Happy New Year's Eve!

I feel like I have been slacking on the updates. The reason is that there have been little in any boating news from the Barco Crew, just having a very nice Christmas and New Year celebration with the two of us alone, with Meezer Kitties.

Christmas dinner was the usual Peking Duck with Mom and our Shipmate, Phil. We distributed small gifts to everyone and enjoyed the warm living room with TV as the main entertainment.

Today; In two hours, we depart for the Barco Sin Vela (1800) where we will shift to Mess Dress for the formal Wine Dinner and New Year celebration. I will wear my tux (With Gold Aircrew Wings and Surface Warfare devices) on my left collar, just to be a wise ass to the few retired Navy Captains who wear their Aviator Wings, similarly. The Spousal Unit has given me a stern "NO" for me wearing my leopard skin Fez. I have no idea why not. It has a tassle and is definitely, cool.

We will be dining on a five course wine dinner paired with five exotic wines with appropriate beef and sea foods. I generally get quite full on the foods offered and the staff always sneaks in some extra glasses for me and the Spousal Unit. Florida Yacht Club really goes the extra mile to make us feel welcomed, even if I am not as well heeled as some of the other members.

After dinner, there will be the live music and bubbly to ring in the New Year in boating style. Afterwards, we will be walking back to the Barco Sin Vela for a night cap and stay the night safely away from the roads and other craziness that will be present on the streets of Jacksonville.

New Years is "Amateur Night" for most drinkers, so prudent care and planning will keep us all safe so we can be with our loved ones for yet another year.

I would like to thank all of our readers for the past year, it has been a pleasure to jot down some of our adventures semi-coherently. Perhaps some of you may have been inspired to do a bit more outside your normal routines. Maybe my small utterances have entertained and made some sense.

It has been a wonderful year with our St Johns trips and the highlight being the trip across the Pacific which I hope to return for some more island hopping.

Can I get someone to donate $75K? It seems that Holland America Cruise Lines has a 112 day round the world journey leaving and returning to Fort Lauderdale, early in 2012. Two persons in a suite. Sounds like the perfect trip; someone else driving and navigating... five hots and a luxurious cot. That's livin', baby.

I can dream, can't I? The Loving Spousal Unit says that it would be a great celebration for my 50th birthday. She's always thinking of me! I remain a very lucky feller...

Speaking of lucky; I am. We live in a wonderful place with plenty of food and good times. There are many people in the world who do not have the same luxuries, so I hope you can pause and reflect and remember them, especially those who are imprisoned and suffer. Cuba Libre!

We all need to aspire to do something new which improves and energizes us, whether crossing an ocean or doing something as tough as keeping vertical in unhealthy times. Still, we all need to elevate ourselves to make it to the next day, season, valley, mountain or ocean.

Ocean crossings are easy. The departure is the tough part. Fear and Air are holding us back from our next grand adventure, so let's break through and live!!!

A most wonderful New Year to all. May you all receive maximum Good Luck!

(After all, it's better to be Lucky, than good!)