It has been an absolute whirlwind here at home – I cannot believe that we have less than two weeks before we head off back to Guatemala to see Morphie. While we have been away she has had her antifouling done and we have raised the waterline to allow for all the extra gear we are now carrying. Doesn’t she look pretty?
We’ve had great times with family and friends….and have thoroughly enjoyed catching up with everybody. Will be sad to say goodbye again but it’s not over yet – still some more festivities planned which we are looking forward to. And it’s not just people we miss there is also the spectacular scenery in London at this time of year. 
Richard went back to work as usual and retired again on Friday – I think he is addicted to the retirement parties LOL. We are now into the final push getting ourselves ready. All insurances are sorted – which wasn’t as easy as usual as we changed the length of time away. And our yacht insurer wanted to know what crew we were planning for the Pacific crossing. When I said we were going on our own they wanted a sailing CV for the underwriters to review. Fair enough I guess but it took me a while to put it together….and, within 24 hours, we heard that we had been approved to cross the Pacific without additional crew. Phew – thank goodness!!
Dramatically our brand new PC stopped working earlier this week and it had a power problem -– so spoke to Dell as the computer is under warranty – and it has to be sent away with an average turnaround time of 15 working days. Yep…that’s really useful…NOT! So we rang around and found a computer shop willing to take a look. There are apparently numerous options of what could be wrong – from a simple connection issue all the way up to a crocked motherboard. So fingers crossed we will get a resolution today – if not we’ll be running out to buy a new laptop and transfer all the navigation downloads over – and then let Dell collect it and redeliver it to a neighbour in our absence. This is not what I need right now, especially as I have been using that machine to create KAP files of Google Earth images for OpenCPN navigation. Should be OK to get these files off but the loading of the specialist software isn’t a quick process so have all things flexible crossed for a simple outcome!
The parcels have finally stopped arriving …. It is clear we will be heavily laden on our return as we have purchased more spares / essential items than I would have thought possible, especially as we have another West Marine order awaiting our return to the Rio Dulce!!!
One of the biggest decisions was which satellite communication system and we decided to purchase the Iridium Go! and a PredictWind Professional subscription for weather routing information. So we’ve spent quite a bit of time getting that activated and learning how to use it. Am pleased that we’ll be able to stay connected whilst on passage – not via our usual e-mail addresses – but we can do SMS messaging so if you get a message from an “8816” number it’ll be one of us!
I’ve amended the blog this year – with many thanks to Paul for his assistance – so we now have a subscription facility. If you subscribe you will receive an automated e-mail to let you know when we’ve blogged. (Please note that if you use a tablet you have to turn it horizontally for it to show up on the right-hand side).
Also we will have a tracking facility…so you can all put away those atlases and follow us on Google Earth. The picture under ‘Where are we now’ on the right-hand side is currently static – but, when we arrive in Guatemala and activate our system the tracking will be live. Hope you enjoy this new function!
That’s about it folks….must get on with things…..so bye for now and speak to you soon from Guatemala.
Jan