idea how one does a full load of laundry on a boat?!
We’ve been on this journey for years. At the same time, everything ahead is filled with a shiny glow of anticipation and apprehension. Any new beginning would be. We can, only really decide what this milestone means when we look back in years to come. We’ll just call it that for now, a milestone.
We’ll be sharing more specific blogs about how we got to this point over the coming weeks, and then we’d like to take you with us as we pass that milestone, step aboard Mirounga, and figure out what on earth we’re doing.
We’re excited, and nervous, and can’t wait to share our story!
C & A.
