Being out at sea and travelling through weird and wonderful countries and meeting new friends everywhere, you tend to forget the value of "old" friends. Those friends who you have known through wild varsity days and days with young crying babies...(hmm, some of us are still there). But, in any case, those old friends with whom you have spent many days together many years ago.
But we just got reminded again of the wonderful value of old friends. Within 16 hours of arrival at Nosy Be, we were greeted by the Myburgh family - mother Lizet, father Charlie, 11-year old Leon, 10-year old Micae and 6-year old Carli. Yes, we all fitted into Goody for 10 days. And it was an awesome 10 days! Not once did we think Goody was too small for all the opinions or actions. There was enough space for everyone to enjoy their time, although it was obvious that some of the other yachts passing us, or being anchored next to us, disagreed...We spent so many wonderful hours on beautiful beaches, snorkelling on pristine corals reefs, playing on kayaks, playing on surfboards, painting team t-shirts, pulling anchor chain, playing with lemurs, finding chameleons, climbing a volcano, climbing a lighthouse, fishing, eating, drinking, laughing and overall just being happy!

We were again reminded of some of the joys and privileges of cruising and exploring which we may have started to take for granted.

And, we were again reminded of the high value of old friends.