We have finally made it to Barcelona! Well a marina 12 miles south which we thought might be better than the city marina's. We left Torevieja last Saturday and we arrived last night (Friday), having covered 180 miles, the trip up was good barring one minor incident…We were motoring along in the night hoping for more wind, when I noticed the oil pressure gage was reading zero! We shut the engine down and I checked the oil level which seemed fine so we motore...

Just a quickie! We left Torrevieja at 4am on Saturday morning and had a lovely sail through a moonlit night. Double Helix hit 14 knots at one point and with the wind on the beam it was fantastic sailing (except for when we happened upon an unlit yellow bouy rather fast and head on! John did the equivalent of a handbrake turn and we missed it!). We arrived in Calpe at around 3pm on Saturday - very picturesque with a gigantic white rock / cliff just next to a prett...

Still in Torevieja, Lizzie has gone to Scotland for five days to help Kate who is preparing for child birth. So I'm having a taste of being a single parent, not easy…makes me feel a bit guilty for being such an arse for mum when I was growing up! Saying that so far so good and of course being only 5 days I can spoil and bribe the kids in a way that I couldn't if I had them all the time… So today we're going out for ice cream!!! The weather has taken a...

Still in Torevieja, Lizzie has gone to Scotland for five days to help Kate who is preparing for child birth. So I'm having a taste of being a single parent, not easy…makes me feel a bit guilty for being such an arse for mum when I was growing up! Saying that so far so good and of course being only 5 days I can spoil and bribe the kids in a way that I couldn't if I had them all the time… So today we're going out for ice cream!!! The weather has taken a...

Blog 9 John here again, thought it was about time I found the time to write a little! Living on the boat is so far fun and challenging. Having little or no break from the kids is both rewarding and exhausting. We are trying to do some kind of school with the Ellen most days which is generally going well and she does seem to be learning fast! Anna won't be left out and keeps demanding to do the alphabet just one more time! We're still in Torrevieja awaiting the m...