Well, it has finally arrived: our last full cruising day for this year. Tomorrow we leave Leu Cat and head back to the States. We are leaving Leu Cat with mixed emotions. While we are excited that we will be seeing our kids, our respective extended families and friends that we love, we will be leaving Leu Cat and our home for 7 months. That is the longest we will have been off our boat and the longest that we will have lived on land since we started. That has us being a bit sad. Normally, we are gone just a couple of months for the holidays and before we know it, we are back on board Leu Cat. Not this time…

We spent the day doing little stuff and meeting with the shipwright and the fellow who runs the boat valet service who will be taking care of Leu Cat while we are gone. The winds never piped up so we did not take the shipwright out into heavy seas since there were none. As it turns out, he will be here when we return in July so we have postponed the inside wood work until we get back. At that time we will take him out into the heavy seas so he can hear the creaking that we wish to eliminate. Meanwhile, we will have him do some minor work in the two engine rooms and strengthen the flooring that the genset sits on. It appears that the reason the genset pulled out of its tie down lag screws was that the screws were undersized. The shipwright will add some subflooring and install longer and stronger bolts.

Not much more to say except to thank all of you for your various comments and emails throughout this year. Each of you made this year so very special for us and we greatly appreciate the time you each took to share your thoughts and views with us. It is one of the things that make our cruising life so enjoyable. And we also wish thank those of you that we were able to meet this year. Your kindness and generosity was overwhelming. Being able to meet people who love sailing and adventure and are willing to take the time to share their country with us is very unique and we leave with so much more insight and understanding of the culture, geography and the people of the places that we visit. It is very special.

Have a Merry Christmas and hope you all have a very good and Happy New Year!