“Would you like to sail to Portugal with me, we will be leaving from the UK sometime in May and it will probably take 2-3 weeks” said Marco’s email. Sounds fab says I and signed up, despite not having sailed for 15 years, and that was a stag weekend in the Solent with not a lot of sailing.
That was the question back in ….. was it January? Seems like a very long time ago. Then, as you know the pandemic hit, and Marco couldn’t even get to the UK. Just to complicate matters he lives in Australia. He and his daughter managed to get permission to leave Australia and fly to England. After quarantining with John, they moved onto the boat to get it ready for the journey.
Was I still going to go with them? Being “semi” retired I have time and wasn’t really doing much at home. I create and look after a few websites and would normally be doing some home TEFL tuition for students, but that’s not happening. So after long discussions with Sue I decided to go for it. John was able to help, so that’s 4 crew, just enough to get it across the Channel and then we will see.
So plans were made, a departure date of 16th August was set and provisions bought. Off we go.