swimming in the sunshine

 Finally, only a year after it was installed the pool is open! We lost the childrens playspace for the pool to go here up on deck 8 so we are pleased it can now be used. The cars are loaded up ready for sailing, the pool is up the steps behind the green netting.

So here it is! Currently out in the Durban sunshine.

our latest view

 The view from our cabin - we always seem to have such beautiful buildings outside. haha.

 The rest of the dock

The view on the other side of the ship is pretty nice :-)

getting sorted

We are almost unpacked and just have a bit more cleaning to do in our cabin. Things are gradually getting back to normal in the academy, for Tommy it has been busy making sure all the IT things are back as they need to be. That said this morning there had been a flood in the school library so we helped the high school team sort through the books and dry the wet ones just for an extra challenge. The air conditioning has been on throughout the ship for a day or two, and although off again right now, we know that it works and brought our cabin temperature down by over 5 degrees to close to 25 degrees which is much more comfortable. The boys have settled in just fine, and not yet mentioned missing anything from Appelsbosch. We have tried out the new pool on deck 8 before it is drained for the sail and that was pretty fun and will be a blessing once we are in the heat of Sierra Leone. It was warmer than the showers as the pool is out in the sunshine and we still don't have any hot water in the cabins. We started our 'at sea' drills, lifejackets and all, which is always encouraging as you know that the date to set sail must be getting closer. They are still doing whatever it is to get the generators working and talking to each other so pray for these last days for things to go smoothly for the technical crew that we would be ready to sail soon.

vacuuming

 As of Saturday afternoon our cabin looked like this, we literally could hardly move but we are so pleased to be home that we weren't too bothered except that the boys wanted the lego out.

We have made some progress, but there is still stuff around the floor which is gradually being re-homed in a cupboard. We have asked the boys not to play lego until we have the floor clear and vacuumed. Josh was so excited to be re-united with some of the lego that he said 'don't worry Mum, I'll vacuum so I can play lego', so he got out the toy vacuum cleaner, pushed it around in about a square foot of space and then set down the lego ready to play. I love four year olds.

we're home!!

It really happened. We moved back to the ship today. And it is good to be home.

We have nothing but respect and thanks for the team on board who have been working flat out to try and get things ready for us. We have been welcomed back by balloons, an ice cream party and lots of people willing to help move our bags on board. Our brimming-at-the-seams landrover was unloaded in literally a couple of minutes with our bags brought up to our cabin (much to my relief as Tommy has been sick the last couple of days and has been pretty wiped out) - thanks everyone!

From what we hear there was still no power to our deck first thing today, but by the time we got here it was on and we could plug in the fans! Somehow despite the cabin being over 30 degrees we have made a good dent in unpacking the twenty something bags and boxes lying around our cabin floor. It is going to take a little longer to get it all done and cleaned, but that will have to wait - the shower calls -in our very own bathroom, and then tomorrow might just be our last day out in Durban so we plan to get out and enjoy it :-)