We found svLia!
It’s always exciting to spot a friend’s boat in an anchorage or marina. In Gibraltar we spotted the beautiful catamaran “Lia”—the floating home to the awesome Flanders Family who we met back in Split, Croatia.
Seeing their boat made us smile—they’re a super awesome family with some AMAZING kids.
During our time in Croatia we rented a car and drove in to Split a couple times to attend the tiny church branch there full of remarkable people. When we showed up at the branch, they asked if we were on vacation or sailors. We laughed that this little branch had seen a lot of “live-aboards” come through and had become used to sharing their Sundays with salty sailors.
They quickly introduced us to the Flanders family who had been coming regularly for several weeks before we showed up. We were stoked to meet a sailing family with kids and our similar lifestyles created an instant bond. Their kids Owen, Emerson, and Ruby are the BEST!
On the second Sunday we were there, the Flanders family sailed Lia over to our anchorage after church. They brought some new friends along with them and invited us all aboard to share a meal and each others company.
Ruby took our drink orders—she’s a master mixer of lemonade, Emerson and Owen showed us around and talked of all their recent adventures and compared notes on other live-aboards we had mutually come to know. Matt & Gina were wonderful hosts and it was so great to spend time with their family.
Seeing Lia in Gibraltar was awesome and Mark and I talked about the kids, the community this family works to create even while at sea, and a certain incident with Matt and his Onewheel that we are still laughing about. The Flanders are temporarily back home in the states catching up with friends & family, but they will soon be back aboard Lia and prepping for their Atlantic crossing in January.
We were bummed we didn’t get to see them, but we wish them fair winds and following seas and hope to spot Lia again someday—with all of them aboard and in an anchorage close by.
You can follow this awesome family and their adventures @flandersfamilytoday
