Day 78, Year 4: Ready and Waiting
Date: Thursday, January 8, 2009
Weather: Yet Another Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Ao Po Grand Marina, Phuket Island, Thailand

I awoke this morning realizing that we had rented a car for the wrong day. We have been so anxious for the arrival of Heather, Jed, and Sam that we somehow jumped a day and were prepared to go pick them up at 1 am on Friday. But they aren’t coming until 1 am on Saturday, so we had an extra day today to really take our time and get things just right. The first thing we did was call and cancel the car for today, but unfortunately we were misunderstood and the car that Tina and Robert had arranged
for was canceled. They got that worked out, but it delayed the start of their day a bit.

We then called Justin and Jo as they are now home from their Christmas vacation in England. They are working furiously to get ready for Jo’s art show opening at a gallery in Santa Fe. They already have the art work hung and they said it looks great. They were spending today practicing the music they will play at the opening. They had an appointment with the mid-wife that will deliver Wee Gerbil earlier in the day and everything looks great. So they are happy and both are loving living in Santa
Fe. It was so good to talk with them and hear them sound so happy. After the Skype call, I spent a good deal of today making granola and Mark got out the sewing machine and made a cover for our cockpit monitor and a new sun/rain shade for the v-berth hatch. Somehow we kept ourselves busy, busy all day long.

I feel like I’m getting ready for Christmas. The stockings aren’t hung by the chimney, but the v-berth is made and ready for Heather and Jed, the port settee is made-up as a bed for Sam with the lee cloth up to hold him in, the adorable little kiddie pool is on the back deck and his new UV head cover and body suit are hung and waiting for him , and a toy box filled with goodies for Sam is tucked in beside his “bunk”-beach toys, Duplo Legos, an envelope filled with stickers, a bag of new books, and
a couple of little trucks. The laundry is all done and Windbird is shiny both inside and out. So we really are ready and waiting.

Tomorrow we will get the rental car just before noon and head into Phuket Town to do the last minute shopping for food and miscellaneous boat “things.” There are always more boat “things” to purchase. We will then return to Windbird to get a few hours of sleep before we go to the airport just after midnight. We just hope that Heather and Jed are still speaking to us after the long, long flight from Boston to San Francisco to Seoul, Korea, and then here to Phuket. We so much wanted to share part
of our adventure with them, as we did with Justin and Jo, but so much travel time with a two year-old could be quite trying. If things are a bit rough, we will just have to make up for it once they arrive here in beautiful, beautiful Thailand.