Day 174, Year 4 Happy Birthday to My Brother Dickel
Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Weather: Partly Sunny Day with Threatening Dark Clouds
Location: Rebak Marina, Langkawi, Malaysia

Since I am never exactly sure how old I am, I am guessing that my brother is 74 today. He was twelve when I was born and immediately became my surrogate parent. My mom and dad were in their 40’s and had “been there, done that” with four other children. So my brother Dickel did some of the important things like taking me drag racing in his 1955 red and white Chevy and then walking me to school on my first day. So Dickel, I hope you had a great birthday. I love you so much and look forward to seeing you soon when we return home.

We spent our day working, working, working to get Windbird ready to leave. We are almost there. We left her in New Zealand for only a couple a months that first year. Year Two ended in Australia and we left Windbird for almost six months. Year Three is ending in Malaysia and we will be leaving Windbird here for more than seven months. The climate here is more intense and the preparation is equally as intense. But we are almost there. We have traveled many miles since leaving Boston in October of 2005. Each cruising season has had its own flavor, but I must say that this year has been totally unbelievable. We started with a two month trek up the east coast of Australia and across to the top to Darwin. We then spent three fantastic months in Indonesia and ended with a month in Singapore. We then traveled north to Langkawi in Malaysia and then on to Thailand. We had wonderful visits with friends Kevin and Claire and then by our daughter Heather, her husband Jed, and our grandson Sam. We have enjoyed every minute of the past 340 days but we are now looking forward to our trip home. We just can’t wait to meet our second grandest child, Ziggy, in person. And after that, we travel to Cape Cod to be there for the arrival of Sam’s brother or sister in late June. Life doesn’t get much better than this. I will post one last farewell log tomorrow before we leave Rebak and then I hope to post weekly logs until we return to the cruising life late next fall.