The Hurricane Season is over - Time to get ready for sailing home

I'm sitting in St Mawes while the storms rage outside, with wind battering at the windows and the visceral, deep concussion of big waves hitting the sea wall. I'm trying to get my plans in order for the year ahead, and bringing Tin Tin back to Europe.

With Alice due to deliver a child on Christmas Day, we decided to stay in the UK until the New Year.  I expect to fly out with Julien to help me in early February.  Then Anne and Emily will join us in Grenada.  

The month of March is currently free for friends to join us, and Anne and I will be sailing up to the BVIs to enjoy time with Kate and family and Beccy and family in April.

Then I need crew to sail up to Bermuda in May, where I will be joined by Justin and Mark for the 3 week leg to the Azores.

Having explored those islands for a week or so we will head onwards to Portugal and the Mediterranean with the intention of exploring there for a couple of years.

Meanwhile I'm trying to get spares for the watermaker and the speed/log instrument, follow up on the servicing of the winches by Ian Chai-Hong, the repair of the generator by Falco, and decide on whether to do the painting of the hull in Trinidad in January.

Watermaker Aquabase XA223 showing where small leak has started

So much has happened since I arrived home on 21st May, that this week is one of the first moments when I've sat down to think about Tin Tin.

We have enjoyed Summer with friends and family in Hampshire, Cornwall, France and Mallorca.  We did the Round the Island Race, but ran out of wind, and had followed the sailing exploits of Greta Thunberg as she tries to travel carbon free to conferences in the USA and Europe.

Sadly we lost my stepfather, Ioan Thomas, at the age of 92, and my mother, Alice, has slipped gently into the mist of unknowing and, aged 88, has been settled into a care home within a few minutes of my brothers William and Mark, so that she will get all the support she needs. Meanwhile my mother-in-law, Audrey, has lucky genes and celebrated her 98th birthday by horse riding!