Season 1

Part of the troglodyte settlement of La Madeleine, by the Vezere river. Despite being Welsh, I was not blessed with a particularly good singing voice. And yet I love to sing. When I was little, I really wanted a guitar, but I never had one. I have a recollection of my father telling me that you have to be able to sing to have a guitar. That anecdote might be a false memory, and if so – sorry Dad! I sing along to anything: 80s pop music; hymn; songs from Ed (Stewpot) Stewart’s

[Update 27.09.2021: Elena has just confirmed that boat will be ready for launch next Monday, October 4. So we will fly out from CDG to Sardinia on Saturday. Yay!] Keel propped up, showing eight still shiny and healthy keel bolts. About 10 days ago (September 15th), Elena responded to our gentle enquiries. First the good news: she has given birth to a baby boy, who they have named Alberto. As well as photos of the bambino, she also sent us some pictures of Missy Bear’s operati

One of the joys of volunteering at our local Oxfam bookshop is that you never know what treasures you are going to find. When Sari and I cleared out my parents’ flat, we boxed up all the books and took them to the local charity shop, including two huge volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary (A - L and M - Z). We had no idea that these things simply don’t sell anymore. I have learned such a lot since being at Oxfam. We always have some Delia cookbooks for example. Is there

We have, on many occasions now, offered up thanks for our little French visas. Firstly, when Missy Bear was delayed, and we spent a few weeks waiting for the boat itself. Then while waiting for various bits of equipment to show up in Canet and then Barcelona. And we are thankful again now, because we can stay in Aubeterre without the old Schengen clock tick-tocking in the background. We’ve not heard anything yet about progress on MB. The boatyard is owned by a young couple,

Daring to dream of Sicily? It’s the combination of waiting and not knowing that is most frustrating. Here we are, in beautiful Aubeterre-Sur-Dronne, enjoying the sunshine and 30-degree heat, whilst eating lovely food and enjoying trips to the Dordogne. What could be nicer? Yet, a significant part of my thoughts resides in Arbatax, wondering what progress, if any, is being made on Missy Bear by the shipyard. It’s only been a week-and-a-half since the haul-out. I don’t want to

Monastery next to the shrine at Bonaria You’ll have all heard our news by now, so I won’t dwell on that. Other than having to sort out insurance and getting a boatyard booked, we actually had a really nice time in Cagliari. Richard planned a lot of sight-seeing to keep us busy, and we certainly walked a good few miles, and up and down hills. The Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria was quite poignant, as it is a shrine to distressed sailors. Mr Cheeseman. The restaurants were great

Whilst in Arbatax, on the east coast of Sardinia, awaiting Missy Bear’s admission to Yacht hospital, I continued reading a book that Alix had bought for me from the Oxfam bookshop in Cirencester, where she volunteers. It is called ‘Portillo’s Hidden History of Britain ’. I quite like Michael’s narrative style and I can recommend the book, which basically looks at the stories behind some of Britain’s fabulous buildings, some of which are soon to be re-purposed. Cambridge Milit

Ricciardo driving the mobile hoist this morning Where it happened! Anyone following our track on Marine Traffic today (Saturday 21st) might be puzzled to see Missy Bear re-tracing her steps back up the south-east coast of Sardinia. It’s a long story, starting last Saturday lunchtime: We slipped our moorings at the lovely Santa Maria Navaresse, to head further south. After two nights in a marina, we thought that it would be nice to anchor overnight somewhere about 20NM south.

“ The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you’re hungry again ” – George Miller, film director (' Mad Max ', and to calm him down afterwards, ' Happy Feet ') Many years ago, I would have said that my favourite cuisine was French. Then I decided that it was too set in its ways, and actually I preferred Spanish, especially tapas. And even more especially, the modern tapas, which can be works of art in their own right [ Ed, such as Pintxos in Bilbao ]

Sardinia, crossroads of the western Mediterranean Cagliari is at an important junction; it was of strategic importance in the trade route between Italy and North Africa, and later a key safe harbour in the east-west Route des Isles  trade: From Barcelona in ancient Aragon, it is a 340 NM sail to Cagliari, here in southern Sardinia. A further 340 NM trip eastwards, gets you to the ancient eastern Sicilian cities of Messina or Syracusa in the Ionian Sea. And then onto Greece an

I learned to sail before the introduction of electronic charts and chart plotters. In fact, I learned to sail before GPS was widely used on boats. As a student, many of my instructors might have been quite sniffy about the emerging technologies; what if you lose power and can’t run the systems? What if the Americans turn of the GPS or reduce its accuracy? Some instructors still are sniffy. We were all taught the good old-fashioned way; with paper charts, pencil, rubber and Po

Those of a nervous disposition may want to stop reading now. Back in May, we visited dear friends for an overnight stay and BBQ. The friends shall remain anonymous, but Jane ( oops, sorry ) asked me about our planning for this trip, and asked me had I given any thought to how many pairs of knickers I would take. Richard raised an eyebrow. It wouldn’t occur to him to consider this in advance, let alone on the day of packing, and therefore why would I? His mouth dropped open wh

Alix's school is the one at the bottom, not the top. I didn’t really do geography at school. I went to a large comprehensive called Olchfa, one of the biggest schools in Wales at the time, if not the UK. It was a showcase school for facilities: extensive playing fields, swimming pool, gym, science labs galore, language labs, sewing and cooking rooms for girls, woodwork and metal work rooms for boys (sigh) and so on. But in 1974, the roof collapsed on the swimming pool at the

Stink Pot or Gin Palace? After a second night on anchor in Stagno Torto, (and a much calmer night, may I add), we decided to take advantage of the better weather, and head around the top of Sardinia, and sail a little way down the east coast to the Porto Cervo area. Now, if like me, you’ve never heard of Porto Cervo before, let me set the scene. Porto Cervo is on the Costa Smerelda, which seems to exist solely to provide a holiday playground for the sailing jet set. It’s not

Section of the Hereford Mappa Mundi. Alix and I first went to see a depiction of Middle Earth back in 2009, when I was doing my post-graduate studies at Gloucester University. The 14th century map of the known world – the Mappa Mundi – is housed in Hereford Cathedral, and we had a day trip there to see it (and the chained library, of Harry Potter fame). It’s the largest medieval map of the world and, if memory serves, was painted on goatskin by monks at Lincoln Cathedral in a

Ed, And no, the wind wasn't due to the baked aubergines that we had for supper. We were just nodding off around midnight, when Richard commented that the wind was coming around to blow a westerly. This had been expected, so nothing untoward. But it blew up quite quickly. We checked the anchor holding, and were happy that it was steadfast. For the next three hours we dozed fitfully. MB swung to-and-fro on her anchor. Our cabin hatch was wide open, and as we swung one-way, cold

Bonifacio, just visible perched on the almost white limestone cliffs on Corsica. There’s a reason that yacht owners pay professional crews to deliver their boats from A to B. OK, some owners don’t have the time, but more often it’s because they don’t fancy doing the trip themselves. It may be the wrong time of year, or simply that the voyage would be against the prevailing winds and currents. In short, it would be a tiresome slog, so better to pay someone else to endure it, a

MB at Isola Rossa. I seem to have overlooked Isola Rossa in my last blog. A pleasant enough town, a few shops, bars and restaurants. But we seem to end up having dinner at 22:00 most nights. This is great when we are in Spain, and can have a siesta, but I have to confess, after a day’s sailing and all that fresh air, even I am getting a bit too tired at that time to enjoy food. We decided to eat ashore as we were so tired, and ended up in a large, busy restaurant. Service was

Fornelli Passage I thought we were going to have an easy sail to Stintino from Alghero, which we did but there’s always a but… Richard had been saying to me for a few days that I should read the pilot guide [ Ed, ‘Corsica & North Sardinia, Fourth Edition, Madelaine and Stephan Strobel, pub. Imray ] for our trip to Stintino. A pilot guide for an area is a book that helps passage planning, but also describes towns, marinas, anchor spots, wildlife, some cultural references etc,

Chart of the Fornelli Passage Skipper and First mate had been having a heated debate the previous night about something called the ‘ Passage di Fornelli ’. I don’t know who Fornelli was, but his (or her - but unlikely let’s be honest) intrepid navigation skills had given us a conundrum. Having been encouraged by Skipper to read the Almanac about our trip up the north west cost of Sardinia, First Mate now realised that Skipper intended to save well over 20NM of distance to our