Change of plan...again

Helen: ok, looks like I spoke too soon. No big boat shaped birthday present for me. Boo hoo. We packed up all our worldly possessions (alright, I packed them, and then got in trouble from you know who for not having packed 'properly'), we shiped them over to our new boat (took two dinghy rides - we had even picked out a name for her), and then we spotted a problem that would probably involve taking the mast off (expensive in both time and money). So we were swithering about whether to buy the boat anyway, and then about 2 hours before we were due to go meet the owner to move her to take her out of the water to buy her, we ended up having tea on another boat where the owner said 'oh, for a bit more you could have bought my boat' - which is gorgeous and full of equipment and spares (and a sewing machine and a welder). We thought that was too good an opportunity to pass up so agreed to buy it there and then, went to tell the French guy that the first deal was off (you keeping up?) and then yesterday morning owners of boat number 2 said their boat was for sale...but not til Fiji. Which is too late for C. It would only make sense if we kept the boat for at least another season, as Fiji is pretty much the end of the Pacific route - the only place people go from there is Aus or NZ. So...we have to decide if we want to be serious long term live aboard cruisers or not. I'm really missing having a base, but C says he wants a motorbike shaped adventure soon instead...

But, besides all this, now we're off Nomad (yey!) our immediate problem is getting a god damn bond to prove to the immigration people that we will leave when our visa is up. Not a problem when you're on a boat, but now that we're land lubbers for a while, it's a problem. And the bank won't take our money. So we called our bank in the UK and have been fighting with admistrative morons ever since. Looks like we'll have to buy plane tickets instead, which is expensive cos they don't refund the tax you have to pay. ARRRGGGGHHHH. Oh well, at least we're not at work!! (I said this in the travel agents just now...realised it wasn't such a good thing to say to the poor lady still stuck at her desk).

So, we've had a roller coaster of a few days - I'm sure everyone in the marina thinks we're totally flaky as every time they see us we have a different plan! C changes his mind more frequently than he changes his pants. But, things are beginning to settle now - we're staying with our frineds on Gaviota, which is lovely, and we have several options for crewing to NZ to consider - wish we had our own boat though as I'm pretty much fed up with living on other people's schedules. Ho hum. Looks like the most likely two choices we have are crwing on a J160 (fancy luxurious fast boat) or doing a delivery on a large cat - neither of which is really that bad!!

Who knows, by next week we might be going to travel home from Tahiti by donkey and waterski. ??
Love H & Cxx