We are the Champions and Halloween...

What a day...

So, so, so proud of the All Blacks and extremely proud to be a New Zealander...

Halloween had arrived...

Wendy who is a wonderful friend that we met here, put sooooooo much effort into Halloween

I really do not know how to put into words how spectacular the evening was...

A grave yard appeared on the hill...

and the preparations for the evening begun, 

Russell - the All Blacks Hooker having makeup applied by gorgeous Jane our Christmas Lady,

ending up looking like this...

Richard the New Zealand Sheik and I was the "Black Widow"...

(look at that hooker in onto my Sheik!..)

The children looked amazing...

April, the Nurse Shark, with Quinn in his surf shorts...

Phil and Monica the pirates...

The Sheik and his Kiwi Ladies...

My lovely friend Pat and of course my Really Good Buddy (Pirate) Teresa

Also our lovely friend Don with the Girls...

Sue, a Sea Rose Devil...

Wendy and Ken put so much effort into a Haunted Walk... It was extraordinary!

Wendy, who went to all of the amazing work to create such an awesome evening...

After all of the excitement it was a goodbye dinner at Jane and Russells 

with Cain, April and Quinn, 

and of course our good buddy Teresa who we have cruised on and off with for over 2 years and will not see for some time...

It was time for Chris to come onboard and recalibrate our instruments

(Chris also did our sail drives - he has been an amazing help to us)

Time to fuel up and head off to Texan Bay to get our mainsail back...

Well, that should have been the end of this posting,

however things sometimes do not go as planned.

On arrival in Texan Bay, we found we had no reverse from our Starboard engine, so it was back to Fronterras and Chris arrived first thing this morning to fix the clutch cone for us.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to Chris!

Change is the Constant...

On arrival back to the Rio Dulce
I found that instead of getting hauled out in a week as planned,
that Richard was joining Bill from Out of the Bag, along with Jono who was coming from Norway and Brett from Seismic Wave to help sail a boat through the Panama Canal, with the view of Jono continuing on to Australia with Bill (with Brett & Richard coming back to the Rio).

What had happened, was a friends of Bills (the owner of the yacht), had been diagnosed with the late stages of cancer.  His wish was for his boat to return to Australia.  Blue Dream was on the hard and had to be prepared for leaving as soon as possible.

There was of course the rugby to consider while preparing Blue Dream for her journey
(watching in Our Rose)

Within a couple of days of my arrival home Jono arrived...

then by the end of the week, Blue Dream was heading off...

It had been an extremely hectic week getting Blue Dream ready, so once they had left, the girls went out to lunch (which turned into a very long lunch, lots and lots of wine, then singing and dancing back at the palapa at the marina)...

I also babysat "Quinn" - a person in a fur coat for a few days while April and Cain went on land travel with overseas guests...  Quinn is just gorgeous!

Very sadly, Bills friend did not last long, and the news came through that he had passed away.

Bill pulled into San Andreas to await further instruction from Australia

No, they didn't drink all this wine...

The news from Australia was to continue on, so Blue Dream made her way to Panama Canal

What an experience that was...

 During the trip, it was decided that Jono would not continue on the trip and would get off at Panama with Richard.  Richard headed back to Rio Dulce and Jono headed to NZ for a visit (having not visited for 4 years)...  Brett decided to continue with Bill.

On arrival back to the Rio, it was full on for us again - time to haul out...

Richard watches closely as the guys set the lifting points for the trailer...

and out she comes...

Just before going back in the water - isn't she looking beautiful with her fresh bottom paint,

 all little nicks in fibreglass repaired, complete polish, sail drive seals replaced and ready to go...

One of the things Richard learnt from the Panama Canal, was that Our Rose large side windows would not survive the Canal unless we made something to protect them.  

So, he along with advice from many quarters, designed these awesome covers, which will be used in February when we transit the Canal.  They are marine ply, which has soft underlay glued together to create a thick buffer that in held onto the ply with fibreglass strips.  These soft buffers hold the marine ply away from the gelcoat.

Obviously the rugby world cup continued and we enjoyed watching all of the games in the Tiki Bar