End of an Era?

We first met the Tomskii crew in Kremik in 2010. They purchased Tomskii Kastan from the same outfit we bought Tara in. Marcel is an oil executive and wanted to buy a boat and chose a Beneteau 473 from Hungarian Yachting, same as us. Marcel understood the game that was afoot in Kremik much before we did and was invaluable in helping us through the difficult time we had exporting the boat (in reality having the lein removed).

Marcel and Lena

Through this process we became friends and his youngest, Joost, gets along very well with Ross and Jessie. Joost can be a little quirky and is usually very quiet at home in Holland. Marcel has said to me he reckons Joost talks more in the two or three weeks with Ross and Jessie than he does the rest of the year.

Joost eating his annual feast of lobster. 

Since we got along really well and the kids did too, it made sense that we would try to meet up in Europe as time allowed. I think that we have managed to meet up with the Tomskii crew every year we have returned to Europe. Once in Poros, a couple of times in the Aegean and possibly once in Italy -- the memory goes after your 1,000,000th litre of Heineken.

Anyway, it is sad that this is possibly the last year for meeting up with Tomskii in Europe. Marcel and Lena are planning on crossing the Atlantic this year and heading to the Caribbean for a couple of years and then on-to New Zealand. 

Tomskii and Tara...will they meet again?