I took 2 weeks off from the boat in Chile and went home to England to see my parents we did lots of Christmassy activities and put up a fake Christmas tree.

Next stop was New Jersey to see my brothers family for Thanksgiving where we cut down a real Christmas tree from a farm and went to see the Christmas Spectacular at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. It is cold in New Jersey so they are making use of the synthetic down jackets I got them in Nepal last year.

Then back to the UK for work on the 82 footer that is being rebuilt at Oyster in Southampton, early Christmas with the Whytes and Perrins and work on my 30 footer Santana that I own with my brother.

During my time away we (my brother’s family and myself) decided to adopt a dog from Puerto Montt who had been hit by a truck in the Marina just before I left. So I have been in full investigation mode and organizing Pincoya’s paperwork and transport.

The trip back from UK was a nightmare and involved a few hours in a hotel room in Madrid (if you could call it a hotel!) and a few hours in a hotel room in Santiago. It should have taken 24 hours and instead it took 48 hours. Zac was at the airport waiting to board the flight I got off of and told me where the car was. I got back to the boat mid morning and just started working as I was in that mode. When I finally got to sleep on Monday night I had slept around 9 hours since waking up Friday morning in Cowes Isle of Wight!