This is just a quick update from our home base at Rebak Marina in Malaysia. In a couple of hours we head to the Langkawi Airport to begin the journey to Pocologan, New Brunswich in Eastern Canada ….right on the Bay of Fundy….our family cottage will be our home for the next 2 months.  We fly Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur to London to Toronto and then overnight in Toronto to get a brief visit with son, Shawn, and his family…it will be great to see the grandkids again…Alex is now 8 and Elizabeth 11…the years fly along! After the overnight we will catch our final flight from Toronto to Saint John, NB …via Halifax…great routing…have to fly over and then catch another flight to fly back to Saint John.

Sea Mist has been doing just fine: we have all the work list completed as far as projects/maintenance that needed to be done before our 2 month absence. As plannned, we have not done any sailing since our return from Thailand at the end of March.  And air/land travel plans had to be abandoned due to medical treatment and recuperation for John's prostate cancer.

And speaking of the radiation therapy treatment, the follow-up diagnostic procedures were done in Penang, Malaysia in early May whick avoided another trip to Melbourne. That was great to have the 2 hospitals work together to get the work done in this local region instead of Australia…. specifically they had to agree on the CT scan methodolgy which checks/verifies the radiation dosimetry applied to all of the prostate gland and determines how much radiation ended up being applied to surrounding tissue….particularly the colon and urethra. The comprehensive analysis was completed by the Melbourne radiation and oncology specialists and I received a summary report that showed the treatment did exactly what it was supposed to do….without any serious radiation beyond the focus.  All good news!!  There were some tough days and weeks (severe pain, discomfort, nusiance, etc with urination) but that is now mostly in memory as the serious difficulties are now past …..even if it may be a long time before a return to fully "normal"….if that desireable destination is possible.  Now, it is just a matter of wait and see and keep fingers crossed over coming years….hoping that all the cancer was killed!  Next check later this year will be to get a PSA reading via a blood test to see what is happening with that lead indicator.

As for our future plans: there is a possibility that we may join with a small group of others in early 2015 to make our way to the Red Sea. At this stage, that is only a "possibility" as there are a lot of aspects of risk management that need to be sorted out to get through the High Risk Area (HRA) of the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden and bottom end of Red Sea SAFELY. If it can come together, the details will be kept VERY confidential as the last thing we would want is for the plan to get into the hands of the pirates who roam those waters. We do want to get back to the Mediterranean for a final year of experience there before getting Sea Mist on the market for sale….likely moored/brokered in the UK at Oyster's facilities at Fox's Marina in Ipswich…..the place from where this adventure all began back in September, 2005.  If we can't make the sailing happen onward to the Red Sea, then we are left with only 2 other alternatives to get Sea Mist to the UK:

1) head from here to South Africa, across the Atlantic to Brazil and onward north through the Caribbean>Bermuda and eastward across the Atlantic to the Azores and the UK….2 crossings of the Atlantic and a lot of sailing distance…..not really what we want….or,

2) load Sea Mist on an ocean freighter in Thailand and ship her to Turkey that way….avoids the distance sailing and avoids our exposure to the Pirate HRA…but costly!!....something in the neighbourhood of $60,000 in total for our boat…a very hefty price tag! Again, not really something that we want to have to accept….but it may be the best alternative.

That's all for now. We are certainly looking forward to good times with family and friends over the next 2 months….and also really looking forward to a cooler climate!

Wishing our readers all the best.

The crew of Sea Mist