First day on Logos Hope

Sunday 2nd September was a very special day for us as a family. Heather, Liam and Kara saw their future home for the first time. We travelled down to Croatia in time to be here for this day when the children would be allowed on the ship for one day only. Normally the ship yard do not allow kids into the yard due to all the dangerous work going on. So they can't get on the ship, which is why we must live onshore. However, on this Sunday, when the yard wasn't working, a celebration event had been organised with the yard management and workers, local contacts and the local churches to celebrate the time the ship has been here in Trogir.

Painted friends

It was great for us to walk through the yard and everyone to see the ship for the first time and then step onboard. For Heather it was also the first time to meet many of the crew and workers onboard. We enjoyed the programmes onboard but most of all enjoyed being able to walk around this great big ship and see all the places that we will be living in a few months from now.

Plotting the right course

The kids had a fantastic time on board, playing with their future neighbours, school friends and fellow shipmates. The inflated life raft in the empty dining room also helped.

Better than a bouncy castle

Hard a port!

Aye Aye Captain

We spent the whole day on the ship and got some pictures onboard. We also enjoyed international food prepared by different nationalities onboard. It was also great to spend time with Pauline from our home church who has been onboard since January.

Carrubbers united.

It was a great day and we look forward to the day when we will all be able to live onboard as a family.

Journey to Trogir

After 2 months in Mosbach, we were all excited to be making the journey down to Croatia. After taking a couple of days packing up and cleaning the house, we set off at 9 am on Friday morning to head down to Austria. We drove past Munich and down towards Salzburg. There were great views of the mountains as we drove into Austria. We found the town that we had planned to stay overnight but could we find the bed and breakfast? We found the ski jump half way up a hill but that was about it.

We spent an hour trying to find the place, asking people, trying to follow the map but we had to give up. So we just got back on the road and the kids fell asleep so we drove for another hour or so. We ended up staying the night in a lovely village called Regweg.

On Saturday morning it was quite chilly when we got back on the road and were soon approaching the border of Slovenia. After just half an hour in the car, we noticed that there was a 15cm crack in our windscreen. We weren’t too worried about it until we noticed that the crack had doubled in just 10 mins. Having never had a cracked windscreen before, we weren’t sure how serious this was and whether we needed to get it fixed immediately. But following a call to some of the guys on the ship, we were told to not worry and keep driving.

So we pressed on into Slovenia which is a beautiful country. We enjoyed the lovely countryside and stopped for lunch at a castle beside a lake where several couples were getting married while we were there. From there it wasn’t long before we crossed into Croatia and a 4 hour drive down to Trogir. By the time we were in Croatia, it had really warmed up and the crack in the windscreen had grown to about 40 cm long.

It was a long journey for the kids but worth it when we got there. This is the view from our bedroom window

It was great to have our friend from home, Pauline, meet us at our new house. We got unpacked and tried to get an early night before the excitement of the next day when we would get to go onboard the ship as a family for the first time.