By Ulla
YEAR 2003
The mobile mobile rang with a shrill. She looked at the caller ID and gazed out of the window into the miserable, murky January morning.
'Is that you Amelie?'
She Immediately recognised that something was up. It was in Amelie's voice.
'Mum, could you have me and Robert for five days?'
Wow... she was coming visiting her in Scotland! What a nice surprise.
'Yes, of course, Darling, just say when.'
Seven days later they were there and that was to be the start of an adventurous 2003.
A year that would forever change her life.
A week later, after some very pleasant days with her daughter and her boyfriend, she decided to go to Denmark to visit her old, but very spry aunt..They arranged for the start of March and she was really looking forward to seeing her. They had always been very close. Her aunt was much more like a real mother, rather than the mother she had grown up with. Whether it had anything to do with the fact that she was adopted she would never know, Her adopted mother was long dead. She couldn't ask her adopted father either, with whom she had been very close. He died when she was only a teenager, and she had missed him ever since.
She then realised that she still had quite a lot of holiday due, and in a flush moment she arranged to travel to Missouri, USA, to visit her very dear friends, whom she'd known for over thirty years. They were very excited, and had invited her to stay as long as she could. Oh, she was so looking forward to the four weeks to see them all. That settled, she could now look forward to a very busy time....Little could she have imagined just how busy it would turn out to be.
It soon became the time to go to Denmark and as arranged she stayed with her aunt. However, it was obvious that her aunt had an agenda. For the umpteenth time, her aunt told her that if she was ever to find her biological mother she'd better get on with it, and that this was really the time for her to do so. Her aunt was quite stern, so to keep the peace, the very next day they had both gone to the hospital where she had been born.
There, to her surprise, she got all the details of her real mother as they had been at the time of her birth almost fifty two years ago. She had felt really excited.
But from then, she was on her own to find out what had become of her mother
during the last fifty years or so.
As it turned out, she had been in luck, getting a lot of help from a total unexpected angle. Suffice to say that friends, who were in the right position at the right time, managed to get the information she needed and the Internet did the rest of the work.
In little more than a month she not only discovered who her mother was, she also learned that her mother was alive and where she lived! In California no less!
Well, did she believe in omens? Maybe, but the reality of it was that she had arranged to visit her friends in The United States, which now gave her the chance to travel to California, to look up her mum! Even meeting her! And that, she decided, was exactly what she was going to do.
And so it was that one lovely day in May she stood on her mother's doorstep.
She remembered how she had been taken into the house and after much talk and some crying, they had decided to give it a go. She stayed four magical days, which had been the start of what had grown into a wonderful relationship with her real mother.
Before long she was back in Scotland, only to meet Sean, her future husband.
They had discovered the love they both had of sailing. Sean, an early retiree and divorced, had decided to sail his boat down to The Mediterranean, and on the spur of the moment had invited her to come along for some weeks. Daringly, she agreed, and they just hit it off. They'd ended up somewhere on the Northern Spanish coast.
So the end of 2003 saw her not only reconciled with her Daughter, finding her real mother, but also starting a whole new life!
It had indeed been a year of turbulence......
| Author Notes | The book is based on my own life, but for some reason I have found it easier to write it as a novel. Only some minor details are not based on facts. |
By Ulla
THE MOVE
Moving to Spain had been a bold step. They had never really talked about it before, but one good day the topic had come up. That is, not Spain as such, but just about moving. Not to go and live in another town, not to go and live in the country, but actually, what about go and live in another country all together? They had looked at each other, a bit astonished, but then again, why not?
Sean and Alex had only been together just over a year. A year that was to change everything in her life.
Alex's real name was Alexandra, but nobody ever called her that. It had always ever been Alex. She resented it in silence, but no one had ever paid attention to her wish to be called her full name. Not even her adopted parents had ever called her by her proper name, and they were the ones who had given it to her! But, back to the issue.
Sean had looked at her expectantly, as if to say, what do you think?
Yeah, what did she think!
So much had happened during the last year. Not only had she found her real mother, her birth mother, but during that year she had also met Sean, who was now suggegsting that they moved away all together.
On reflection, it quite appealed to her. That is, to move to another country to spend their latter years. Why not?
There was nothing to hold them back really.
They both had a story to tell. Both had travelled, especially Alex. Both had had a former life, but with somebody else. They had been so lucky to find each other this late in life, and why should they not go and fulfil an old dream they seemed to both have been harbouring?
Alex looked at Sean and thought how both their faces reflected the signs of a life already lived. But that didn't mean there was no more to be explored. On the contrary. Now was the time to go and discover something, that they hadn't had the time to do before. They had both raised a family, and then divorcing. Their respective offspring were now well settled and living their own life. So what was there to stop them?
"Well, Sean, if that's what this is about, why don't we go to Spain?" Alex looked Sean square in the eye. "After all, we have already sailed the boat to Spain, so what is more opportune than to go, and take things from there. We could live on the boat while sorting everything out, and looking for somewhere to live in the meantime. What do you think?" She looked at him with the look that told him, that she had given it a lot of thought and already made up her mind." What is more, we will be sailing in the Med as we have already planned to do."
Sean looked at her half smiling. "OK Alex, I will confess, that I've been thinking about this for a while also, and I am glad that you are not opposed to the whole idea. Let's put our house up for sale and see how it goes, and I can tell you one thing, and that is, that I love your idea about living on the boat. And for Spain? I have harboured that idea for quite a while as well."
Now, three months later, Sean sat on deck looking at the sun setting, while Alex was down in the galley fixing them a sun downer.
Oh, this was the life!
Only three months, and their whole life had changed. How quick it had all been. No, no crisis where they came from. The house had sold within the month. Then there had been all the preparation for going. Furniture to be stored. Family to say goodbye to. Not that there were that many. Their two daughters and their respective families. That was it really. All other family gone. Of course there had been friends to say goodbye to as well, with the promise of them coming visiting, and away they were on their great new adventure.
Alex appeared up the stairs and settled on deck next to him." Cheers Sean, to our new life!" She smiled at him lifting her glass, looking over the ocean, the sun almost gone. It looked like a big red Chinese lantern, only, it appeared to have been cut in half.
The next few days were spent getting the boat ready for the upcoming sailing season. Sean busy with engines and other maintenance work. Then attaching the sails onto the masts and the rigging. Alex occupied with making the boat like a home, filling up the galley with foodstuff and everything else needed in a normal kitchen but in a much more confined space.New curtains to be fitted and her precious books on display in the main cabin. A lot of them were now in storage, but there was only room for so much. It all took planning to condense a normal household into a yacht, and she always marveled how clever a boat was constructed. It could contain an amazing amount of things.
Finally, they were ready. Ready to start their new adventure. Ready to start a whole new chapter in their life!
After much planning they had both agreed on sailing throughout the spring and summer, settling in the autumn somewhere on the coast of mainland Spain. They would then look around to find out whether they would want to live there, and if so, then maybe go looking for a house. But first, sailing was begging and they had decided that the Balearic Islands it was going to be. Tomorrow was to be the big day. Their departure.
By Ulla
The wind got up a lot during the night, waking up both Alex and Sean several times. The howling, amplified by the masts when the sailing ropes hammered into them, made it sound much worse than it really was. But, all the same it was a bad blow. The hull of the boat felt as if it had come alive being tucked from one side to the other, only held in position by the mooring ropes which were stretched to capacity.
Several times during the night, Alex put up a silent prayer, relieved only by the fact that the ropes were brand new.
Sean was not too happy either, never stopping to curse the weather.
It was therefore a bleary eyed Alex, who finally got out of bed at first light, giving up hope of any more sleep. Better get out of bed, make some coffee and face the music, she thought to herself. It was no good at all. This kind of wind had not been in any of the forecasts, although it was not at all unusual for the Med to throw up some unpredictable weather.
But right now the priority was to brew some coffee. Not that it was an easy task, what with the boat lurching from one side to the other. It would look quite funny to an outsider, she thought as she swayed back and forth to keep her footing steady. She must look like a drunkard.
'Sean, would you like a coffee or a cup of tea before you get out of bed?'
Alex looked down at their very spacious bedroom realising that Sean was already halfway out of bed.
'No thank you.' Sean looked up at her.' I just get up and eat my usual breakfast, having my tea afterwards. Thanks anyway, but I feel like some action. What a dreadful night. Did you sleep at all?'
'No, I can't say I did'.
Alex looked at Sean marvelling at his still firm body. God, at 59 his bum still looked like a 25 year old! How unfair was that! She reckoned, she was not too bad herself, but no way could she compete with that. Then again, she mused, we can't all stay young forever...... it still didn't make it less unfair though.
They had breakfast in near silence waiting for the next weather forecast to come on. The naval radio was tuned in and ready to transmit. Alex was fluent in both Spanish and English which was fortunate, because the transmissions were not always all that clear in either language, so if she missed some in one language, the chances were that she picked it up in the next one. It had come useful on more than one occasion. The backup being, what she didn't pick up in English, Sean probably had. Good team work!
Now! The crackle on the radio indicated that the transmission was about to come on. Both of them concentrated, totally focused and in total silence.
However, it was bad news all round. The dreaded Tramontana wind had arrived. Every sailor feared that wind. It could spring up without warning whatsoever. The only warning, perverse as it seemed, would be a bright blue sky without so much as a cloud in sight and within seconds it would blow a gale or worse. For that reason it was not always possible to forecast it's arrival, so it was a stroke of luck that it had been forecasted at all. It would not have been nice to be caught out in that in open sea on the way to Mallorca.
'Oh bugger that,'
Sean frowned, looking at her. She couldn't help smiling. He really looked like a little boy whose candy had just been snatched away. They proceeded to concentrate on the rest of the forecast which didn't change the fact that the wind was to be gale to storm force and the sea? Well, don't even mention it.
'You know what, I suggest that we stay here for the next few days and then start edging our way down the coast, rather than go across to The Balearic's'.
Alex looked at Sean, pursing her lips.
'What do you think?'
'Hmm', Sean looked at her not all that pleased, but nodded all the same.
'No, you are right I suppose, it's only that I had been so looking forward to sail across. But no, there is no way we go out in this intentionally. One thing is to be caught out, but to go in search of it is crazy. Lets go up to the Marine office. Tell them that we intend to stay to ride out this weather. Maybe they'll have some further info of the weather for the next few days.'
'Ok, I couldn't agree more'. Turning towards the galley she looked at Sean.
'Lets finish our breakfast and we'll go up there. I also suggest that we go for a long walk afterwards. At least the ground will not be moving as much as here.'
Alex laughed as she said this, adding ,
'Oh, and I am still loooking forward to my black coffee. It's the best of the day'.
Later when they arrived at The Marine office, it appeared desserted.
Then, suddenly somebody said: 'Buenas dias'.
A young man appeared through a door at the back, a wide grin on his face.
'Yeah, good for you to look so animated mate' Alex thought uncharitably, turning towards him.
'Buenas dias, good day, to you as well' she uttered not too friendly, which was really unfair. It was not his fault after all that the weather was this bad.
'We are planning to stay a few more days waiting out this weather. We can't say for how long though'
The young man smiled back at her.
'Sin problema, no problem, we got plenty of spaces and we'll be happy to have you until this weather has passed. Just tell us when you are ready to leave. What we do know is that this weather is to last for a few more days at least.'
Thanking him, Alex turned to Sean.
'It's fine, we can stay until the weather has improved, which will hopefully only take a few more days.'
Once back on the boat they decided to have yet another coffee before heading into town.
It was a fair walk which they covered in near silence. Neither of them felt in any mood to strike up a conversation, feeling a bit out of sorts. This was not what they had hoped it to be, but then again why let a bad weather forecast get to them. Both of them had too much experience to let this kind of thing affect them.
The town proved to be a nice surprise. It was really only like a big village, but the square at which they soon found themselves at proved to be as pleasant as interesting. People were milling about and the cafees that were surrounding it were filling up at a rapid pace. The square itself was as ancient as it seemed to be steeped in history. Nothing appeared to have changed much during the last few centuries.
The townhall was easily recognizable by the local flags and the now obligatory Europenean Ensign.
Sean looked around pointing towards a cafee on the other side of the square.
'Lets go over there. That quite takes my fancy'
'Ok, and then, you could maybe tell me what is on your mind? Alex looked at Sean. She could tell that he was thinking about something.
After their beers arrived Sean turning towards her said:
'A couple of days here, and if the wind has abated by then, I suggest we head south, coast hopping. Too risky to head out into open water. The sea will be too unpredictable. I don't think either of us are quite prepared for that yet.'
Alex could have jumped for joy. ' You know, Barcelona is only 20 nautical miles from here, so why don't we go there staying a few days? Oh, I would love that. Haven't been there since I was very young'
Sean lookd at her smiling.' Ok then, that's what we do.'
Two days later seemed to be the moment to set off, and as dawn broke they slid out of the Marina into open water. They were on their way.
TO BE CONTINUED
| Author Notes |
Alexander usually called Alex
Sean her husband to be Amelie living in Denmark, Alex's daughter Alex's biological mother now living in Denmark |
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