Well this time next week, we will be back in Edinburgh. The ship is getting ready for sailing into drydock. Today we moved from Ostseekai - our berth for most of the past 6 months, for the final time.
On Wednesday morning we drive to Bremen to fly to Edinburgh and next day the ship sails to drydock in Sweden. In a big challenge to our faith, we have been told that the ship will not actually be allowed into the drydock itself until the 10th due to other ships before us, but it will sit at a berth in Landskrona next to the drydock from the 30th. This now means that there are only 6 days from the ship going dry to having to sail across to Denmark to meet up with all the returning families and crew who have been out on teams and breaks.
The big news today is that I (Steve) am going to be heading out to Logos 2 on 28th June for 3 weeks. I am going to help the bookfair in Trinidad for the last 2 weeks of what will be the busiest port of the tour. Then I will help co-ordinate the removal of all the goods that we are not including in the sale of the ship and arrange to get them back to Europe. I am looking forward to being involved in a really busy port with books again and because I have never been to the Caribbean. But everyone tells me that Port of Spain is a long way removed from a tourist destination and it will be very hard work.
I know it will be tough on the family while I am away but believe that I can be a real help to the Logos 2 at the time when everyone will be exhausted at the end of their 6 month tour.
Please also pray for those on Logos 2 at this time as on Monday night, the Chief Engineer, Dave Thomas, died of a heart attack. Dave had been on Logos at the very beginning in 1970 and then instrumental in refitting and then operating Logos 2 throughout her life. It is incredible that after a lifetime of service to Logos and Logos 2, he should pass away on his beloved ship just weeks before she comes to an end.
So the next few days will be very busy getting ready to sail and for us getting ready to go home.
We are really trying to get a newsletter out before we go. Most of it will not be news to regular readers of this blog, but if you do want to receive a copy, please email me at steve@packwoods.com and I'll send you one soon.
