It's been a few years since I have added to the blog. Although lots has happened in the past few years, the COVID pandemic seems to have managed to suppress my writing urge as well. The time has come to 'get back on the bike' and get writing again.  East Coast of Sardinia July, 2022 To pick up the story, Nathalie and I left our home in Ta...

I've got a bit of writer's block as I try to tap out another journal entry about our trip north but I'll give it a try. At the moment, we are anchored off a lovely cove called Pearl Bay, about 100nm south of Mackay. The passage from Yeppon today was marked by the strong SE trade winds, moody skies, cool conditions and a lumpy 2 metre swell. Comfort...

With the boat out of the water for a few weeks while the final maintenance and checks were made, Nathalie and I grabbed the chance to hire a car and head south from the Gold Coast for a few days. The hinterland of the far north coast of NSW beckoned. It's a part of the country that has it's own unique character and that's just the people! Mention N...

After much preparation, our trip sailing the Lagoon 52 'Paradise' for 12 months around Australia has finally begun. This is our first video and my hope is to create a real, living account of what it is really like to sail around Australia, creating a journal of all the memorable places and interesting people we will no doubt meet along the way. ​ A...

I'm writing this as we plug along the central coast of New South Wales, motoring just a few hundred metres offshore. We are trying to shelter from the worst effects of a building northerly. We've got 16M to go before Yamba and a bar crossing at low tide. It's been a bit of a motoring slog with wind and current against us the past 2 days since leavi...

Since coming back from living in France for 3 years, we've been asked a lot, "are you back for good, are you going to live in Australia now?" The answer is yes, we will be living in Australia but not exactly in the traditional sense. You see, Nathalie and I have the good fortune and opportunity to join a yacht for a circumnavigation of Australia, s...

It's hard to believe that we have been in Tassie just 8 days and yet have covered over 2,000kms. And that's just in the north and west, we haven't got down towards Hobart and the east coast yet. We arrived on the 2nd January into Launceston. It's on the Tamar River in the states north. Arriving right in the middle of the Australian summer holiday p...

After more time than I ever anticipated living here, it's time to say good bye to Europe. Au revoir France, adiós España, arrivederci Italia, ​ adeus Portugal and hello again Australia. It's been far too long and I can't wait to come home. I hope it's not the case of the grass being greener on the other side of the fence once I get home to Oz thoug...

After proposing to Nathalie when we visited Wineglass Bay in Tasmania, we were married yesterday half a world away in Luc sur Mer, France. So it's now official that I am the luckiest man in the world to be married to such a beautiful, charming and loving woman. We have shared so many adventures together already that would fill a normal lifetime. I ...

Nathalie and I have been visiting Estoril near Lisbon three or four times a year for the past few years. We get out and about walking or riding everywhere. I thought we'd discovered pretty much everything in our general area when yesterday riding past the old clifftop fort, we thought we'd poke our noses in and have a look. It's only abou...

​Greece is famous for it's islands and it easy to see why. There's over 1000 of them and most people have heard of the more famous one like Mykonos in the Cyclades and Corfu in the Ionian. The Sporades islands are not so well known and to me, that's a big plus. I've sailed out of Skiathos a few times now, south towards Skyros and east to Skopelos a...

The south coast of New South wales has to be one of my favourite places to visit, anywhere, full stop. I have been coming here since I was a small boy and when I had kids, we had the most wonderful family holidays here too. So when we were still in Normandy planning our trip to Australia, the NSW south coast was one place I was especially keen to s...

Nathalie and I flew into Sydney from Paris before we headed south to Melbourne to catch up with my family. I'd organised a house swap with a Sydney couple who in turn stayed in our home in Normandy. Well, we fell on our feet, that's an understatement. The apartment was on Mosman Point, just across Sydney Harbour from the Opera House and Harbour Bri...

I've been to Albania twice now and I suspect, twice is enough. This time, Nathalie and I were in the car and heading north from Greece, following the coastal road. Leaving Patras in the northern Peloponnese ​, we took our time to take it all in. The drive is incredibly scenic in places and we found a beautiful, isolated spot to camp by the sea, jus...

Well we had a day that we can tell our grand children about. It started off with me wanting desperately to drive the 70km ​ from our home to Utah Beach to watch the finish of Stage 1 of the 2016 Tour de France. After all, it's not every day the TDF passes through your neighborhood. Nathalie wasn't so keen but off we went.  The event is so big ...

For some reason, I have been to Jersey three times. Sure it's a nice place with it's own unique charm but still not quite sure why the multiple visits. The classic is the last time we went, Nathalie was sure we'd only visited twice but I was adamant this the third trip. My passport said three times.  Anyway, what can I tell you about...

Sailing to the San Blas Islands has been one of my true sailing highlights. I was on a Lagoon 450 catamaran participating in the World ARC and were on our way to Panama City via the canal. We'd stopped in Colombia for a few days and the San Blas were just off the coast of Panama.  Relatively untouched, we anchored off islands that had jus...

How do you describe a place on Earth, in the middle of the Atlantic, where spotting a tree is a big event? Welcome to Lanzarote, what I imagine the moon might have looked like to Neil Armstrong. A hot. desolate, mountainous wasteland fringed by warm sea and beautiful beaches. Somewhere they actually manage to cultivate grape vines an...