We're Here!

We made it. After a week at sea, we have arrived safely to port at Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Sailing was a nice adventure, most days. Bethany had a little trouble with queeziness, but the seasick meds our friendly pharmacist gave us kept the feeling away during the rough part of the journey. Even though the weather was beautiful on the sail, the winds were quite high which caused fairly rough seas.

We did enjoy watching from the outer decks the ship's bow crashing down into the waves and sending up a great splash. I also really loved the colors of the water! It was exciting to watch as the ship would cut through the deep blue water and send it peeling away into frothy white and tourquoise waves. Yum! Even David declared that he felt like jumping off into it!

With the help of a couple of tugs, we docked at the port Friday morning around 7:30 to a warm welcome by a local fellow playing the trumpet. He played several Christmas selections and a very memorable "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus". We heard that he welcomes the ship and it's crew that way every time they come in. What a blessing! By Friday evening, nearly everyone had disembarked and made their way into town to enjoy beautiful Santa Cruz with it's lovely parks and lively, festive streets.

Even though some of us still have work to do, we are looking forward to several weeks of exploring this beautiful island and it's many interesting towns and features. The kids have begun their 5 weeks of winter break, so I'm sure they, with John, will be making good use of the bus pass we just bought. Jenny, on the other hand, will be working in the office making preparations for the outreach to Benin, West Africa, that will begin mid-February. We do have some holiday time and a few days of vacation coming up. Mom-Mom and Pop will be flying in Dec 31st to spend a week with us. We are SO looking forward to their visit!

Jenny