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We three children spent many happy hours and days on our parents’ allotment, set out on land leased from the National Coal Board (NCB). We mostly grew vegetables, and had some soft-fruit bushes. But we also kept hens, and fresh eggs were nearly always guaranteed outside the moulting season. Mum baked nearly every day. Our cockerel was never too popular with some of our neighbours who backed onto the allotments, as they would be woken often before dawn by a shrill, half-strang

After a voyage of 2,633 NM, Missy Bear has brought Richard and Alix safely to our destination of Gocek, on the Lycian coast of Türkiye.

People with a delicate stomach may wish to skip over this blog. We spent a few days in Leros marina, sitting out the high winds. Our guests, Sue and John, had to get back to Kos by Sunday evening for their late flight out back to the UK, which was the same flight on which our new guests, Tony and Rachelle, would be arriving. We needed to decide if we would sail to Kos, else ask our friends to get on a ferry (yes, obviously not the same one, I’m not that stupid). The forecast

Bozburun mosque We were rudely awoken, early, to a chorus of a host of Greek cockerels, but later were soothed by a slightly melancholic Muslim call-to-payer. We left the blue domes of the orthodox church behind, to be replaced later by the silver-grey dome of the village mosque. The bell-tower was replaced by the needle-like minaret with its sharp, pointy, missile-head, blue hat. At the half-way point from Symi, we dropped the Greek courtesy flag, to replace it with the cres

We left Arki slightly heavy of heart, a bit worried about Billy. However, a great sail across to Patmos soon shook out any cobwebs, and perked us all up. There was lots of room on the town quay, and we decided to park up next to a boat sporting a French tricolour. We slung the hook, and started motoring back to the quay, when a rather familiar-looking man appeared on the bow and started yelling at us. “ You stupide people ” he shouted. Now, there is nothing our skipper likes