Sunny days and sleepy afternoons, where the hardest decisions I have to make all day involve what to wear and what to make for dinner! I love summer and holidays and Christmas most of all!

The last few weeks of managing on our own while Peter assisted in the delivery of a yacht to Albany are over. The yacht was successfully delivered, Peter learned a great deal and flew into the ACT on the morning we were due to arrive there ourselves to start a lovely few days of celebrating Christmas and catching up with our family there. What a happy reunion it was! I am sure that the man who stepped off that plane was somewhat different to the man I waved off a few weeks ago as Will Watch set sail from here. It was not all plain sailing for him as he had his first real taste of the relentless sea sickness that plagued Erina for much of our own journey. The yacht he was delivering had a very different action in the water to our own and was quite roll-ey a lot of the time. Still he managed fine and learned a few sea sickness tricks in the process. He got so much out of the trip that I couldn’t complain for one moment about any of the tricky things we had to deal with in his absence – I guess it would be true to say that we all learned a great deal!

He has been asked to assist in another delivery – this time from Albany to Auckland – in March. This will give him enough hours to obtain his Coxswain ticket and after that he will be working on his Master Mariners 5. These licences will mean that he is qualified in his own right as a delivery skipper and will be able to launch out (sorry, no pun intended) on his own in a new business venture! Yes, the days of slogging over building may be drawing to a close for Peter – which seems like a shame in one way as he is just so good at it, but to be able to earn an income doing what he loves – well that’s priceless!

Our electrical woes, encountered during his absence were not a simple Peter-fix as I had expected – but turned out to be our Heart-Smart interface giving up the ghost!

When we first got back here after our lovely Canberra Christmas, Peter took one look at the power display and went straight into the engine room. In between trips (when he had stopped in here briefly) he had switched off something he had thought unnecessary but realised as soon as he looked at the display that this is what was causing a problem.
Initially at least.

Alas, after a couple of days it became apparent that it was not quite so simple. In fact this was only part of what was causing our problem. We have a system on board that monitors our batteries, our shore power and how everything electrical is functioning. It has never worked quite properly but what is happening now, and had begun in his absence is that the display was dying - and has now ceased functioning all together. Our power is now working fine but we will need to replace this display in order to be able to monitor our system effectively. Not so bad.

So Christmas has come. Our second Christmas on board. It was very different being in a community which we were more familiar with and close to family and long term friends. The children and I enjoyed the local Carols By Candlelight, particularly that friends were performing at it and a big part of it. We had a lovely relaxing and delightful time in Canberra with our family and very special friends including a delightful stay at the heritage Rosebud Cottage in Cook.

Christmas will forever be a special time for me, partly because my childhood Christmases were often so hit-and-miss with many being called off at the last minute due to some inexplicable whim of my mother, and partly because when I first became a Christian it was in late November and I will never forget my first Christmas strolling through the shopping centres hearing the words of the Christmas Carols as if for the very first time – finally understanding the intent and depth of the very familiar songs. I take great delight in finding gifts that I hope will convey my love for those around me and love the sounds, gatherings and general sense of connection with others that seems to abound at Christmas.

Our yacht has also joined in with Christmas festivities again this year, proudly wearing a couple of sets of lights. Happily we were moved again to another spot in the marina and now the lights are visible from the road making her look rather grand and very joyous!

So Happy Christmas to you! We hope that 2013 holds many days of fun and adventure for you, as we hope it does for us.