I find it hard to put my emotions into words, we have spent a decade of our lives sailing around. I am full of joy that we have been able to fulfill our dream of circumnavigating. I am proud that we have persevered through gales and windless days to finish what we started. To be able to be self sufficient enough to cope with any problems and complications we have run into over the course of 12 years of boat ownership is a huge accomplishment. Barry has grown in so many ways in his knowledge and ability to do all the boat maintenance that is necessary. I keep the boat looking shiny and bright but he makes it go.
We have sailed over 50,000 offshore miles without outside assistance for the most part. We are indebted to the amateur weather forecasters, in Canada, New Zealand and South Africa for their invaluable help in figuring out when it was safe to leave port and continue on with our journey. I would like to thank my brother for joining us on our longest and finest ocean passage , from the Galapagos to the Marquesas. He was a joy to have along and in honour of his tireless ability to do his share of the hand steering once our wnd vane broke we have christened our new wind vane, Bob!! To our children and our families thanks for not saying we were crazy . We appreciate the encouragement they have given us and all the things they have done to make our journey possible, the mail collection, paying our bills, updating and fixing the blog. To all our sailing buddies who have shared our journey, we could not have done it without your support , knowledge and friendship over the years. Without a doubt the times we have spent together will stay in our memories for ever.
At the moment we are preparing Cat's-Paw IV for an extended stay in the water at the Fish Hook Marina in Golfito, Costa Rica. We are heading back to Canada to set up a permanent home, most likely an apartment in Red Deer, Alberta. It is kind of bittersweet to leave now but it is time to reconnect with our families, we have aging mothers and growing grandchildren. Personally I was not getting any joy out of sailing to new countries and I was finding it a chore to figure out where we should go and what we should see. When you start feeling like that it is time for a change, time to quit when it's not fun anymore. We are going to try living six months in Canad and six months on the boat for a few years and see how that suits us. 
I strung up all the courtesy flags from every country we visited and flew them from the top of the mast. This was our way of saying
WE DID IT, WE HAVE CIRCUMNAVIGATED THE WORLD IN OUR SAILBOAT!
