Sue & Ian have now gone home and we had a few days rest in Prickly Bay.  Beautiful island, despite the very unsettled weather. Highlight, walking to the top of Mt Qua Qua, with Anne  & Roy (Serenity) in pouring rain… the views were fantastic for 5 mn when the rain stopped. Managed to fit in a haircut too, thanks to Lynn (Christine), she did a brilliant job on both of us. And thanks to Peter for watching out for us on “that evening”!

Time to wind our way back up North, toward Martinique where we we will be catching up with the Garagnani. We’ll be stopping to most of the islands we missed on the way down.

We had a ball in Marigot bay since new year eve. So pleased  Jonine and Vic insisted that we joined them! we had a fabulous time.It will be hard to leave the bubble tomorrow and the beautiful pool at the resort. Ian’s friends, Sue and Ian, are with us for a fortnight and it is time to move off.

We will probably stop off at Soufriere on the way down to Bequia which is our first destination.

After 5 nights and 5 days at sea, we arrived in Las Palmas on the 28th September.

Success, our first long passage (720 miles) only the 2 of us went smoothly, despite some stiff wind and very tall waves.

It was a test both for us and Mr X, think we all passed with flying colours!

Read more

Good news, after weeks of looking for her, we finally found her. Gabriella will join us in las Palmas for our trans-Atlantic, she brings some experience of ocean crossings which will be invaluable.  Can’t wait to see the synchronised sextant team in action! Ian is really looking forward to this.

That is it, we have had a week in Gibraltar, time to leave tomorrow. We will head for the Canaries and hopefully it will only be a week passage if the wind is kind to us.

We have had a ball in Gibraltar, highlights: going to the top of the Rock and meeting Diana and John after some years. Oh and yes, we did have the oil leaks sorted and we don’t need to have the engine out… Result! Will write more about our stay in Gibraltar, should have more time at sea without the distraction of onshore entertainment….

To find out what we got up to in Gibraltar…Read more

.

We had a full week sailing from Cartagena to Gibraltar, so both Richards could get used to the boat before we set off across the Atlantic.

Quite an eventful week…will we make it???

Read more

The 2 Richards…like the 2 Ronnies but much funnier!!!

Read more

OLYMPIC Marina – Barcelona

30^th August

We left Barcelona in the rain, first rain we had for weeks. Guess we had not missed it,,, it was not welcomed with whoops of delight… we had to put on our jackets and I even went as far as putting my bottoms on… Don’t like to get my bum wet.

Read more

Think I like this!

I asked Lisa if she wanted to be a published author and she gamely wrote a piece for the website on her sailing adventure on Mr X, in English, no less. I know, it was rotten of me to set her some homework, but to be fair, I did say that she could do it in French. Both Ian and myself were extremely impressed by her written English so we did not edit it. There it goes…

“Hi everybody!

My name is Lisa, I’m a french girl from Paris and this summer I spent 5 days on the sailboat of Manuela and Ian.

Read more

Sunrise over Porquerolles – France

The weather looked good to attempt the crossing to France on Wednesday … we were trying to avoid the tail of the previous  mistral onslaught which had been battering most of the south of France and  the predicted force 7 which was coming our way on the occidental coast of Corsica. We got stuck for 3 days on l’ile Rousse (north of Calvi), waiting for the storm to pass, the forecasted winds started earlier than expected.

Read more