There has been a last-minute reprieve for the Russian Bondarenko family who were expected to sail from the Island today until the immigration department changed tack late yesterday afternoon to allow them to remain to celebrate New Year on dry land.

The latest move means the family can now remain on the Island until January 10, having earlier been told they were required to set sail before the end of 2005.

It is another twist in the remarkable 14-year round-the-world odyssey of the Bondarenkos, who are currently moored in St. George?s harbour.

The family of four?s officially extended period of stay on the Island had already run out before the new extension was granted.

If the family could be granted one wish it would be to see out the winter in Bermuda before making a journey to their new life in Nova Scotia, Canada, in the Spring.

When the family spoke to yesterday morning that appeared a forlorn hope, but everything had changed by 5 p.m. after they were summoned to the Department of Immigration to meet permanent under-secretary Robert Horton.

Having expected to be spending their first ever New Year at sea listening to the celebrations by radio and trying to glimpse the distant fireworks from the high seas, the family were delighted by the temporary extension to their stay.

Vitaly Bondarenko, 57, said: ?We are happy because we can celebrate the New Year on land and stay until January 10 and then we will see.?

The family arrived in Bermuda last summer after discovering that in order to complete paperwork for their adopted new home at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia they had to leave Canada during the application procedure.

Because of their unusual circumstances the family were given an exceptional period of grace to remain in Bermuda.

Come January 10 they will still face the dilemma of whether to attempt a potentially treacherous six-day journey north to Nova Scotia or head south to the Caribbean and wait until better weather in the Spring before going to Lunenburg, where Mr. Bondarenko has a job waiting for him and the family have many friends. Catching a flight to Canada is out of the question as Mr. Bondarenko?s wife Marina has a phobia of flying. ?We have had a wonderful time in Bermuda. We enjoyed ourselves and made a lot of friends and have been happy here. The application process for Canada has taken longer than expected and we did not get our passports and visa until November 28,? said Mr. Bondarenko. Since receiving the green light to head back to Canada there has been only one clear weather ?window? that would have given them a chance to reach Lunenburg, they were dissuaded from attempting the trip at the time and are now faced with an even less favourable choice of trying to squeeze between a run of deep, low pressure systems scudding across the North Atlantic or seek safe haven in the Caribbean for another four months.

The Bondarenkos? 37-foot yacht is presently moored in St. George?s harbour.

Low pressure weather systems can spring up within two or three days and their yacht needs six clear days to reach Lunenburg, there is the added hazard that, any day now, the sea will freeze around the harbour of their Nova Scotia destination.

Before being told of the extra ten-day reprieve, Mr. Bondarenko said: ?We would like to have an extension to stay for another four months, we?d be able to leave before May.

?We are very grateful to immigration for giving us the opportunity to stay here through the hurricane season, and we understand there are rules and we respect those rules. But it would have been better for us if we could stay here.?

If they can?t go north then heading south to a Caribbean island is the other option, but even this is not without hazard. The family made friends with American couple John and Charlette Heyer when they berthed alongside in St. George?s earlier in the month before sailing their 44ft sloop to Puerto Rico only to strike a submerged object 100 miles south of Bermuda on December 20 and need rescuing from a passing cargo ship. Whatever happens, it will form another chapter in the book Mr. Bondarenko intends to write about the family?s sailing odyssey, which started when he and his wife left their home in the former Soviet Union in a makeshift boat. What started out as a three-year trip around the world ended up being multiple circumnavigations of the globe in a variety of patched-up yachts.

Their children Ivan, 12, and Vasily, seven, were born in the US and Australia respectively. The family are looking forward to starting their new life in Lunenburg, where they have a home, car and job waiting. Mr. Bondarenko will be working as a sailing boat design and project manager. If they decide to sail south to the Caribbean it will mean a short return to Bermuda in spring en route to Nova Scotia. The Bondarenkos wish to return to the Island at some point.

?We?d like to come back to Bermuda. When I?m rich I?ll come and buy a house. I?ll publish my book first about how a naive Russian couple sailed in a home they had built on a yacht,? said Mr. Bondarenko.