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Quarantine in Malta, credit: Wellcome Collection. During the bubonic plague, infamously known as the ‘ Black Death ’, in the mid-fourteenth century, the disease wiped out an estimated one-third of Europe’s population, during a bad period between 1347-50. This sweep of the plague resulted in one of the mass fatalities in human history; and it was an impetus to take action. Officials in the Venetian-controlled port city of Ragusa (now Dubrovnik, Croatia) passed a law establishi

This image is not MB, but a brand new Sun Odyssey 410 we photographed last July on her way to the UK. The schedule from Beneteau indicated that Missy Bear (MB) was due to leave the factory at Challans on Mon 21 June, arriving at Canet-en-Roussillon on Wed 23 June. At this stage, the boat is transported by lorry, all wrapped up what looks like cling-film. The mast has obviously not been put in place, but is also wrapped and transported as well. We are the proud parents from th

Thanks heavens we have a convertible! Roof back up. Vacuum bags are a genius invention. We had set ourselves a challenging problem: to transport the entire needs of a two-bedroom floating apartment, into a convertible sports car. Yes: bedding, duvets and pillows for four berths; kitchen-ware for the galley; his and hers clothes for 6-months; various boat tools and kit, including our snorkelling gear for underwater snags; first-aid kits; computers, iPads, Kindles, and all the

Negatif pour le Covid. And breathe... Another hurdle successfully negotiated. Alix and I had already done an Innova antigen test last night, and we each got a negative result. But there's always a chance of a false positive when the formal test was done this morning at 10:00. So we were slightly apprehensive en route to Liddington to visit ' Racoo Screening '. The set up is basically two guys in a shipping container in a field. The set up didn't look too much like ' laborator

MCA Exciting news today; Chris has emailed us some vital statistics, including our hull identification number (HIN) - a long number. Missy Bear will be Beneteau's hull 095, i.e. we thinks she's only the 95th Oceanis 40.1 they have built? Anyway, the HIN allows us to register her at the MCA through the 'Register of UK Vessels Part III' (form MSF 4701), otherwise known as the Small Ships Register (SSR). We will get her SSR number as result at a princely cost of £35.00. We spen