It is a cold and especially wet winter. It has not rained so much and heavily in years. Therefore, we don't mind living in our fine apartment and not on the boat. Partly because our daughters are there with us a lot because their boyfriends are temporarily abroad. Sam is going to Hong Kong for 4 months bachelor exchange at the beginning of January and Jonas is going to Rwanda for 4 months bachelor internship at the end of February.

Despite the bad weather, we are going on three weekend trips. Mid-February, early March and the last winter weekend in March. We experience on those weekends that we sail at once faster than before. While the sails are old and the underwater hull is not yet painted. Is this due to the extra ballast from the davits, the dinghy and the solar panel on the back of the ship? We suspect so. Anyway; it sails nicely!

Marinthe finished in Amsterdam in mid-February and is coming to live with us until May 8 and will work in a restaurant to earn some extra money. In the fall, she put a lot of energy and time into applying to graduate programs in London. This is paying off as she hears in early February that she has been hired at the Bank of England starting this September. She is very happy about that; and what a great accomplishment! 👌💪. So from September this year she and Sam will be living in London for the coming period. Therefore nice to be able to spend a lot of time together now.

Eline is really enjoying her internships. Very nice that she has a new room with her own bathroom and kitchen as of March 1 and can leave the room in the dorm with 8 others and a dirty kitchen/shower behind. Reason enough to celebrate these two beautiful developments together with a dinner at restaurant de Luytervelde 😊.

Toine has been very busy at work in recent years. Now that the program has been delivered as of January 1, a lot of pressure falls off him. He is very wisely taking a bit of a breather and partly for this reason we are going for another week of skiing in Konigsleiten with Indian Summer (and Marinthe and Charley) at the end of January 😊⛷️⛷️. Very cozy!

With me, the workload actually increases, and that results in a less-than-perfect work period. I take time during the month of March to unwind 😌. Fortunately, towards the end of March I'm recovering well and starting work again. The pleasant and relaxing weekend in Berlin with Harrie and Anja works well for that.

What also helps tremendously is that we have decided to both stop working as of November 1 this year. With Toine, that's a natural moment. For me it's not really a natural moment, but neither would quitting by April 2025 (according to our original plan). So are we going to take the boat out as early as November 2024? No, we won't. Our "departure" by boat is scheduled for March 2025. We do have other plans; more on that later 😎😊.