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Turkey to the Solent
Once we got back to the UK, we ascertained that the boat was fit to go much further afield,
so this has retrospectively become stage one of our trip. Almost all of this journey was made with the help of friends and crew, as we were trying to maintain a tight schedule, and had a problem with our electronic steering gear. Had we been just the two of us, this would have meant one person had to be on the helm at all times, leaving little time for the other to rest, navigate, eat and do running repairs.
Mike Dudgeon came with us for the first 10 days, which he kindly extended to 2 weeks after we were gale bound in Milos in the Aegean for a few days, so that he was with us from Antalya in Turkey to Malta. Everyone else helpfully adjusted their dates and their flights to accommodate the delay. John Freemantle arrived in Malta on a hot sunny Sunday with rigging spares to replace a shroud which had parted, only for us to be held up again for the whole of his week during an "unseasonal" and very long North Westerly gale. We sailed to Sciacca in Sicily on our own, arriving on Easter Sunday, and Christopher Froehlich and John Horton joined us there to sail straight to Mahon in Menorca. Helen left Menorca by plane, as Flame made a day passage down to Porto Cristo on Mallorca, to meet John Duncan, and allow John Horton to return to business. John, John and Christopher had a sometimes boisterous sail to Gibraltar where they finally arrived
in May .
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