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During the lead up to Christmas I reflect on 2014 and realise what an amazing life we lead and how lucky we are as we have had an another amazing year of travel and fun.
Our year started with an fantastic Christmas and New Year in the USA visiting Andrew and his little family in San Diego and Keira Lee and her slightly larger family in Dallas. We had Christmas and the New year together in Dallas and what fun that was to have two of our children and their families together after all these years. Later Tom and I did a 2 week road trip around Texas before heading back to Hamamas in Finike in Turkey.
Our feet had hardly hit the ground before we were off on another Gwen tour in Turkey this time to Central Anatolia and the Black Sea coast. Here once again we saw some amazing places and had fun with a wonderful group of like minded fellow cruisers. After catching our breath back in Finike we headed off again this time on a great month long trip to Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The highlight of this trip was to visit our friend Frank and his family in his hometown of Namsos in Norway. We even managed to spend a little time on his yacht on one of the fjords near his town and didn't freeze to death!
After catching our breath back on Hamamas and doing a number of chores we took the bus to Alanya in Turkey were we caught up with some of our pals, as well as, seeing Frank again and helping him out with the yacht he had there.
We had only been back on Hamamas a few days and were busy preparing to to sail off for our cruising season we found that we needed to make an emergency trip to Australia as Fran's youngest Down Syndrome sister, Joanne, hadhad a heart attack and was in intensive care. As my brother, Allen, my sister, Lee, and myself were her guardians, it was necessary for us to be there to make the decisions together. Unfortunately, Jo passed away before we landed in Australia. It was a very sad occasion for all of us. We did however give her a lovely "send off"
Once back on Hamamas sailed along the Turkish coast to Gocek where we were to have our stainless steel water tanks removed and repaired because they had been leaking only few months after being installed. This proved to be a very stressful time as the tanks were removed, repaired and replaced only to find that they still leaked so had to be removed, mended and replaced again! Finally the job was completed but not before Tom " blew his top" as the guys were careless removing the tanks and damaged some of the woodwork and " the clears." Meanwhile, while all this was going on Fran had to have a "precancerous lump" removed from her chest wall. So you can imagine how all this added to having a "not so great fun time!" Fran's health is fine now.
Anyhow after surviving all that we enjoyed some time cruising then headed back to the Finike Marina
As a friend of ours says "we cruisers are a hardy lot"
Finally while we were back in the Marina we organised a 3 week trip to Jordon and Israel. Once again we had a fantastic trip and met some great folk! It was a tad stressful in Israel though, as there was "some incidents" happening around us.
Now we are settled on Hamamas for the winter here in Finike and are currently enjoying some fun times with our Marina pals. We will spent Christmas and the New Year here before heading off to Australia to see family and friends, have our medicals and celebrate a number of birthdays.
All our kids are their lovely families are doing well. Andy Maine and Tyler moved back to Sydney from San Diego where he is with the Navy. Keira Lee, Cam, Ashely and Brenton remain in Dallas. Nick (the eldest) is still in Adelaide.Chris, Kaara and their Goreous Gang" are enjoying life in Hobart. Rhea their eldest has just turned 18! The rest of our family fine. Even Tom,s 97 year old aunt is ""hanging on in there".
Our plans for 2015 are changing constantly but a trip to Russia and the Baltic states is on the cards, as well as, moving Hamamas to Sciliy for the winter of 2015/16. Exactly when we will leave the Med is an unknown factor but while ever we are healthy and enjoying our lifestyle we will continue to be Cruisers.
We continue to upload photos and comments on our life to Facebook and try, in vain, to keep the Blog current.
That's it folks so now we wish everyone a fabulous Christmas and New Year!
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