The goal 5 years ago when we decided to downsize and have the Yacht built was to reach New Zealand/Australia and with Grandchildren starting to appear and a business still running pressure will grow over this next year to settle down into a ‘senior routine’ soon after this series of passages and by 2015.

So we returned to Antigua on the 14^th November 2013 (see return blog) thinking of the post Xmas onwards as being a sort of Sabbatical.  Apart from 3 weeks of 'work work' and putting BriZo back together we are continuing the preparation needed to keep our goal alive of crossing the Pacific via Galapagos and then traversing one of the single largest non-stop sailing passages in the world to French Polynesia and beyond to Fiji.  This will include transiting the Panama canal (a goal in itself), visiting some of the most isolated islands and peoples in the world, crossing the equator and the International date time.

At Fiji (around late June) we take a break and plan is to head finally down to New Zealand late 2014 and see Pats more distant family. After that re-arrange our lives again !

The first three weeks were in Antigua, we had a short test trip planned North to St Barts which giave us the opportunity to come back past Antigua to get any final things in order before heading South to St Lucia where we fly home Xmas eve and entertain 10 + family the next day ! Then it’s a return New Years Eve to St Lucia then off for 5 days skirting the North Coast of South America to the remote San Blas Islands near to Panama.

Pat and I made the trip 1111nm trip to San Blas in Panama a week ahead of the World Arc yachts in good to gale winds taking 5 days 17 hours making sure we arrived in daylight. We then toured San Blas with friends John and jane on Seaduced and friends on Suzie Two before Lloyd our son Joined us for the trip through the Panama canal.

We transited the canal 25th to 25th Jan 2014.