Back from Beyond

Well - had things gone according to our original plan, we would be in the Caribbean by now. Had they gone according to our second plan, we would be in The Canaries. BUT we are now on plan 3 and we are in Cherbourg!1

Unfortunately my mother 's health deteriorated this year to the point where she was no longer able to look after herself so Mark and I spent the summer helping my brother, David, to care for her. Sadly, Mum died in August. By this time I'm afraid I needed some time to sort my head out and did not feel up to embarking on long sailing passages.

So, we returned to the boat in September and moved her to Cherbourg where she will remain for the winter. We have decided to have a bit of work done to her to make life easier for ourselves. We will be replacing the hanked on headsails with furling gear and we are replacing the instruments. The instruments have been telling us lies for some time. For example, the echo sounder told us we were aground as we sailed down the river from Carentan and it is only to be trusted in deep water (just when you don't need it),

We return to England in November to stay with friends/daughters for a couple of weeks. Then, having enjoyed Portugal so much last year, and having googled the warmest places in Europe in winter, we have decided on Crete for winter. We have rented a place for 3 months then we will come back here and collect the boat and proceed with plan 3 - ie plan 1 but 2 years later. Third time lucky.

We are making the most of our time here - doing lots of walking and visiting galleries and museums etc. and have had a sail to Alderney, where we completed the walk round the island challeng.

I will try to keep up with the blog - certainly from Crete.