Jane: my mum aged 92 + Eve: Johns mum aged 86 = JANEVE
“Of course, we would love to see Joline”, our 92 & 86 year old mothers wanted to see our new home. It was down to us to make it happen. Our Mission ( which we loved taking on): Two grandmas to safely come sailing with us and have fun.
We What’s app our mums several times a week from the deck of Joline and they track our adventures daily. Since we have had Joline we have been looking for an opportunity to be able to bring them on board and show them our home. Gibraltar seemed the ideal opportunity as it offers great flights from Manchester and Gatwick, a lovely marina, mobility scooter hire, its British Speaking, has good health service, a fabulous temperature in November, and great fish and chips..IDEAL…
Having securely berthed Joline in Queensway’s quay marina we both headed to the UK for a flying visit. I headed to Bristol to see Christopher and Rachels’s lovely new house and my newly acquired flat in Bristol before heading to the Lakes to pick up my Mum, and John headed to Burnham on Crouch to pick up his mum.
EasyJet was brilliant, the folk that helped us get our mums on board and get them off again were outstanding. The flight was comfortable and we landed effortlessly in Gibraltar and by lunchtime we had successfully got both mothers onto Joline and the mums were sat in our cockpit soaking up the sun and eating lunch with gusto.
We had explained to the Marina staff that we were worried about getting our mums on and off Joline and they embraced our challenge and found us a great berth against a sloping quay so we could move the boat up and down the quay depending on the height of the tide to ensure they only had a very small step onto the boat. It also enabled us to get the mobility scooters right next to the boat and secure them overnight.
The mums did really well, they negotiated the stairs, (no mean feat as they are steep!), managed to find a way to get into and out of bed, and make it to the loo in time. Taking the pleather of routine pills became a bit of a fun ritual. Hunt the; sunglasses, purses, handbags, scarf, shoes, jumpers…. kept us highly active. Once they had found their way around the boat there was no stopping them, armed with walking sticks, handbags, spare coats, pill box, sun cream, a bottle of water – off they pottered with John and I rushing around trying to get ahead of them to grab hold of an arm and point out the winch/rope cleat/ step/ that needed negotiating, – it was like having an active five-year-old on board – as John and I would ask – where are you going now?? Of course… they were going to find a better seat, in the sun.
My mum insisted on having a go on the big orange bean bag, landing quite gracefully and enjoying the sun-baked side of the boat, it was quite hilarious trying to extract her from it as it got far too breezy out on the deck.
To see our Mums faces as the dolphins kept Joline company for a good half an hour was just fabulous. Up the Gibraltar rock, the monkeys decided to put on a great display and there was something really special about sharing it with our mums as we had found a way to make it happen.
John and I also had fun researching where we could and could not take the buggies, the best fish and chip shops, bbq rib places –It all paid off, they had a ball, zooming along the high street in tandem before settling down to eat every scrap of fish and chips.
They loved their food. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were eaten with real gusto, after which they would profess how that would do them the rest of the day, and then a few hours later quietly one of them would suggest a “wee something would be in order” whatever was produced would be then gratefully eaten and then they would enquire as to where was pudding?? Nothing wrong with their appetites.
They were with us for five days and it was a real hoot, we loved having them and you could see by their faces they loved being with us.
They even suggested that they could be crew down to the canaries……
Maybe pushing our luck to far. We had really enjoyed showing our Mums our home and loved having them stay on board. Just hope we are as capable at their age……
Wonderful effort by all no doubt about it! Gibraltar a fabulous spot. We loved our time there too. well done Joline crew for making it all happen. Family time is special xx
The mums are very lucky to have such dedicated, caring and loving kids to look after them. Maybe the mums could do the Atlantic crossing? But that is possibly a bridge (crossing) too far.