The whiteboard the the Navstation had a picture of a box for Boxing Day. We spent much of Boxing Day worrying about biosecurity and tucking things away in boxes. Approaching the Galapagos we obsessed about barnacles and mold, fearful of being denied entry. Approaching Australia we are over pine needles, reindeer food and slime.

New Zealand is known as a tough country to enter but the chatter about Australian customs triggers a Boxing Day cleaning festival. Customs inspections may take hours and you pay for their time. Biosecurity items include oatmeal, flour and plant matter. Reindeer food with oatmeal, a Christmas tree, hiking shoes and a slime cooler are all suspect. A clean boat will make the check in process simpler. The tree decorations return to their waterproof box. The stuffed blue footed booby who had been strapped to the mast as our tree topper, took off his glittering Merry Christmas glasses and returned to the handrail with the other stuffed animals. The pine branch is tossed into the ocean. Out come sponges, tooth brushes and the shop vac as we search of pine needles, oatmeal and slime. Not all the sparkling reindeer food made it into the ocean so I clear the lost candy stars and oatmeal tidbits off the deck. We pull up the floorboards and cushion searching for threatening pine needles. At last we stop finding offending bits of green. Leaving other ports the deck was covered with black basalt sand or white fragments of coral. Sailing from springtime New Zealand the deck was covered with a coating of spring pollen. The heavy rains and scrubbing removed the green tinge. By afternoon the boat looks neat. We might loose our the wooden carvings: the Marquesan tiki, the Tongan whale, the New Zealand bowls and the Senegalese Tom Tom drum. All have given us joy already and we would miss them.

Calls home to catch family on North American Christmas were scheduled. Early calls went well but the later ones as the Sydney Hobart race was starting were less reliable. It was lovely to hear people's voices but frustrating to have the connections drop. All the while the vhf radio was buzzing with action as 120 yachts left Sydney for Hobart. The weather in the Bass Straits looks ugly. We are happy to be heading for Eden and not Hobart. The racers will sail straight into the very strong winds. We will pull into Eden, clear customs and wait for a good weather window to continue south. It seems creepy to be steering towards forecast strong winds but met bob assures us that we are on track to be In Eden before the winds grow strong.

The sky is wide open and clear but the low clouds hanging just in the western horizon and the new noisy tern like bird hint of land ahead. The after glow is vivid continental red. The boat is clean and we are looking forward to a new continent