The last morning! We have around 20 nautical miles to go until the pass, and then another 15 or so from the pass to the marina. Once we're alongside and have given the boat a good clean, we can move this delivery from the to-do list to the done list. Brilliant!
There is only so much I can write about wind and waves, after all, and it's nice to be writing about the end of a passage for a change. And the nonsense I often write in these posts to entertain myself has been kept to a bare minimum this time - given another week at sea there may have been a lot more nonsense.
It's a funny life doing yacht deliveries. We fly halfway around the world to step aboard boats we often know very little about, spend a couple of days getting familiar with them, and then head off on passages that some owners might spend months preparing for on boats they know inside out.
And it's not always smooth sailing. There are plenty of occasions when I find myself having to deliver bad news to an owner. A bolt shears on an engine and the water pump comes off, the freezer stops working and all the food goes bad, or we've been hit by lightning and the autopilot is fried. Not exactly the phone calls anyone wants to receive!
So when a delivery goes as well as this one has, and the previous one too, I'm genuinely very happy for the owners. They've got a great boat, it's performed brilliantly, and we've delivered it safely without any major dramas.
That's really what it's all about. Getting the boat where it needs to be, keeping everything in one piece and making sure the owners can enjoy their boat when they get aboard.
Now we just have the pass, the marina and a bit of cleaning between us and the finish. After around 9,500 nautical miles since mid-July, I think I've earned a few days ashore!
Another delivery done, and another very good boat safely delivered.