Hello but not from Hullabaloo this time because we are in a terminal at LA airport where we have a few hours to wait for our flight back to Australia. Yes we changed our plans again! Rather than leaving Hullabaloo in Panama we decided it would be better to haul her out and leave her ashore at Grenada in the Caribbean which gives us more options whenever we return. If we hauled out at Panama it would pretty much lock us in to crossing the Pacific when we return due to wind and current. Whilst we are still keen on the Pacific, Granada leaves open the possibility of sailing North to the Bahamas, USA and Canada or even back across the Atlantic and into the Med. Who knows where we will end up but for the moment flexibility is the key.
Since we were passing right by we decided to stop over in New York for 5 days en route back to Australia so we had a complete culture and weather shock when we left the Caribbean last week. We went from swimming off the back of the boat every day in laid back Grenada to wearing long pants, shoes and jackets whilst emersed amongst a couple of million people squeezed into 13 mile long Manhattan amongst a squillion skycrapers, which sounds horrible but was actually quite a bit of fun and a good experience.
So this is our last blog for the trip which has come to an end for now. Julie is due back at work in the first week of July in the middle of the Melbourne winter so there is more shock to come as we slowly re-enter our other life. The past 10 months has been a fantastic experience. We have had some adventure, met lots of interesting people, visited some amazing places and learned a whole new set of skills in a short time.
Particular thanks to Martin and Liz Bandey from England who put in an enourmous effort to prepare Hullabaloo for us in the UK and also to Ted Devey, who helped us with charts, installed our Hydrovane in Portugal and gave us weather updates when we were crossing the Atlantic.
For those who are interested you can check out Hullabaloo`s temporary new home on the new pics attached to the blog.
Cheers from Craig and Julie
