In Bonaire

Kalessin has reached Bonaire in northern Mallorca and the Intemperances returned to the UK on the 20th.

Sam says he has cleaned a huge amount of salt and grime off the boat... what with all that hard charging from Cartegena onwards there doesn't seem to have been much time for cleaning up.

The yacht comes out of the water in a couple of days and Sam returns to the UK on Wednesday, hooray! He says Bonaire is lovely, but hot. Looking forward to roasting there for a few days when Ben & I go out in July...

Bally arics

Today Kalessin is on her way from Ibiza to Majorca. According to Windguru there are light south-westerlies, temperatures of around 24 degrees, and cloud. So maybe they'll get a good spinnaker run - Sam seems to have developed new confidence with the spinnaker, not to mention new methods. That's what comes of sailing with experienced racers like Paul & Val.

Val seems to be recovering slowly from her bout of tummy trouble, and that combined with some adverse winds lost them some time, so they have only spent a couple of days in Ibiza. Guy and Ben are convinced Ibiza is wall-to-wall clubs, with sparkling lights and waist-deep foam absolutely everywhere. Sam says they haven't encountered any of that, but they were in the same marina as the Roamers last night so may well have encountered a bit of alcohol.

Kalessin spent a couple of days in Altea, last stop on the mainland, which has free high-quality wireless internet access. So Sam and I were able to use Yahoo chat a couple of times, which was nice. (Guy says only wrinklies use Yahoo chat whereas hip young persons like himself are all on MSN Messenger). Having spent the last couple of weeks researching and using Lotus Sametime at work - Norwich Union is mostly running software which is about 10 years out of date - I'm starting to learn more than I ever wanted to know about instant messaging systems.

The Intemperances fly home on the 20th so there's only a couple more days to get to Bonaire, where Kalessin will be hauled out for maintenance & antifouling. Sam had a good swim under the boat a couple of days ago and says that both antifouling and anodes are still in good shape, which is reassuring. The antifouling was particularly expensive but was obviously a good investment.

On Monday it will be exactly a year since we left Suffolk Yacht Harbour at 6am. What an amazing year it has been...

Portinatx, Ibiza, from Google Earth

Making progress

Sam and crew have made excellent progress along the Spanish coast, after a day or two exploring Morocco. As of the last few days they have been in Almerimar (pictured), which has a reputation as an excellent cruising marina - not least because it's a bit more affordable and slightly less full than many of the other marinas.


Poor Val has been stricken with Spanish tummy so they have spent a few days resting and waiting for the wind not to be force 6 on the nose! Fortunately they are parked next to a yacht whose owner used to own the other Westerly Storm on our pontoon in Suffolk Yacht Harbour ... what a small world sailing is. They have been explaining to Sam the delights of the French canals and I think he's slowly coming around to the idea, although unless we can get Kalessin well inland this autumn it may mean a very late start next year.

Occasional calls, emails and texts fly back and forth with crucial questions like "Do we have a grater on board?" (yes, it's on top of battery 4 under the sink) and "How do I change the blade on the jigsaw?" (use the long black screwdriver which is in a pot by the answerphone). I'm sure it's very good for Sam to be domestic and for me to do the DIY...

Merry Christmas from just me

Video of photos made for Sam's funeral    Dear friends and family As I hope you all know, this year has been a difficult one for me. On ...