Lisbon
On the third day after Porto, Ella and I arrived in the bay that is also home to Lisbon. We spent the first afternoon and evening in the anchorage off Cascais. Ella had already been ashore there with her friends, so we …
Sailing around the world on Merrimac, a Stadtship 56.
Spanish Rías and Porto
Last week we left Sada in “the usual weather”, heading for the western rías (rivers, though low-lying fjords would be a better description). By the usual weather I mean the “Portuguese Northerly”, …
Brittany (France) and Sada (Spain)
The weather in Cherbourg was rather unsettled: frequent rain and a string of depressions marching up the Channel and over England. So when we got a weather window with relatively little wind, but from a direction that …
Cadzand, Ostend and Cherbourg
We set off from Harlingen last Tuesday with a lovely NW wind. Around eight o’clock we reached the start of the Schulpengat, the channel between Den Helder and the North Sea. Oops, there was more of a sea running …
Lisbon, here we come!
Right, we (Arnold, Ella and Kees) are off on our summer holiday and/or leg one of the round-the-world voyage! Marion is looking after Miep, Arnold’s cat, but may well pop by at some point too. This morning, out of …
The Big Departure
Right, finally half an hour to spare to post a quick update. The last few months have been hectic, working on the boat, first at KM in Makkum and then the last 3 weeks at home. The time has flown by. Steering …
The last bit of Scotland
I hadn’t realised it was such a long drive from Peterhead to Lossiemouth. Mark had to be in Aberdeen anyway, but it was still quite a trek. We took the lovely quiet roads along the north-east coast of Scotland, …
Third time lucky
Since we would have had to wait almost 8 hours for the bridge in Whitby, we decided to carry on up the coast. Depending on the weather and the crew, we’d see how far we got. Once we reached the River Tyne, the …
Out and about with Pelagia
This year’s sea miles kick off with a short passage to Scotland. I’m sailing as crew on Pelagia, a Contest 46 of the good old-fashioned kind. Loyal readers may remember that last year I bumped into my very …
Southern England and home again
Phew, it’s December already and we still haven’t updated the website. Better do it now, if only so that in 10 years’ time we can read back what on earth we got up to this year. The view from Tresco Back …
The south (and a bit of the west) coast of Ireland
On the way from Crookhaven to Durrus Blair’s Cove After Crookhaven the forecast was for a few days of reasonably good weather, so we nipped round the corner into the first “ria” of the west coast and …
Off to Ireland Together
The last few weeks in Ponta Delgada flew by, mainly because it turned into a real revolving door. I’d barely waved one lot of friends off before the next lot turned up. The funniest encounter was completely …