Written by Mia:

We got a great message a couple of weeks ago that went something like this, “ Hey Jon, Mia and Teo, we are sitting here in our stilongs (long underwear) watching the rain and we are dreaming of a visit. Where are you on the weekend of 27-30th of October?” We got SO excited that Gunnar and Mona and Nikolaj wanted to come and visit! It is no little undertaking either with lots of flights and schedules and uncertainty, but it all worked out and we had a wonderful time together!

We sat on deck from our mooring on the end of a pontoon in Marina Lanzarote and watched their plane land.  A short hour later they were on board and we bigs were chatting like we saw each other last week and the boys were playing with Lego down below. We went exploring in the town of Arrecife on the Saturday, complete with a trip to the playground, lunch outside and short trip to the beach. We were talking about time and timing and realised that we had a boat-iversary and that it was almost exactly or actually exactly a year ago that we had the VERY EXCITING WEEK that included selling the house, becoming the owners of the boat and Mia quitting her job. Mona and Gunnar bought us a bottle of Moet and we toasted it and added the cork to the one from when we changed the name. How lovely that they were here! They really spoiled us withs stuff from Norway, Godiva, meals out and treats, very generous guests!

On Sunday we went out for a short sail to let Itchy Foot show off. Nikolaj was very excited about the foam on the water, Mona pulled lines like a boss and Gunnar was first to jump in the water for a swim when we anchored. It was a great day, the only bummer was that Mona had to leave us to get back in time for work on Monday. She jumped ashore as soon as we tied up. We got to keep Gunnar and Nikolaj until Monday morning, which meant the boys got a good run around when we got back to the marina. That made everyone happy! There were some tears when we put the boys in the taxi on Monday. We were SO happy to see them and really appreciate the effort they made to come out here to stay with us for a few days!

On the subject of making an effort, the Itchy Foot crew are feeling very blessed to have people we love make an effort to come and see us! Grandma and Granddad will be arriving in Santa Cruz about the same time as we do! We have been really looking forward to seeing them. About a week later, Jon’s cousins and Teo’s favourite play boxing mates, Michael and David are also coming to see us in Santa Cruz, as well. Again, it is really lovely they are willing to make the effort.

And in the last couple days we have been bouncing with delight as we got news that dear friends are coming to celebrate the New Year with us in Martinique. Fiona is coming all the way from Sydney and Clive from Oslo, these are big distances and complicated itineraries!! We are giggling reading the emails that bounce back and forth during the planning process, there is talk of frocks and champagne and tuxedo clad swimmers carrying ‘Milk Tray’ with painters in teeth. I CANNOT WAIT! This is just the motivation we need to gear up for our crossing.