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For some of our friends I know New Year is much closer than it is for us. For all of you reading our blog we wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Despite battling the catch up of two years worth of seasonal colds and drizzly weather we’re having a nice time down here in Penzance. The first night here we went out for a curry in town. We’re staying a stones throw from the center of town which makes going out in the evenings very convenient. We’ve always enjoyed the feel of Cornish towns with their winding streets of stone buildings so even in the wet and cold, the walk to the restaurant was a pleasure. The food turned out even better.

On Thursday Helen’s brother Peter who’s lived here for decades popped by accompanied by his wife Dianne and daughter Rachel. While chatting with them, Lois and Robin returned home and we had a good afternoon chatting. After Peter and Rachel had left the four of us went out to a Thai restaurant in town and had a delicious meal there.

Yesterday we visited Peter at his home and chewed the cud some more. This time we ate in with Lois cooking up a delicious concoction of Asian curries and sides.

Over the last few days we’ve had the time to relax and do a little bit of planning ahead. Not so much the next few weeks which we must sort out but more the next couple of years.

While we have 2012 more or less nailed (aiming for Sydney, Australia by end of year via Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia) we have been a bit loose about our plans beyond.

To think beyond Australia does mean thinking about our whole trip and where we want to finally end up. The situation in the Gulf of Aden off have shifted so dramatically over the last couple of years it really is not an option to sail a boat through those waters. (See this link for latest guidance to mariners). That means the usual route to the Mediterranean via the Red Sea is simply not on. The Med is still accessible but that means going round the bottom of Africa, across to Brazil, revisit the Caribbean then back over the Atlantic and into the Med from the west one year later than we would have done. There are certainly some attractions to doing this but right now we feel this would extend the trip longer than we have the passion necessary.

So although nothing is ever certain and no plan final, we’re not thinking in terms of reaching and sailing the Med on this trip.

Nor does returning to the Caribbean hold any interest to us barring the magnificent feeling we’d get crossing over our own tracks and completing our circumnavigation. That remains something I’d love to do but the reality is that after the delights of the South Pacific, the Caribbean has no draw for us. Furthermore, knowing that we will sell the boat once we’re done, the Caribbean/US is nowhere near as financially attractive as Australia right now.

So our plans right now don’t figure in a return to the Caribbean.

However, we are excited by the blogs from our friends sailing ahead of us having traversed Indonesia and the Far East. This does attract us. There is a rally that leaves Darwin, Australia each July that takes a bunch of boats up through Indonesia. We’ve never rallied before but this could be fun. It is supposed to alleviate the headache of Indonesian beaurocracy but we do know some folks doing it alone and managing just fine.

So the rough idea right now is to get to Darwin by July 2013 and take the Indonesian Rally making our way perhaps as far as Thailand. Then we’d have to make our way back to Australia to finish our trip. That part is not so simple and will need a lot of research. Perhaps we’d return by way of the Philippines, perhaps we’d spend time in Borneo. Who knows. But it’s kind of a plan to hang our hat on and something to flesh out with additional research over the coming days, weeks, months, year.

We do have a sense we are around the half way point of our time aboard Dignity give or take a bit. Life aboard has been and continues to excite. But there will be life beyond the boat and having a plan that now vaguely includes an end point does actually add a new sense of excitement. Somewhere, sometime, three years or so down the line we will have to reinvent ourselves again and start something new. No idea where or what yet and nor are we pressed, just yet, to work that out. Something to think about.

Looking way, way out, perhaps eight to ten years we know we must gravitate and settle down somewhere. We’ve often asked ourselves where, particularly on our travels. One of the places that is on our list is right here in Cornwall. We love the place and we have family here. This neck of the country has a lot to explore and get to know. So we’ve been having a look online at some of the properties in town and, colds permitting, may go out and walk the town looking at a few today and next week, just to get to know the town a little better.

This evening we’re going to see the New Year in in a pub with live music. Brilliant.

So much to look forward to. Life is good.

Here some pics from our walkabout today.

A quick summary of the last few days.

Christmas Day was relaxing and very filling – the evening feeling rather too bloated. We watched a couple of movies on TV including Singing in the Rain and something else not worth mentioning. I didn’t get the Scalextric set I was hoping for.

On Boxing Day (the 26th) Helen and I went for a walk around Chesham to try and lose some of the calories collected the previous day. The weather is being unseasonably warm (well, not so cold as it should be) so this was quite pleasant. We walked past our old house on Stanley Avenue. It was odd having a strong feeling this was no longer our home town but finding it hard to really believe we now live on a boat currently in New Zealand.

Yesterday our hire car was dropped off. The class we ordered was not available so we’ve been bumped up seemingly several levels and now have a Toyota R4VA with 4 wheel drive, heated seats plus all sorts of things we’ve grown unused to. We used the car to drive into London to take John and Ella shopping for baby gear. The minimum requirements, stuff-wise, for having a child these days has gone up. It was good to be able to help out financially with the gear. We can leave them to afford the extension to put it all in.

Today we drove to Penzance, Cornwall where are staying for the next week or so with Helen’s next sister’s Lois place. The trip took nearly 6 hours which was a lot harder than a 6 hour sail. Lois and her husband Robin turn up tomorrow so we have the place to ourselves this evening.

Festive greetings to all our readers.

Life continues to be full. On Friday, Helen’s sister, Betty, turned 60 and a party was in order. Relatives piled in and out all afternoon and evening. It was a great chance for us to catch up with everyone. Somehow we didn’t go to bed until 3am in the morning. Unfortunately I had my memory card out of my camera to the pics I took didn’t come out. I’ll have to grab some from others.

Surprisingly we didn’t feel too bad in the morning but we did take our time getting out of bed. In the afternoon we went to Amersham, the next town, to look around and walk back. We had a couple of last minute Xmas presents to buy – it wouldn’t be Xmas without buying something for someone on Xmas Eve. In the evening we just relaxed and watched a movie.

John and Ella (being rather pregnant) are staying at home in London today. We can understand this. With Ben and Sam still in the US this is our first Christmas ever together without at least one of the boys. For us Brits, Xmas has thanksgiving combined (in terms of family get together) so this does feel a bit strange. Hopefully we can catch up with Skype. We’ve had a chat with Sam on Facebook (any communication there is always a bonus and a thrill). Nice to be with family here though.

Again – Merry Xmas to everyone.

Wednesday was focused on catching up on affairs here in the Uk. Without going into too much detail the day involved visiting the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, signing on a new property manager and writing a nasty letter. We feel better as a bad situation is now on a positive trajectory although how much we can recover from the bad position we’ve been in remains unclear. At least now we shouldn’t get any worse off.

Yesterday was a whole lot more fun. We took the train into London first meeting our old friend Dick who we last saw last Xmas in New Zealand. The good thing about having a blog is not having to talk about everything we’ve done for the last year so we had a great time talking about everything and generally fixing the world. After a long brunch with Dick we then headed off to visit son John who we last saw in Tahiti in 2010. He’s living in our old stomping grounds in North London and it was interesting to see how much some things had changed and some things not in the twenty odd years since we lived in that area. We paid a brief visit to Wood Green which is hardly recognizable. At least all the roads were where we left them.

In the evening John’s partner Ella arrived from work meeting us in a local pub. This was our first glimpse of the mound surrounding our soon to be born grandchild. Quite a moment.

We ate a takeaway together at their flat catching up on everything before heading back to Helen’s sister’s home in Chesham. We had one bit of bad luck on the return journey when the train that would have taken us to Chesham closed it’s doors as we were running down the steps to try and catch it. This left us half an hour to kill which we did wondering around the Baker Street area failing, as ever, to find 221b which of course doesn’t exist.