We have had a few questions from our friends about on life aboard so we thought we would do some Q&A from time to time. If you have a questions about life on Barracuda feel free to ask by submitting a comment, and we will see if we can come up with a coherent answer.

Q - So, Jill, you wanted tales from the sink? Kate responds:

Re clothing: This is a game of two halves; the first half was thermal underwear, long sleeves, long trousers, buffs and fleeces, boots and oilies. Almost all of these are now stashed away in waterproof bags under our bunks. We splashed out on new oilies last year but they have been sitting in the wet-locker since A Coruna; if it rains, I put on my pac-a-mac. The only items I haven't used are a couple of fleece hats and my sailing gloves. Maybe we don't spend enough time at the wheel (but then who stills steers their boat for very long these days when you have autopilots and wind pilots!).

The second half has of course been shorts (5), t-shirts (14), and lots of swimwear, plus a couple of go-ashore dresses for marinas. In a bit of a panic before leaving Las Palmas I did buy a pair of special Musto sailing shorts with a reinforced bum. I have already worn through two pairs of normal shorts this trip through sitting on our teak cockpit seats for hours on end. Heavily patched, they still have years of life in them, but G seems to think they bring him into disrepute.

Both G and I have donated some jeans, long trousers, and less-loved shirts and t-shirts to the shelter here, together with a surprising number of pairs of surplus crocs and flip-flops. Oh, and we do tend to live in crocs when afloat. Stylish or what?

Re cash: Before setting out we got a Halifax Clarity credit card, which can be used overseas without currency charges. It has been great; it's worked everywhere so far, for cash and purchases - and we haven't yet found ourselves without an ATM. St Lucia and the Grenadines use East Caribbean dollars (lovely colourful notes with a very young QEII pictured on them). Then Martinique has the Euro, it's back to EC for Dominica, back to Euro for Guadeloupe and after that I think it's EC until we get to the Virgin Islands where we are into US$. So we have four purses on the go, each with our different currencies. We also have a VPN set up on our various devices so when we do need to do internet banking, we can do it relatively safely.

Q - Jackie asked - What is it like actually being so far away, in such a different place, but with your own boat there? I cannot imagine, but then if you have bobbed about on every wave and felt every gust of wind between here and there maybe it's not so surreal.
A - (by G) It does all happen slowly and over a long time, so in a way that is a lot of the answer. It is great having your own boat and all your stuff, however minimal. It feels like home. I think that is the big difference between doing this and chartering. That said, we would charter in places that we did not want to sail all the way to. The contrast moving from being an offshore sailing machine to becoming an island-hopping caravan is interesting, though: offshore we have so many lines rigged and many other bits of kit on deck, small and large. For island-hopping we have a much simpler set up; no Windy P, no coloured sails, no night passages. Most of our time is now spent at anchor rather than sailing, so comfort and domestic matters come to the fore. Just now we are charging the batteries, making water, defrosting the fridge and cooking up the stuff we found in the bottom of the fridge into a curry (not so glamorous now!).

The social side is interesting - you get to meet and know so many people on the road that you are never lonely and have a constantly evolving social life. It's never boring. When passage-making, the internet (via our sat phone) is part of our life-support system: it's how we get up-to-date weather forecasts and get/send any vital messages. Once in harbour, though, we move to wifi/mifi & it is a great way to keep in contact with home - we do miss our home and our friends and it is lovely to see what people are doing and to stay connected.

Here is a picture of Agony Aunt Kate ready to answer more questions.