Christmas Time

Officially, the last two Christmas's have been in the winter - yes the Caribbean is in the northern hemisphere, so even though the temperatures are nudging the 30c mark, it is technically winter.

This year however, we are in Europe, with the boat based in Antibes on the French Riviera for Christmas. Most antipodeans view Christmas in Europe as the snowy village that you no doubt see on the endless re-runs of Yogi's First Christmas, however, unless you are in Scandinavia, in the Alps, or one of those freak blizzards has shut down the UK, it isn't really like that. So unfortunately the White Christmas scenario won't happen for me this year. Instead I have been basking in the Christmas markets that litter each town that I have been to this month, that along with some pretty cool Christmas lights..... makes for a pretty festive time in Europe.

Merry Christmas

How I imagine the set up for these Christmas lights to go.

Palma De Mallorca, Spain

Nice, France

Gotta be quick to catch the big fella!

Monaco

The road on the bottom left is the starting straight to the Monaco GP

Monaco Palace

This is Monaco swimming pool in the non-Christmas months (note the diving platform behind). Now it is an ice skating rink for go carts! 

The rest of summer

The remainder of the European summer consisted of a 5 week owners trip in Turkey, as well as a few weeks there afterwards before a trip back to France and Monaco for the Monaco Boat Show (this trip included a little 4 day stop in Greece waiting for the weather to get better.

Turkey was hot, and after doing the same trip two years ago, it is safe to say I can go a little while without going there again. Nothing against it, but there are other places in the world to see!

For those playing at home, the Monaco Boat Show is not like any other boat show you would ever go to. It doesn't have the little weekender trailable boats you see at the Sanctuary Cove Show or the Brisbane Fishing Expo. if you have a cool $100 Million Euro in your pocket, you may have some change from buying an average boat here, it is basically the Billionaires Boat Ball, of which we as crew are lucky enough to be involved in to a degree. See the photo's for a better explanation.

Ears: Chloe Howl

Turkey

Us and Prana one morning in Turkey

The usual ladies coming around to sell towels and bread.

Jim dreaming

Doug, where he should be.

Up the rig

Foot portrait

Jim after the owners trip.

Zakinthos, Greece

The Aeolian Islands just off Sicily 

Creperie, Juan Les Pins in France

Looking towards Monaco from our rig, for an idea of the size, keep in mind the boat farthest left is 98 metres long

Looking the other way from our rig

The Red Arrows did a show

..... on top of us.

I hope this never gets popular back home.

Juan Les Pins, France

Our trip from France to Mallorca coincided with the annual Tuna run out of the Med, as a result, we hooked in to about 5 of these guys in one morning. Not bad when moving at 12 knots and not actually trying to catch them!

Doug - too short.

Jim showing doug how to bring one in.

Of Trolls and Vikings

We got away to Norway in July to have a look around, it is one of those places that I had seen photos of these crazy landscapes and always wanted to experience for myself. So when the chance came I was pretty excited to finally check the place out.

The plan was to hire a car in Oslo, have it for a week to drive out to Bergen and back again. It was a pretty epic trip that included glimpses of the midnight sun, a stay in what is arguably the hotel with the best view in the world, a ride on the world's steepest railway line, driving through the world's longest tunnel, standing on top of glacial carved fjords and stupidly placed rocks almost a kilometre above the ground below, and other awesome sights, sounds and times.

I'm stoked to have had a taste of this place, but another week would have probably done it justice, even if it was stupidly expensive.

Kjeragbolten "The Hanging Rock", Hannah standing over 900m above the Fjord below. 

One of the trips highlights, catching up with an old friend in Josh, this was at 1am in Bergen - note the light in the sky.

Oslo

The usual waterfall.

Laerdal Tunnel - the world's longest road tunnel at 24.5km long. It has three of these caverns in it to simulate a sunrise and wake the driver up. A pretty good idea considering you are in darkness for almost 30minutes (see the darkness in the tunnel ahead?)

The view from our room in Stalheim Hotel, if you look up a list of the worlds best hotel views - this hotel will always be on it.

Lunch in Stalheim

Waterfall Rainbow

Myrdal, as seen from the Flam Railway - the steepest railway in the world.

Bryggen

The following photos are from an evening in Bergen

Uriksen above Bergen

The Fish Markets

Preikestolen "Pulpit Rock" just over 600m up. 

Gotta live on the edge somtimes

Like actually on the edge