Gary and myself left St Maarten around 1830 hours and with no wind motored across to Tortola, cleared customs and immigration and then took the cat around to Nanny Cay and dropped the boat off with Elite Island Yachts.

Having a few beers (as one does), who should walk in but Damian, one of the Reliance skippers who was in Les Sables when we left.

Up to the Peg Leg restaurant, a few more drinks, superb steak and then head down time.

Over to Virgin Gorda tomorrow to see Warren & Bridget and to stay with them on 'their' cat for a few days...

Leaving here tomorrow night and taking the cat across to Tortola for Festiva Charters. The trip is only around 90 miles so will take around 14 - 15 hours.

Then it's off for a beer with Bridg and Warren...

Got into St Marten and tied alongside Simpson Bay Marina at 1830 hours last night after a 22 day crossing.

Got the rugby results over the satellite phone a couple of weeks ago and glad to see the boys stuffed the English
Oh to have been down the rugby club... .

Be leaving shortly for St Maarten. Weather was glorious yesterday but is quite wet today. There's a fairly strong westerly breeze at the moment so that'll be good for a few hours.

After that the forecast is good for us for the next few days and we'll hopefully be able to cover some serious mileage.

Arrived in Gran Canaria after a fairly good sail from Cascais.

Force 7 SSW when we left so headed WSW for 80 miles or so and then tacked back in. Had to seriously slow the boat down as we were doing over 12 knots speed over ground (little too quick for sailing at night in crap conditions) and covered nearly 180 miles the first day (though not exactly in the direction we wanted to go).

Lost the wind three days out so went in fairly close to the African coast and managed two days good sailing from there.

The last day-and-a-half was dead downwind in force 7's and 8's so that was nice

Had a few beers last night but had to return to the boat early as the batteries were low. Ben and Tom, however, headed down to Playa del Ingles and got back on the boat at 6 am: pity there was stuff to do this morning...

A few days in Viveiro waiting for the weather window to get around Finisterre.

Whilst there, Larry's destination changed from Tortola to Annapolis and Dave, who's my 1st mate, wants to go to the States; Tom, Larry's 1st mate, wants to go to the Caribbean so after a quick swap a 3-1/2 day motor (well 2-1/2 days, one day we tacked back and forth with southerly 5 to 7's) to Cascais. Glorious sunshine at the moment and shorts and t-shirt weather

Happy St Davids Day Gibbo!

3 days across Biscay, force 8 gale around 20 miles from our destination and into Viveiro (East of La Coruna) at first light.

Larry Trow and his crew, Jeff and Tom are in as well so, sort the boat out and then, guess what, yep a beer!

Today we go! After a pleasant 13 days in France, it's time for the off...

Been here 9 days now and a few more to come by the look of things. May have a weather window late Sunday night/Monday morning but we'll have to see how that develops.

No international rugby this weekend though. After watching Wales' pathetic performance against Scotland last Saturday I'm sort of quite pleased as the next one's against France!

Arrived in Les Sables on Tuesday and have been running around preparing the boat. We're just about there but it looks like we won't be getting out for a while as there's still lots of stuff coming in from the Atlantic!

Ah well, least there's rugby on today...

I've hired a car to from St Malo on Tuesday for three days, one-way to Les Sables D'olonne and it's costing 115 Euros (about £76).

I'm also hiring a car tomorrow, same company, one-way (Gt Yarmouth to Portsmouth), and will have the car for no more than 7 hours: £75. Mmmmmm!

Have received confirmation of the joining date and will be off to Portsmouth on Monday to catch the overnight ferry to St Malo. I'll be meeting up with Dave Hunt and Ben Korhonen on the ferry!