Wintering in Spain was always part of our game plan for the simple reason that we wanted our kids to learn Spanish. The plan was to enroll them in local public school. They had learned some Spanish at a very young age with our Chilean nanny, Andrea, and we wanted to build on that foundation before it completely disappeared. We were also looking forward to a break from the home schooling. Constant togetherness is both the best and the hardest aspect of the cruising lifestyle, and cruising with a family increases both the challenges and the rewards exponentially. After a year and a half on the boat, we are all looking forward to the break we'll get as the girls actually go away to school each day.

We have tried to be more spontaneous since becoming full-time cruisers so we didn't know exactly where in Spain we would wind up. We figured we would check it out a bit before making the decision. We started to really think about it when we spent ten days in Sevilla in August. We loved Sevilla, even in the unbelievably hot summer weather, but it isn't a great spot for the boat. The Club Nautico de Sevilla is a wonderful facility close to the heart of the city, but it is also one of the most expensive marinas in Spain. The only other option is a much more reasonably priced spot about 5 miles outside the city in the middle of an industrial/construction zone. In addition, being 50 miles up the Rio Guadalquivir, the facilities for getting parts and having work done on the boat are virtually nonexistent. It just isn't a big boating town. It is a wonderful city, however, and the local schools teach in Spanish.

"Of course the local schools teach in Spanish," you might say. "You are in Spain, after all!"

Who would have imagined that our biggest challenge would be finding a place in Spain that was a relatively big city, and where the public schools taught in Spanish? There are four provinces in Spain that have their own languages which are taught, with varying degrees of choice, in the public schools. In the northwest region of Galicia, they speak Gallego. In the Basque region the local language is Euskera. In Valencia, the schools teach in both Valenciano and Castellano, what we know as Spanish, depending on the school. Finally, in Catalunya, the region in which Barcelona is situated, the official language is Catalán. We had decided that we didn't want to wind up in one of the thousands of beautiful seaside resorts that are full of tourists and activities during the summer but shrink back to small populations with not that much happening in the winter. Being in Sevilla decided this for us. We figured we could find plenty to keep us grown-ups busy in a town like that, while the kids were off at school. But Sevilla didn't seem like a good option because of the previously mentioned issues with the boat, and the fact that we weren't all that keen on going BACK to Sevilla, through the Straits of Gibraltar, after having already traveled into the Med. What other choices did that leave? Valencia is the third largest city in Spain, and they do speak Castellano in the schools, so we set our sights and made a beeline from Gibraltar.

Pulling into Valencia, we were struck by all the industry along the coast. We didn't have updated cruising guides for the area, so we made for the Club Nautico, which was on both our paper and electronic charts. There is a huge amount of construction going on along the waterfront in preparation for the America's Cup races being held in Valencia in the summer of 2007. Thousands of new berths are being built to accommodate the spectator boats that are expected to flock to the city. We figured it would be no problem to find a spot for the winter there. We expected the Club Nautico to be expensive, like the one in Sevilla, and were not disappointed. It is also a good ways outside the city. The big new Port America's Cup is right downtown, but despite being absolutely empty aside for three measly boats, they insisted on charging us for two slips because of our wide beam. We figured we could negotiate with them, but the truth of the matter was, we didn't like the city so much. I wish I could say more accurately what exactly we didn't like, but it just seemed a little characterless. Perhaps it is all the hoopla that is going on around the America's Cup that detracts from the personality of the place. At any rate, we all had the same feeling, so we decided to take the rental car and check out Barcelona.

It took us all of five minutes to decide that we loved the city of Barcelona. It oozes character out of every crack. The art and architecture, history, international flavor, vibrant streets and restaurants all appealed to us immediately. We walked Las Ramblas and its surrounding streets, discovering cool shops and markets at every turn. The kids were enthralled by the character actors who camp for change along the tourist-flocked corridor. We loved having more choices of cuisine that just your typical Spanish restaurant. The neighborhoods all seemed to have something to draw you to them. And everywhere there was cheap, easy-access public transportation. Metro, trains, trams, and buses get you wherever you need to go in Barcelona easily and cheaply. Okay, they have this language thing in the public schools, but surely we can find a private or semiprivate school that will teach in Spanish, right?

We drove back to Valencia, and headed back to Barcelona in the boat. We managed to swing a spot at Port Vell (unusual to find room for a catamaran there, apparently) for a week while we looked for a place for the boat for the winter. We were still debating renting an apartment and hauling the boat out for the winter. We spoke to a bunch of people in Spain and found that hauling the boat and storing it on land was almost as expensive as leaving it in the water over the winter. We could haul out in France for less money but then the boat would be at least a couple hours away by car. We weren't sure we were comfortable with this option. We finally settled on a slip at the brand new Marina Badalona, just outside the city limits of Barcelona, but only five miles north of Port Vell. With that decision made, we took off for Mallorca and France to enjoy the last of our 2006 cruising season. We figured we would deal with the school issue when we got back to Barcelona in November.

Dozens of phone calls later we found ourselves at one of several swank private schools in Barcelona where they boast a trilingual education: English, Spanish, and Catalán. It was worth a look, but for six thousand dollars for three months with only 20% of the day taught in Spanish, we decided to take a pass on the private schools. According to the education officials I spoke to, there is not a single school, public, private, or semiprivate, in all of Barcelona, that teaches the children primarily in Spanish. Public schools teach in Catalán with only a few hours a week in Spanish. There are American and British schools, French, German, and Italian schools that teach primarily in their native tongues with a few hours a week in Catalán. But here, in one of the most vibrant cities of Spain, you cannot educate your child in Spanish. We were dumbfounded. We felt like idiots. After all of this time saying how cool it was going to be to send our kids to school in Spain to learn Spanish, it wasn't going to happen. We were devastated.

We started looking into private lessons. Maybe we could continue home schooling and supplement it with a private tutor for Spanish. Wait a minute. We want some time away from the kids. More importantly, we want the kids to have some time to be with other kids. That isn't going to happen with a tutor. Slowly we came around to the idea of...Catalán. Okay, the only place in the world that it is spoken is in one region of six or seven million people in Spain. Bummer. But, learning any language is going to be beneficial at their age. Most of the kids are going to speak Spanish outside the classroom. They will at least get a couple of hours a week in Spanish inside the classroom as well. And heck, here we are in Barcelona. Let's make the most of it.

A little bit of paperwork later, the girls had their school assignment. We started after returning from the Christmas holiday in the States. January 8th, 2007 was their first day of school in Spain. Actually, I should say it was their first day of school in Catalunya. I think that is a little more accurate.