New Sails

We are back in Palma. Mallorca and our new sails are finally finished and being hoisted for the first time.....It's been six weeks since we were sailing down the coast of Mallorca in a Big Wind and heard the mainsail rip in two. Since then we have been waiting as the sails were made in Italy and then customized for EcstaSea here in Palma. They are modern, membrane sails and they are truly beautiful.....

For those of you who are sailors, you know how important sails are and for those of you who are not, well, just take our word for it---it is a big deal.












Out for a sail to check the new mainsail and new genoa...

Out sailing and Willow looking up at the beautiful
sails....

And to celebrate our new sails, we had a celebratory dinner at our favorite restaurant, Forn.

It has been a challenging year weather wise with many mistral winds and storms. And to attest to this, just take a look at Old Glory.... She looks as though the "rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air",  shot right through her !!!

I used to tell Richard that i had a fantasy years ago of living in a marina, surrounded by masts. Little did I know that i would someday be living in a marina in Palma, Mallorca surrounded by masts with a 15th century Cathedral in the background. This is the picture of my backyard every morning. I didn't know to dream this big...

So now with new sails and the weather finally allowing us to leave port, we are sailing on to the Italian island of Sardinia where EcstaSea will spend the winter while we come back to Tucson home. It is always a bitter-sweet time as we begin to wind the season down. But we are ever thankful for all of it and the lessons learned this year.

Old Hippies

While waiting for our new sails to be made and completed, we decided to motor (get it? we can't sail without our sails) on over to the island of Ibiza. Ibiza is one of our favorite places as it is the place old hippies go to die and the place where new hippies are born and reborn.
From young gypsy couples with baby in tow stopping anywhere to sing and dance for their supper to hippy entrepreneurs at the Hippy Market, we appreciate their courage to show up in their authenticity and uniqueness. The courage to be "different" and to trust who they are is something we admire and wish we had come to long ago in our lives.
With that said, here are some peeks into the life of Ibiza....
                                                                         


The colorful "old hippy" on the way to the Hippie Market.                                                                              








See if you can find the other old hippie under the banner at the Hippie Market.

The Hippy Market is literally hundreds of booths of clothing, jewelry, and displays of everything that you didn't know you wanted or needed and thousands of other shoppers realizing the same thing. And yes, everytime we come to Ibiza we come and find lots of fun treasures.

Like the gypsy skirts and a fun time with the woman who makes them.

And the young woman who makes feather earrings with naturally-found feathers,  washed in the sacred rivers in India.
                                                               














           
 Great sitar music to entertain and meditate to.                  

And to levitate to.










So all in all, you can see that it was another fun day in the lives of hippies---old and young....
                                                           

Another favorite place is the port of Santa Eulalia where Willow had her first steak ever last year. So of course, she had to have another at the same great restaurant called "The Gallery".                              
                                                                                                                                                                         

Then enough of the hustle and bustle of the port, hippie markets, and all of the people and off to anchor on the little island of Espalmador where all is quiet and tranquil once again.

Beach walks are always special......

And who wouldn't want a Captain that looks like this???















And Yum, Yum....Our own version of Kiwi Pie that we have often for dinner---just because we can.

Once again we thank Ibiza for the spirit of light-heartedness and playfulness that keeps us coming back. It has a sweet way of renewing and energizing our spirits and remains one of our favorite getaways.....

The Spice of Life

For us, truly the "spice of life" is variety. Luckily we are both perfectly matched in our yearning for new experiences, contrasts, and lots and lots of variety. We find that it keeps us from becoming complacent, constricted, and too rigid without the opportunity to explore and expand and actually push our boundaries to grow. We heard a quote recently that went like this: "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape."
So we thought we might just share a few pictures of the variety recently here on Mallorca and Ibiza.
Of course, living on a moving home called EcstaSea offers great opportunity for variety as does "life" in general for all of us who are paying attention. Each new sunset is different, each daily routine and even our wonderful bodies are constantly changing and offer new moments of wonder and variety.
We welcome the variety and fresh, new experiences to explore the "juiciness" of it all...

The variety of color and hues in the serene, beautiful sunsets....

Buying fresh croissants delivered to the dock in Palma by the french bakery lady....

Watching the wild goats come down to play near the water in the morning while enjoying coffee on the veranda (the cockpit) in our own private little cove.....

Cruising the coast of Ibiza in awe of it's beauty.....

Watching a crazy new watersport that we named "water-jet flying" in a busy cove on the south of Ibiza.....
Altho, not being yet daring enough to want to try it !

Enjoying a local festival in a small village celebrating the Christians conquering the Moors years ago.....

The happy mermaid immersed in Yemaya Blue who once in a while has to comb her hair, clean up and go to town......

Visiting an art exhibition titled "Walking on Faces" in Palma...                                                                                  

Leaving civilization once again to hide out in our own private piece of paradise where even the handsome Captain can shower for all of nature to admire !!!