Walking past one of the chandlers last August here in La Rochelle they had an end-of-season sale on a passerelle - Aka. a gangplank or boarding ramp. Whilst the price was attractive it was of the folding variety and we weren't sure that it would stow nicely on the foredeck so we decided to give it a miss and instead take a look around the marina looking for an alternative design or at least ideas.

It wasn't long before we stumbled across a yacht with a non folding passerelle that appealed and believe would stow nicely on the foredeck of Drummer. As luck would have it the yacht was English and on its way back from the Med so we quickly learnt where we could buy one and roughly how much.

Now as most of you know from reading our and others cruisers blogs, it's a very social lifestyle so it's no surprise that we quickly became good friends with the owners Richard and Judy and it wasn't long before we were invited over to theirs for evening drinks and nibbles and vs. versa. During the many evenings we discovered that they had spent the last ten years cruising the Med and were now slowly making their way back to the UK before selling their yacht to retire on dry land.

Their yacht "Flirtie", a Voyager 40 (a pilothouse version of the well respected Warrior 40) has a rather unusual layout and in our opinion is ideally suited to liveaboard life in the Med or indeed colder climates because of its size, its displacement and its pilothouse with internal steering position ...a view shared by them having lived on her for so many years and having covered so many miles.

At the end of September we sailed to St Denis d'Oleron leaving Richard and Judy to lift "Flirtie" out of the water and return to the UK, with a view of returning sometime in February.

I think it's fair to say that from the first time we stepped aboard "Flirtie" we fell in love with her and from that day forward she has been constantly on our minds......so earlier this month we finally decided to bite the bullet and make an offer on her. To our stunned surprise our offer was accepted and here we are two weeks later after a test sail and having checked her out thoroughly, the proud owners of "Flirtie".



No doubt some of our readers will think that we're crazy and we probably are, but sometimes you just have to follow your heart. As for fellow catamaran sailors, some may call us traitors by moving to a "tippy leany" thing.....but others may think otherwise - only time will tell if we've made the right decision.

So what about our trip? Well it's fair to say we've introduced a slight delay whilst we relocate onto "Flirtie" and sell "Drummer" - we'll keep you all posted.

So for everyone out there, please heed this warning - don't go walking around the marina looking for good ideas because you never know the outcome!