Hobart

We arrived in Hobart yesterday.  This is the view of Mt. Wellington as we sailed into Sandy Bay, where we're planning on living aboard Galactic for the winter.

It was a little surreal to be back in the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania - the last time we arrived here, Alisa was seven and a half months pregnant with Eric.  We've covered a lot of miles, figuratively and actually, since then!

We quickly ran into Mary and Midnight Sun, whom we had previously met in Tahiti and Hobart, respectively.  Both boats have kids under the age of six, and we enjoyed the company of other parents who are out sailing the world with little kids.  Really, there is no one else who can completely understand our day to day life.

Both of those boats are about to hop off on the somewhat daunting passage to New Zealand.  But not us - we're planning on following them, but not until the next austral summer.  We find that an occasional season spent in one place makes this lifestyle of endless travel work.  After all the moving that we did in 2011, we're ready to get to know this one very nice place in depth.  So we'll still be traveling, but we'll be here long enough to work our way into the warp and woof of local life, instead of forever hopping from one place to another, the way you do when you're crossing the Pacific in a single cyclone-free season.

Plus, of course, we have a very long list of deferred boat jobs to get after.  The windlass is first up!