Merry Christmas!

Well the last big milestone is here and I think that the reality is very slowly starting to dawn that this will be our last Christmas in the UK for quite sometime. Kevin went to his last Christmas party at the company he has worked with for the last 12 years last night (and has been recovering since!). I even almost took a picture of the frosty white ground outside to keep as reminder on the way round.

I still find that because I cannot tell anyone in the office yet that the reality only really hits home at weekends when Kevin and I continue our preparations. Whereas for Kevin it is getting extremely near as the 3 months to the end of his contract and the collection of the boat will I’m sure, be here sooner than we know it once we get through the New Year. Christmas seems really to have crept up on me this year, despite being organised for the first time ever and having bought every present on the internet a few weeks ago, now it is here I’m beginning to panic a bit that there must be more that we should be doing in order to get ready.

However, I guess the main update since our last post is that we have decided to make life easier by moving the wedding to Sunday 10th Aug. Ironically, the only weekend date available on HMS Warrior (the venue) and coincidentally the end of my contract (the previous date was the end of Kevin’s). The main aim of this replan is that we will literally be sailing off into the sunset the day after the wedding (weather permitting!). This now gives Kevin four clear months to prep the boat for our trip, we are even contemplating bringing it back to the UK briefly to make that job simpler and reduce the amount of time we have to spend apart. We are great believers in fate and we hadn’t paid the deposit on the previous booking because things just weren’t lining up as planned, this way works out better all round. The deposit though is now paid for Warrior and the Registrar and caterers booked – there surely can’t be much more to it can there?!

We are now able to space out nicely the preparations and it allows us to concentrate on the immediate requirements for the boat. It is very difficult to plan what goes on board when the boat is not in front of you to measure up etc, so we are aiming to only buy those things which are required for delivery before we collect e.g. liferafts etc. We are planning to do this shopping during the period of the London Boat Show in the New Year in case there are any deals available. We haven’t bothered with Christmas presents for each other this year with all of that to buy soon, to be honest there is nothing else that either of us wants now but the delivery of the boat!!!

So, Merry Christmas one and all, especially to family and friends who are kindly reading the updates to our progress and to those friends we have not yet met who are kind enough to contact us and wish us well in our ventures. I hope that the festive season brings much cheer to all (but I hope you’ll forgive us for yearning for a somewhat warmer one next year which will, we hope be spent in the Caribbean!).