A few days in Bristol with James was our next trip in the UK. Bristol seemed as good a place as any to spend a few days. We picked James up around 11.00. He travels with a Paddington bear size suitcase, on every trip, regardless of duration! This time he also brought 4 bags of vegetables! We arrived at around 2.00 and after a bit of a drive around the town centre- not intentional, more a result of too many navigators, we got to the apartment. If I say so myself...

It's surprising how little of our own country we have visited. This year, our year at home, we decided to make a start rectifying this. Our first trip was to the Shetland Isles at the end of January to see the Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, which sits about as far north as St Petersburg, Helsinki or Anchorage. Now you might be thinking 'the Shetland Isles in January are they mad'? Well, I had exactly the same thought but Peter assured me it's not that cold a...

Last minute preparations have been completed, if not done now they won't be! The last major issue was to find a customs agent in Chile. Julie from Imorex found us a few names and one came through, so should be OK. The last few weeks have been rather hectic, canceling everything at home is really frustrating but we have got there. Had a few fair well drinks with colleagues and friends from work, they very kindly brought me a Kindle, which I know will be getting a...

Today we delivered Gerty to Felixstowe and watched her being loaded into a container for her four week trip to Chile. The ship MSC Romanos leaves next week. It all went very smoothly. We will be closely following her progress on a shipping website and hopefully meet up with her in San Antonio Chile sometime week starting 3rd November. Big thanks to Julie at Imorex, the shipping company, who has been very helpful and answered all our silly questions.