24th December – Liz and Robert leave Jalan Jalan
Liz and Robert have packed their bags and departed after spending the last five weeks onboard. It has been great to share the experience of the Atlantic with them . Living in such cramped conditions and undertaking difficult conditions including sleep deprivation etc have tested us all and I’m sure individually we have grown enormously from the experience. We will always be grateful to them for making the commitment to help us fulfil our promise to Al and a long held dream.  Robert has been an excellent first mate throughout and John was able to sleep easy knowing he was at the helm. The fun and laughter shared when we attempted to deal with problems were one of the reasons we knew they were up to the challenge.

They are now safely ensconsed in a lovely 5* hotel enjoying inclusive luxury on a daily basis. The boys and Rosie have arrived safely despite all the hiccups of potential strikes and huge snow falls with little delay. Robert even dipped his toe in the water yesterday (a big deal for him) at the private beach.   So glad that they are only up the road at the moment or the farewell  would have been very hard.  Now we have time to adjust before they return to the UK.

We had a lovely visit from Linocat after they left. And Lani entertained us with her antics for a while. They head away to Martinique tomorrow but hopefully we will keep in touch as they now feel like firm friends.

John and I went out to Voyageur for a quick drink and catch up and then straight back to the boat where we had a baked potato and slobbed about till bedtime.

CARIBBEAN CHRISTMAS

To one and all Merry Christmas, Feliz navidad etc. Hope that you and yours have had a lovely time and enjoyed a WHITE Christmas.

It was very strange to wake up on board with no-one else there. The boat seemed strangely hollow without the crew. The marina was deadly quiet and it was quite overcast.

We spoke with the kids who are so choked with stinking colds and sore throats I felt bad not being there to administer to them. They were happy and heading out to spend the day with friends. So so different from any other Christmas spent.

We had Dolphin aboard for a fizzy brekkie and were then joined by Voyaguer for cake and fizz. After that we headed to the beach for a swim. The swell was huge and it became more a case of jump the wave before it jumps you. Great fun nonetheless. The it was back to boat to dig out some gladrags.

Looking not quite like ourselves – John in long trousers and me in a posh frock we headed of to meet up with the Liz, Robert and family for Christmas dinner at their hotel.  It was lovely to shar the evening with them

The meal took four hours and we were very grateful that Isaac (taxi driver ) came to collect us and see us safe home around 1.00 a.m.

What is nice is that everyone gets the day off. Everywhere in the Marina is closed and even H2O which is the hub was dead to the world.
BOXING DAY: not a soul in sight. Spending the day just liming!

John fitted new battery but needs different connections! He also fitted the fan in the bunk (halleluha) now the mosi’s will get chopped up overnight instead of eating us alive!

No great plans at mo but need to do an explore and plan for the next set of visitors who come on 11th? Will do a day sail or two with the Millar clan over the next week or so.

Guess its time to think about what comes next ?