Thursday 25 December – Happy Christmas to all of you followers!

We started the day with a good cooked breakfast, these days we always seem to have guacamole with our eggs as all our avocados are ripening at the same time. After breakfast we did presents, sadly it was about 2am in Sweden so Han couldn’t join in the festivities. I bought the girls loads of goodies from locals all along our travels, they got straw bags from Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. Loads of carved bowls from the carvers in the Solomons and lots of shell ethnic jewellery from PNG. They each got some lovely pearls from the Indonesian Pearl farm we visited with Clint and Xavi, the boys got a few nice things from the great gift shop at Raja4divers resort on Pef Island. We got an abundance of delicious goodies to eat and treats, Phoebe was most probably responsible for Fortnum & Masons having a very good Christmas! I even got a Christmas pudding, and loads of scrummy dark chocolate.

We headed to the resort for lunch, passing the other yachts along the way. We had a very good Indonesian lunch with the other residents, we were slightly nervous they might give us a Western Christmas meal. It was great to eat out and not cook in this heat, or tidy up! We were invited to join the 3 yachts anchored together for an afternoon of beach games and drinks. We went back to the boat after lunch to get our swimming togs, it was soo hot. Most of the time we were on the beach it drizzled with rain which was perfect for keeping us a little cooler. Milly and the boys all joined in on the frisbee throwing and beach volley ball, I was happier talking and drinking with the women! It was an interesting collection of boats and nationalities, Danish, Czech and Australian. The Danish and Czech boats had children on board, all home schooled, the Danish boat’s one daughter was 20, but does not want to give up sailing with them.

Back to the boat as the sun set so we could speak to Han and do some present opening with her. They were having a very busy Christmas in Sweden with loads of Noah’s nieces and nephews about. Of course like most Europeans they celebrate Christmas Eve. It was about 8:30 pm when we finished speaking to Han and that is when we opened up the 1kg Truffle Baron Bigod cheese, that Phoebs had packed in her bag. Oh my it was spectacularly ripe, a filling delicious meal all on it’s own with fresh bread I had made today. This cheese is made in our hometown Bungay, we all absolutely love it. A great way to end a very fun day.