The end of the trip was the cherry on top of everything! The highlight of a quiet last day was a short visit to the bridge to "play Captain" - only the First Mate was on duty, and Egbert did all the explanations and answered all the questions, but John loved his time to play with the Big Boy's Toys!
All too soon it was time to dock back in Bergen, and Jan Isaksen was there to greet us warmly. So good to see him again - last time was a year ago, at the beginning of the Arctic Rally he ran from Bergen to Lofoten - prior to that was in South Africa as they were completing their circumnavigation! Back to his and Eli's house, a beer and a BBQ, and lots of good conversation and catching up.
Then Saturday we took his beautiful one-off Hoek design yacht out for a spin - weather slightly gloomy but that didn't dampen any enthusiasm from John! All I heard was "it's so good to be on a proper boat again! It's so good to be on a big boat!" I know where this is going, and it certainly isn't towards buying a small 27' Pocock-design boat called Twilight!
The weather improved, the sail covers came off, and we sailed home in great style - what a brilliant end to a lovely fortnight! Back to committee tensions and aggro, a flying trip to Ireland, the last minute chaos of getting ready to close Tring up for 8 months, a trip by road to Scotland for an OCC do - and then over to South Africa again end of May.
It was an excellent holiday!