Day 117 to 119: 7th to 9th October 2017. Afloat and ready to go

Saturday

All systems go trying to get the boat ready to be afloat again. Lots of tidying to be done, washing to finish and last minute jobs to complete. Lynita was also busy sorting Dizzy out for the arrival of mother-in-law Pat so I took all 4 kids for an hour or so to play lego in the DMS office. Leora wasn't to interested in the Lego so Esmé and AJ took it in turns to entertain her. Esmé played find the duck with her telling the time cards, and AJ did a fantastic job of reading with Leora.

Dinner was Thai green curry. We haven't had it for a while as we had run out of curry paste, but I managed to find some in the big supermarket on Thursday. Unfortunately I didn't realise it was much stronger than the last one so the curry was very hot despite my best efforts to cool it down. AJ was torn between wanting to eat it, and needing to cool down his burning lips using an ice pop! On the plus side I think it did our colds the world of good!

Sunday

Today was to be Esme's alternative birthday. She decided she would rather celebrate her birthday with her friends and then we could travel on her real birthday so she woke up to a small pile of presents which despite their size and low value she adored! It's funny how our values have changed since being away. We are all far lest materialistic. She spent a lovely morning chilling out with her gifts, reading her new books and playing with glitter glue before I painted her nails for the party. Then at half past three, once the restaurant had closed we made our way over to the play area and set up a bbq. The kids headed off on a treasure hunt and then introduced Leora to pass the parcel before eating pizza and hot dogs.

We all had a lovely time and the kids especially liked the birthday cake which was for all of them as their birthdays are pretty close together.

Monday

An early start to get things cleared and Laurin ready for launch. It was really lovely to see her splash again!

We then had a mad rush to get her ship shape, pay bills, and get shopping. We did however make time for a beer and some chips for lunch as a celebration. The last job was to put our Genoa up before having dinner and then having the Aussies over for goodbye drinks. Really hoping we will get to Ragusa this winter and be able to meet up again. We have all made really good friends and we'll miss them!