Having weathered the harshest of the European winter in Lisbon, the Jones family is getting ready to move on. They have spent the last month making updates to their Lagoon 42, getting to grips with live-aboard life with two young kids, learning new skills and enjoying little moments of family bliss. Aaron tells us more…

“The weather is slowly getting warmer, the days are getting longer and that means we’re getting ready to leave Lisbon. It’s been an action-packed end to winter here in Portugal, never a dull moment for this young family. We’ve had challenges aplenty and many little adventures both at sea and ashore.

When we packed up our lives in Australia, we sorted our stuff into 3 piles, one to give away, one to store in a shipping container on a good friend’s block of land and one to ship to Lisbon. The Lisbon pile ended up as 8 remarkably well-travelled boxes and arrived, unscathed, 3 months later. Excitement!”

“It sounds obvious, but learning to sail a big cat, whilst trying to keep 2 scallywags safe and ideally entertained, is hard work.

We reckon we’re a fairly capable couple, and taking Sabella sailing is right at the limit of those capabilities. Our morning “let’s go sailing routine” generally goes something like this….

Picture a rigid 10am departure from the marina to meet a slack tide and minimal cross current, at 9.45 I start the engines and prepare the docklines to slip, at 9.50 Sabine goes into meltdown (sensing our tension no doubt), at 9.55 Luella follows suit, at 9.58 we have a loud (to be heard above kids wailing) discussion about how to get off the dock whilst trying to avoid the boat next to us with the wind blowing us on, at 9.59 the crowds gather and assume their seats in the peanut gallery, 10.00 and we’re still on the dock about to miss our slack tide exit from the marina…”

“We’ve been at the Marina de Oeiras visitor dock for 2 weeks now and it’s been wonderful.

We are away from the silted river and out in the clean ocean, the view of the city is stunning and they even knock on our hull each morning with a delivery of fresh bread. This is certainly the pick of the marinas in Lisbon.

Easter was a hoot, egg hunts on boats are fun! Although we must caution against using the top of the winches as hiding spots on a warm sunny day (melted chocolate, mmmm).”