We write this sat on a car ferry in gale force 11 winds while Bee-Bee is parked out on the deck enduring the elements. Sadly, we are not on our way across the Pacific from Auckland to Panama, or battling through monsoon storm waves in Indonesia; we are on our way back to Guernsey after enjoying a 10 day festive break. Originally due to sail on the fast ferry from Weymouth on the 2nd January (a smooth 2 ½ hours) we had to re-route from Portsmouth after adverse weather conditions led to the fast ferry’s cancellation. We are currently into hour 10 of what is turning out to be a 17 hour journey.  17 HOURS! We could actually get to Argentina or Indonesia in that time. No cabins, reclining chairs or comfortable seats; just a bench opposite the duty free shop where we occasionally have to dodge flying bottles of Courvoisier and boxes of 800 Superkings as lurching waves sent even the shelves crashing to the floor. I bet even the slow boat to China sold chips. We held our breath every time the crew announced car registrations over the tannoy; vehicles which had slipped and smashed into adjacent cars on the rough, swaying parking deck... luckily Bee-Bee stood fast.

We have, however, had a most wonderful Christmas holiday... much needed rest and relaxation to charge our over-worked batteries and catch up with family and friends. In addition, we have acquired ourselves a whole bunch of adventure goodie gifts which sees us tick many boxes on our essential equipment list. Our stove, hammock, key safe, wildlife identification guides, notebooks, an axe and a bumper-mounted bottle opener to name but a few.

Taking Bee-Bee to the mainland enabled us to order and collect our ‘too heavy and expensive to post’ super-bumper, high-lift jack and Jerry cans. We made the most of the January sales in Weymouth, Bournemouth and Portsmouth, purchasing some of our clothing list essentials including thermal layers, waterproofs and jackets.

2012, officially the “year of the adventure” is now upon us and with not long to go we need to bring all the last 14 months of planning together as our departure date looms. We are going to get ‘adventure fit’ to prepare ourselves physically for the trip; as well as less weight being more economical, our chances of out-running Mexican drug lords and grizzly bears increases dramatically.

Emma