Baiona was a great anchorage not too far from civilisation and a set of LED navigation lights, though my old head torch enveloped in broken green glass still worked perfectly. New lights purchased and we headed off across the bay to anchor just off a beach. A nudist beach! Surely not in these temperatures? Full …
Captains Blog 36 – Petanque? in the Calanques?
Having enjoyed Porquerolles, it was time to head off and we were keen to keep moving towards Barcelona, where a lovely Bowman 45 was for sale. We sailed into a cracking little anchorage in Toulon Harbour. There were stiff Westerlies forecast and we were ideally positioned to get some protection. After anchoring overnight, we headed …
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Captains Blog 34 – Jelly Fish and Chips
We called the marina in Ajaccio as we approached. No response, so we tried again, nothing! And then again, and again. We tried again. And bingo! Contact was established. “Do you have a reservation?” they asked. “Well, we tried to e-mail but didn’t get any response”. “You should have used the online booking system, it’s …
Have Things Gone to Plan?
Let’s go back in time to last October. We’d chosen Licata as our winter home for 2 reasons. Firstly, we wanted to head to the Greek Islands the following Spring and secondly, we wanted to take all the old antifoul off the hull, re-prime and apply new. So, Licata seemed like a good option. And …
Captains Blog 33 – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
We left Arbatax as the wind got up, gliding along at 5 knots for a whopping 5 miles before engaging the colossus that is our 30hp diesel engine for the rest of the journey to Cala Luna. As we got closer, we could make out Koru, anchored alone in this beautiful bay. We’d soon spoil …
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Captains Blog 9 Lots of Swell? Take a Kwell!
It’s not very far from Les Sables D’Olonne to La Rochelle, but we had a 4 hour window to get into the Bassin des Chalutiers, so we left fairly early. We intended to get the 14:45 bridge lift into the bassin and arrived with plenty of time to spare. Too much in fact, so anchoring …
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Love letter to La Rochelle
Oh La Rochelle, you're a sophisticated, dynamic, artsy, eco city. Packed full of tourists, students, sailors and street entertainers. We passed under the bridge, wondering if our mast would fit & trying to remember the actual height of it. Then radioed for the 14.45 bridge lift to Bassin des Chalutiers. In typical French fashion there …
Captains Blog 8 Vendée Globe – Arrive in Style
We’d arrived in Port Louis for just one night, which was a shame as there were some WW2 U boat bunkers to explore just across the bay in L’Orient. Anyway, the batteries. We’d just moored up when it all went haywire. First mate was investigating the depth gauge, which kept going into alarm every 30 …
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Captains Blog 7, It’s getting serious!
26th June 2018 It’s 5 in the morning and time to ship anchor and head off to Guernsey. We leave Salcombe, waving and saluting the jeering cheering crowds assembled to witness the Grand Depart. In fairness the assembled crowds were not up to much although we did wave at a passing fishing boat. And they …
Facts and stats
Hi there, We were working out some stats if anyone's interested ... We've sailed over 1000 nautical miles since we left Weymouth There are 1500 miles to travel to get to the southern part of Portugal We've day sailed for all of our journeys, around 4-7 hours each trip. With the odd trip being a …
Our Big Boaty Adventure 