Although we loved the comfort of Jovanna we also realised that we didn’t actually ‘need’ it and that there were a lot of things that we could either manage without or compromise on. We felt that downsizing would make it easier to get to certain places. Please go and have a look at the reasons why we chose to downsize our van https://jodeeontheroad.com/2024/01/14/jj-our-2nd-love/
Cleaning Jovanna and getting her ready to sell
After her MOT we put Jovanna into storage so we could get her all cleaned up and ready to sell.
Living on a Catamaran (Boatlife)
We were incredibly lucky as whilst we were cleaning our van we had the use of my friends Louise’s flat for the first 2 weeks whilst she was in Greece, after that our friend John very kindly allowed us to move on to his boat which is moored in Brighton Marina. We stayed on the boat for around 6 weeks
During that time we found our ‘sea legs’. Although we didn’t actually leave Brighton Marina the boat still rocked and we did have quite a few storms. We loved the boat though it was warm and cosy and we also had the use of a lovely shower block with toilets and hot showers that were immaculate. When it stopped raining we were also blessed with some amazing sunrises as you can see in the photos below.
Being back in Brighton also meant that we had lots of friends to catch up with. Here are some photos with some of our Brighton friends. We even had a visit from our friends “The Jones’s’ who we met in Turkey! That’s the photo, bottom left, everyone else is from Brighton.
Of course I have a whole other set of friends in Brighton too, my swimming friends. I miss having swim company so much when I’m travelling. Of course I couldn’t wait to see them all and swim on home territory again!
Well as we were back in my home town for what turned out to be 2.5 months I think it’s only fair to post of few of the landmarks of Brighton.
We started looking for our new van before we had sold Jovanna. We weren’t sure if it was a good idea or not! It did make it easier emptying Jovanna so she was ready to go but it also meant we were skint!
It wasn’t long before we found ‘Jovanna Junior’ or JJ for short. We couldn’t think of a name that was as good as Jovanna which is why we settled on JJ. If you want to find out the meaning of Jovanna then click here https://jodeeontheroad.com/2022/05/12/jovanna/
It took a while until we actually picked JJ up as she was having a few things done. But we loved the layout and decided she was right for us.
It was around mid November when we finally picked her up and then moved everything out of the boat and into our new little JJ.
The first photo is everything ready to move off the boat and the 2nd photo is me having a coffee in bed on our first morning waking up in JJ. It did initially feel a bit cramped for the first few days if I’m honest but like anything it just takes a bit of time to get to adjust.
Just a bit of admin to sort and we are finally heading back to France, Spain and Morocco for the winter.
Our next post will start with our ferry crossing, across the channel. We hope you will be joining us as our adventures continue through Europe and into North Africa.
If you would like to receive a notification every time a post goes live then please fill out your e mail below and hit the subscribe button
You can also follow us on Facebook , Insta and TikTok. Just click the icons below.
Our Life on the Road 