MERRY CHRISTMAS

PC250019, originally uploaded by melandnick.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Christmas day (today) is our last full day in Gomera…The weather has been perfect, and there has been a BBQ for all the people in the marina to attend. We decided it would be a good idea to postpone our leaving until after the BBQ, and we made the right decision (thanks to Nick).

Although we’ve been in Gomera for longer than intended, we’ve passed the time well and have made many good friends and had many good times (some of which have ended with very bad hangovers)! Most recently we’ve gotten to know Lesley and Andy from Glasgow, and Sonia and Jim from Edinburgh all of whom we have spent time with during our last week in Europe.

Today we made our last calls to our parents before leaving, and said a temporary goodbye, as it will be nearly a month before we speak to them again. The support and love from our families and friends for what we’re doing is incredible, and we feel so very lucky to have such love and good wishes bestowed upon us for this leg of our journey. It really does mean a lot, especially at Christmas time.

We are leaving now tomorrow (Boxing Day), and the boat is at last finished. The interior has been fitted with extra storage, rigging has been checked, wind-vane and engine serviced, bilged cleaned, supplies stored, and numerous other jobs completed, so at last we’re ready to go.

Finally before we go, we’d like to say a big thank you to Marina La Gomera, which is without doubt the friendliest marina we’ve visited on our trip expertly managed by Jose and his team. We would strongly recommend La Gomera as a last port of call before a trans-atlantic crossing.

We send lots of love and best wishes for 2012 to all of our friends and family from home and to those we’ve met along the way. We will post again in about a month from the sunny Caribbean.

Mel & Nick