Other Boats
We have met so many great people as we move from place to place I wanted to keep a record and include some links to their websites, its sometimes quite interesting to see what they write on their blogs about us! BOMBARDINO, Beneteau 45 first, Skipper Karel Boershman The first boat we ever really got to know, they were 4 dutch guys and we met them whilst we were both waiting in Dartmouth for a good weather window to cross the channel and then Biscay. They will never know how much we appreciated their support and the endless discussions on weather! We learnt alot from them and really appreciated the way they maintained radio contact with us during the trip. We met Den & Sadie in Cameret - we had both crossed the channel at similar times but we had gone into Brest first. So there was a group of us sitting in Camerat waiting for a good window to cross Biscay. We ended up leaving at roughly the same time and arrived in La Coruna within a couple of hours of each other. We then travelled together for a few days down the spanish atlantic coast before our pace became a little faster than the one they wanted to enjoy. They have completed a least one circumnavigation and crossed the atlantic several times so were extremely experienced as well as being great fun. We have stayed in touch and had hoped to meet again in the Med but the weather put paid to that - hopefully we will get to meet up again somewhere in the world. SOPHISTIKATE Oyster 46, Ange, Richard & Oscar Parkinson What can I say about these guys! We met them at the same time as Den & Sadie in Cameret but they had to dash off down to Lagos so we didn't see them in La Coruna. We hit it off straight away however, I don't know whether our warped sense of humour is always appreciated so it's nice to meet a kindred spirit! We kept in touch via email and planned to meet again in Lanzarote. We have just spent a great week together in Puerto Calero, the kids haven't gelled quite as well as they have with the kids from other boats but the adults did just fine! They are great company and despite Ange being rather obsessed with the cleanliness of her boat and the safety of her children - two issues which I appear to take a little less seriously, we got on amazingly well, our livers haven't sustained so much damage since the early days living in Yeadon close with Marg & Dave as next door neighbours - they have now gone home and we are drying out! VAGABOND HEART , Transpac, Bill & Debbie, Edward, Alice & Will Hawkins website WWW.VAGABONDHEART.COM We met these in Morocco as Bill was one of the guys who saw we were being towed too fast and ran to our assistance. The kids hooked up on the dock really quickly and were immediately invited to tea on the day we arrived. After a night at sea and the trauma of the arrival I felt dreadful but just couldn't cope with feeding loads of kids so went to aplogise to Debbie who promptly took charge of the situation, took my kids onto their boat and fed them and sent me back to bed, such is the nature of this great sailing community we have become a part of. If you need something you can usually find someone who can help, I must admit I hadn't expected to find such a friendly bunch of people. Anyway we spent a week morred alongside Vagabond and then met up with them again in Graciosa. Debbie and Bill are both originally from the UK but emigrated to Australia 25 years ago and have now been cruising for about 3.5 years and are on their way back to Aus. The kids are delightful and a real credit to them, they are all home schooled and Will has never been to school. They plan to cross the Atlantic but not with the ARC so I'm sure we will bump into them again soon.
WINDANCER IV, Lagoon 440, John, Ziggy, Connor & Jenny McKenzie Website: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/windancer/ We met these guys in Rabat but didn't get to know them well until we sailed down to Graciosa with them. We had a few great days at anchor there with our kids spending far too much time on their boat! They are a Canadian family who have taken just over a year out to undertake this great trip. John actually sailed their boat from the US to Portugal with the ARC europe earlier this year, Ziggy and the kids joined them in the Azores and since then they have spent the entire summer seeing as much of the Med as they can - I can't belive how many places they have managed to visit. They are now on the way back to Canada and are sailing on the ARC with us. The kids really got on well as Connor and Jenny are virtualy the same age and whilst moored close by, they have been inseperable. We sailed from Graciosa to Lanzarote together and planned to meet again - but their boat was too big for the marina we were booked into so they continued down to Marina Rubicon. We stayed connected via email however and hired cars a couple of days later and explored the island together. We are looking forward to catching up with them again when we arrive in Las Palmas early next week. NEWTSVILLE, Colvic Countess 37, Jonny & Kate Harrison Website: www.freewebs.com/jksailing We met Jonny & Kate through a question I put on yachting world forum. Whilst we were in Gibraltar we were completely undecided about whether to stop off at Morocco en route to the canaries, so I posted a question on the web forum asking other people if they had ever done it and what the marina's were like. I had a number of responses but Jonny sent me his email address and said they were actually going to be arriving in Morocco two days ahead of us so he would email me with all the details and we could decide what to do. This he did with absolute diligence and so because of him we arrived in Rabat with no concerns (apart from a minor niggle that I might have too much vodka on board - which in the end was a complete misunderstanding!) They are a young couple from the UK (I know I sound old when I say they are a young couple but it is so nice to meet someone under 30!) and they are relocating to Australia so they are sailing there rather than flying! They are also crossing the pond in the next few months but not with the ARC, plus they plan to head down to Cape Verdes and set off from there. We sailed down from Rabat to Graciosa with them and they also spent several nights in the anchorage there, they are currently in Marina Rubicon meeting up with Kate's family but we have again kept in touch via email and will definitley meet up again somewhere soon. Incidentlly - the other boat behind ours in the header picture at the top of the page is Newtsville! 
GRACEFUL
